Hayden seeks county support for restructured law enforcement contract, requests auditing review

Hayden Mayor Allen Davis and City Administrator Lisa Aylport asked the Kootenai County Board of Commissioners on June 24 to back a restructured law enforcement services contract that would place a county liaison in Hayden City Hall and realign how the city funds deputies as the city grows.

The proposal follows a 2023 levy Hayden passed to increase funding for contracted law enforcement beginning in 2024. “At the end of the day we’re all serving the same taxpayer,” Mayor Allen Davis said, describing the city’s effort to close gaps between what the city pays and the department’s loaded per‑officer cost. Davis said the city’s paid labor rate for law enforcement “has almost tripled in the last 4 years,” and that fiscal‑year 2026 budgeting is the time to realign manpower and costs.

County commissioners and staff told the city delegation they need to agree on a common set of cost numbers before approving a new multi‑year contract. Commissioner Eberline raised several contract provisions she said are absent from the existing agreement, including assignment of liability, automatic renewals without cost‑escalation language and lack of revenue‑sharing. “There’s a few things that kind of stand out to me with the agreement: the liability is taken on by the county and not the city,” Commissioner Eberline said, adding that some other cities’ contracts include different allocations of liability and revenues.

Sheriff Robert Norris said Hayden’s contributions to contracted law enforcement have risen substantially and described the office’s operational strain when deputies are reassigned to cover Hayden. “We went from $302,000 to where we’re at at approximately 1.15 [million] today,” Sheriff Norris said, arguing for continued partnership while noting officer safety and service levels must be balanced.

Brandy Falcon, director in the Auditor’s Office, told the board that the county recently implemented a new patrol pay matrix and that on average patrol pay rose about 46 percent, a change that materially increases county costs. Falcon offered to meet with the City of Hayden to walk through the auditor’s spreadsheet and underlying assumptions.

Commissioners repeatedly asked for the auditing department’s cost detail so the county and the city can “agree on the numbers” before negotiating service levels and supplemental annual cost attachments. Commissioner Metoyer suggested the auditing department should determine the baseline cost and the sheriff’s office negotiate service levels around that figure.

Hayden officials said the draft contract is intended to create a supplemental, year‑by‑year cost schedule appended to a master contract so the board would not need to amend the master agreement each year. The city requested the board’s support to proceed with a one‑year contract while the parties continue to reconcile cost accounting, vehicle amortization and staffing assumptions.

Public comment after the presentation reflected broader taxpayer concerns about county budget pressure and requests that contract cities pay “full cost” for the services they receive. Ron Hartman, a county resident, told commissioners he felt county residents were subsidizing some city services and urged the county to ensure auditing captures the full cost of service delivery.

No formal contract vote occurred at the June 24 meeting. Commissioners and city representatives agreed to schedule follow‑up meetings with the Auditor’s Office and county staff to review the spreadsheet, reconcile vehicle and staffing cost treatment, and identify a plausible path to parity or a multi‑year transition if additional revenue (for example, a levy) is required.

Looking ahead, Hayden said it may seek a levy for additional deputies only after better data and local outreach; the county said it will provide the auditor’s data and meet with city officials. The parties described the next steps as an accounting reconciliation and continued contract drafting rather than an immediate execution of a binding new agreement.