By Sara StrongWednesday afternoon, the city of Luverne was expected to terminate its contract for law enforcement with Rock County.That decision comes after a week of numerous meetings on the topic, and after eight months of shuffling budgets and numbers back and forth between the government units.County Board Chair Bob Jarchow said, "It’s a sad day. The citizens lose as soon as they cancel that contract."Commissioners said faster response time and 24-hour coverage have been important improvements in the Sheriff’s Department since the Luverne Police Department and Rock County Sheriff’s Department merged in 1998.Commissioner Richard Bakken said, "People aren’t going to realize it until they need law enforcement and they aren’t around."The city’s latest proposal gave it more control over the department, while spending less money.County Attorney Don Klosterbuer said the elected sheriff and county board should continue to have budgetary authority.The county asks the city to contribute $669,366 to sheriff and dispatch budgets. The city has most recently offered $592,500 in direct payments. City Administrator Greg LaFond continues to calculate what city property taxpayers contribute to the county budget.County Administrator Kyle Oldre said, "The city taxpayers always paid county taxes, even when they had their own department."County Commissioner Jane Wildung said, "The city itself cannot claim ownership of taxes paid by individual property owners."Commissioner Richard Bakken said, "You’re just not going to get an agreement that we’ll all be satisfied with. It’s because of who we’re dealing with."The county has contracts for law enforcement with all cities in the county.Commissioner Ken Hoime said, "It’s pure havoc. My constituents say if the city doesn’t like the county agreement, let them have their own department."Some perspectiveAt a meeting last week, people involved in the original merger of the two departments spoke about the process back then.It consisted of more than five years of "vigorous debate" according to County Attorney Don Klosterbuer. And even before that, he said, the topic was the subject of many meetings and conversations.Bill Weber was Luverne mayor from 1993 to 2001. He said, "Joint law wasn’t just a decision we went into."He said the city saved $15,000 to $20,000 at the start of joint law. But, Weber said, "We went into this without the cost savings being first and foremost in our minds. We thought that if we spend the same and improved service, we had met our goal."Since then, the cost has increased for the county and the city. By 2008, it’s expected that through joint law, both will pay close to $1 million for all costs associated with the department.Many of those costs are out of the department’s hands: Prisoner room and board increases with more effective police work and arrests; the state has ordered the final six months of state prisoner time to be spent in the prisoner’s county of origin and prisoner medical expenses are an increasing costs.But still, fans of joint law say the cost is worth it. The city of Luverne gets 30 hours of scheduled coverage per day, counting shift overlaps in patrol time. Both the city and county have more officers available than before. The county entered joint law with five officers and the city had seven. Weber said, "It’s safe to say that in the beginning there were people on both sides who didn’t think it would work. There were some whose blood ran brown and some whose blood ran blue. … But now we have a group who serves the best interest of all residents."Consistent work through a department investigator and the K-9 unit are important factors in increased service, Weber said.Even though the city intends to terminate it Wednesday, the law enforcement contract is still in place for 16 months.(The Star Herald goes to press Wednesday afternoons, so the meeting isn’t covered in this week’s paper.)