Oskaloosa council agrees staff should negotiate police coverage contracts with University Park and Beacon

The Oskaloosa City Council on Jan. 21 directed city staff to open negotiations with University Park and Beacon on municipal police-coverage agreements after representatives from both communities asked the city to consider replacing Mahaska County as their contracted provider.

The council’s request came from George Kabeckis, who identified himself as “the mayor of University Park.” Kabeckis told the council the county had proposed a large increase in the towns’ contract cost and asked Oskaloosa to consider providing police protection instead. “We partnered together in the library. We partnered together on the fire department,” Kabeckis said, asking the council to “consider it and discuss it.”

City staff outlined operational and financial considerations. Randy, the city manager, said the city and police chief had reviewed call volumes and that providing service would mean officers would be working outside Oskaloosa’s corporate limits and could be unavailable for city calls. Randy said staff estimated a combined annual revenue opportunity in the neighborhood of $30,000 and floated contract figures for budgeting: $18,000 for University Park and $12,000 for Beacon, though he said those figures had not been accepted by the other cities.

Police Chief Ben (identified in the meeting as the department chief) told the council Oskaloosa already provides mutual-aid backup to both communities and that the department goes to calls there “anyway.” He gave raw call counts for 2024: the county logged 441 calls in University Park, of which Oskaloosa responded to 54; the county logged 343 calls in Beacon, of which Oskaloosa responded to 37. Chief Ben noted many recorded “calls” were non-emergency tasks such as paper service or phone calls, and said staff can break the data down further by call type on request.

Council members expressed support for negotiations but repeatedly raised staffing and service-level concerns. One councilmember said the city is “understaffed” and that taking on contract duties while short-handed could mean Oskaloosa would not always be able to provide the additional service. Others suggested any arrangement include a one-year trial period and explicit service definitions so both sides can evaluate whether costs and staffing match expectations.

Mayor David Kreutzfeld concluded the discussion by asking staff to proceed. “Alright. I’ll proceed to some formal negotiations, and we’ll then try to bring something back to you,” he said, noting University Park had a deadline of Feb. 28 to indicate its intentions.

The council did not adopt a contract at the meeting; instead it directed the city manager to negotiate proposed agreements and return to council for approval. Staff said any contract would also need approval by the contracting cities.

The matter touches multiple operational questions the council asked staff to track during negotiation: precise call-volume breakdowns (emergency vs. nonemergency), whether patrols would be included (staff said the city would not provide regular patrols as part of the proposal, only response to calls), the proposed annual fees, and whether a one-year pilot with an option to terminate would be included.

NEXT STEPS: City staff will meet with University Park and Beacon representatives to draft proposed 20 d agreements and bring proposed contract language and a cost-tracking plan back to the council for formal approval.