Sheriff Is Refusing to Honor the Signed Mediation Agreement

The Sheriff has unilaterally stated he will not abide by the terms of a signed mediation agreement

Sheriff Morgan today on Facebook stated that he is unilaterally refusing to honor the mediation agreement reached on March 9th, ratified by the BCC on March 15th.

The agreement that was signed by authorized representatives of the BCC and ECSO stipulated that the contents of the agreement would be memorialized into an interlocal agreement to be signed by the Board of County Commission Chairman.

This is where, apparently, the train has come off the tracks.  The County attorney has sent over a bare-bones, straightforward interlocal agreement that strictly adheres to the mediation agreement.

The ECSO has rejected this straightforward interlocal and is attempting to go beyond what was bargained.  This is being done in an attempt to get more money that what was agreed-to in the mediation agreement--and their proposed language would result in the County being subject to additional monetary exposure over and above what was bargained in good faith on March 9th. 

This is unacceptable.

If there are only format issues, these can be overcome and I stand ready to work to get these resolved. I repeat,  If it is just happy to glad, format issues--I would say send your version ECSO and we will consider it--SO LONG AS IT STAYS WITHIN THE FRAMEWORK AND COST BOUNDARIES OF THE SIGNED MEDIATION AGREEMENT.

Unfortunately, however, it is not a format issue, or a language issue....It appears as if this is nothing more than an attempt to expand further, financially, what was agreed upon on March 9th---after the fact and after the BCC affirmed the signed mediation agreement and the concomitant budget concessions that were implicitly defined in the March 9th document.

What a disappointment...I sincerely hope the Sheriff will reconsider this bad decision he has apparently made to unilaterally back out of the signed mediation deal.

Instead, Sheriff Morgan should abide by what was negotiated in good faith by the BCC and ECSO in the mediation session; he should sign the interlocal agreement that has been sent to his office memorializing the signed agreement that was reached on March 9th.

   

The BCC currently has no special meetings planned or scheduled to address this matter further.