ST. ALBANS --
The Franklin County Sheriff filed a lawsuit against the City of St. Albans for losing its police contract with St. Albans Town. For a quarter of a century the sheriff's department has patrolled the town, but this year selectboard members decided to use city police instead because of a lower contract offer.
In a packed courthouse, Franklin County Sheriff Robert Norris presented his case to keep his deputies patrolling St. Albans town.
"It's all about the positions within my office. We're talking about 6 employees who could be on the unemployment line," Norris said.
He said St. Albans City police had an unfair advantage in the bidding process. He maintained the police could make a lower bid because it has greater resources.
"We feel that they're subsidies being used through city tax payer monies to come at the rate that they did," Norris said.
City attorneys disputed those claims, and the argument that the sheriff's office would no longer be able to operate efficiently if it loses the contract. But the attorney for the sheriff's department told the court that not only would the department lose positions, it could loose the ability to ever patrol the town again.
"If you talk about a mass deployment or a mass number of officer deputies, 5 to 6, that's just undoable in far as my going out and sending six people to the academy," Norris said.
And whether or not the sheriff wins his case, he said he hopes it sets a precedent for police contract bidding in the future.
"I'd like to see law enforcement entities not be allowed to bid against each other," Norris said. "Because there has to be some control as far as price fix and whatever at a state level."
The plantiff's have one week to file a response to the city's arguments. Then the judge will allow city attornies to respond before he makes a decision.
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