PORT TOWNSEND — City Manager David Timmons is in a cutting mode.
Faced with “difficult choices” and increasing costs at budget time, he has informed county Administrator John Fischbach that Port Townsend is considering ending several city-county agreements.
The joint regional agreements include county-provided services for information technology, the county Health Department’s drug and alcohol prevention and education program, District Court, jail, emergency dispatch and animal control.
The contracts Timmons has targeted amount to more than $625,000 in service contracts, which he calls “a good chunk of change.”
“I realize times are difficult, but I am forced by rising costs to begin to face difficult choices,” Timmons said in a Monday e-mail to Fischbach.
“I also support joint efforts when those efforts are cost effective.
“However, the costs we are absorbing in these agreements are rising at alarming rates. They are rapidly eroding the city services and I am left with no alternative but to seek alternatives that are more cost effective.”
The news, which Fischbach said “blindsided” him, came two days before Timmons presented a $6.5 million budget to the Port Townsend City Council on Wednesday.
On Thursday, Timmons said he was merely looking out for the city’s best interests.
Fischbach declined to comment further on the correspondence until after he renegotiates contracts with Timmons.
However, Fischbach released his e-mail reply to Timmons, which in part said: “I am certainly disappointed at the apparent decision regarding the dissolution of the joint regional agreements.
“It appears that the city is no longer interested in partnerships, but is looking at short-term contractual relationships only.”
