By Sara Quam Coming out of a closed meeting, the Rock County Board of Commissioners said it won’t cash a law enforcement payment check from the city of Luverne. Commissioners said they feared if they cashed the check, it would imply agreeing with the payment amount, which is $126,000 short. The county budgeted $669,000 for a law enforcement payment from the city of Luverne to fulfill the contract through 2005. The city has disagreed with how the county is charging for dispatch and law enforcement services in one lump sum, when they used to be in separate agreements. Rock County Attorney Don Klosterbuer said, "Where do they get off saying to the county what its cost of law enforcement is?" The county will give Luverne until Feb. 15 to further explain its payment. The city said its payment, approved at last week’s council meeting, included $499,447 for law enforcement and $43,500 for a "good faith" dispatch payment. Dispatch was previously a joint powers agreement, formed long before city and county merged law enforcement departments. The city terminated that joint powers agreement, but within the existing law enforcement contract, dispatching services is outlined as a part of the county’s service for payment. The contract for law enforcement is renewed annually automatically, unless terminated, which the city has done effective Dec. 31, 2005. The city said the county was wrong in "rolling over" dispatch costs to the contract for law enforcement, but the county said the two can’t operate or be funded independently. Klosterbuer said, "I don’t know how they make a ‘good faith’ payment— under what document or what authority."Commissioner Jane Wildung said she wondered if the "good faith" payment meant an implied reinstatement of the dispatch joint powers. "There’s the whole philosophical problem from the beginning," Wildung said. The county sees the city’s check as an installment payment on the full contract amount, and that is why Board members are seeking further clarification by Feb. 15. A portion of the County Board meeting was closed to discuss possible litigation against the city of Luverne. In another law enforcement matter, commissioners tabled action adopting a special Citizens’ Law Enforcement Study Committee.