In three years, Freeborn County could pick up the full cost of the dispatch center at the Freeborn County courthouse.

A proposal in the works calls for phasing out the city’s portion of the personnel cost by 2018. In 2015, the city and county would each pay for half of the cost, and in 2016, the county would pay two-thirds and the city would pay one-third, said Freeborn County Administrator John Kluever. The cost share for 2017 still needs to be determined.

Starting in 2018, 100 percent of the cost would be paid for by the county.

Presently, Albert Lea pays two-thirds of the about $600,000 personnel cost, while Freeborn County pays one-third, Kluever said.

This covers eight full-time employees and two part-time. The county receives funds from a 911 tax to go toward equipment costs.

Albert Lea Public Safety Director Dwaine Winkels said the cost-share agreement has been in place since at least the 1970s after separate county and city dispatch centers merged.

“For years we’ve talked about transitioning it over to the county,” Winkels said.

Across the state, counties are required by law to provide 911 dispatching services, and the state typically communicates with counties about dispatch centers when there are new mandates.

“We all knew it was probably coming,” Kluever said. “The county board understands that the city wants to be out of the service and that it is coming to the county. From a cost-share perspective, we just have to account for that.”

Officials hope the changes can start in 2015 because labor contracts for the dispatchers end at the close of 2014. The county can then negotiate new contracts, and the employees would be under the county’s insurance policy.

City and county leaders have agreed on the transition for budgetary purposes.

“From the city’s perspective, we would love to keep the employees city employees,” Winkels said. “They’re good employees, but the time comes that it falls on the (county’s) shoulders.”

He said it is not a decision city leaders are taking lightly, and they hope the same level of service will continue.

Albert Lea City Manager Chad Adams echoed Winkels statements.

“We have quality personnel in our dispatch and are proud of their accomplishments,” Adams said. “It’s more of who should be providing the service.”

The proposal comes before the Albert Lea City Council at its July 14 meeting, and it will be before the Freeborn County Board of Commissioners on July 15.