Merged police force talks continue

Chatham County, city of Savannah ‘nearly there,’ one official says.

Negotiations between Chatham County and the city of Savannah recently showed signs of sputtering out, but County Manager Lee Smith said last week it wouldn’t take much for the two governments to come to an agreement that could keep the Savannah-Chatham police department running.

Smith told the county commission during a workshop that maintaining a merged police department is still very much a possibility. In fact, he said, the two governments are “nearly there.”

The biggest points to work out are key disagreements on the division of costs and the operation of beats, he said. The county favors splitting costs based on the calls experienced by each entity and eliminating precincts that cross both jurisdictions.

Savannah officials rejected the most recent proposal from the county last week. The last proposal from city officials included cross-jurisdictional beats and divided costs based on the population of each entity.

“As complicated as it sounds, it’s not that complicated,” Smith said. “I don’t think we’re that far apart, but on these two is- sues that ... are deal breakers as far as the county’s concerned, these have to be addressed.”

Smith said after the non-voting meeting last week that he hopes to sit down with City Manager Stephanie Cutter in the next couple of weeks to discuss the topic. If no agreement can be reached at that point, he said, the county may consider working with a third-party mediator.

Time is running out for the two governments to make a decision. When the county commission voted unanimously last September to end the current agreement, it set an 18-month window to either come to a new agreement or form a new department. The deadline is March 2016.