Alex Frick, one of Luverne’s candidates for mayor, stopped in the Star Herald office the other day, wanting to talk about law enforcement.The city has canceled its contract for law enforcement through the Rock County Sheriff’s Department. It also terminated the joint powers agreement for dispatch services. Luverne City Council members and the city administrator say they still want to negotiate with the county and avoid starting a city police department, but the political bitterness may make that a difficult process. Frick said that essentially, he thinks the city made a mistake; that it will see no cost savings; that it’s poor public relations, and that it impairs the Sheriff’s Department’s current ability to function."Although nobody can say for sure what the actual one-time and ongoing costs are to create and operate a local police department, I believe they will be substantial," Frick said. "No cost savings will be made by not cooperating with the county Sheriff’s Department. Furthermore, irreparable damage is being done by the current breakdown of good faith bargaining. City Council could cause havoc for the sheriff and his staff. This, in turn, creates monumental public relations headaches for Luverne businesses."Out of fairness, I decided to ask Andy Steensma, the other mayoral candidate, for his thoughts on law enforcement. His thoughts weren’t that different, actually.Steensma said, "I think the county and city should do everything they can to continue the agreement and try to work out their differences."Steensma said a major issue between the two is that they don’t even agree on budget numbers, and they can’t negotiate with different sets of figures. "My experience is as a problem solver, and right now the city and county are using different numbers. If you don’t have the same numbers to start with, you can’t reach an agreement. I don’t think the law enforcement program is broken — there just isn’t enough to get these groups together right now, and what I think would be enough is a mediator or some type of facilitator."It’s obviously important to vote on the mayor and council candidates you think can get the job done in the way you want. But it’s also important to tell your current mayor and council how you want law enforcement or other contracts and joint ventures to be handled.Don’t wait until election day, or until new people are in place to do that, because there’s still a council and mayor in place who have a few months of work left.