Clear Lake council approves police services agreement renewal with Ventura

CLEAR LAKE — The Clear Lake City Council this week approved extending an agreement with the city of Ventura to continue to provide law enforcement services to the community.

The original agreement between the two communities was established in 2006, with the current agreement set to expire on June 30th. The extension is for a three-year period starting on July 1st and ending in June 2026. It provides for an annual 5% increase in the cost of services. Year one of the agreement will be for $150,000, year two being $157,500, and the final year being $165,375.

Police Chief Pete Roth says the two communities have simplified terms of the new agreement compared to the past, calling for one flat payment per year instead of having provisions for things such as vehicle replacement, maintenance and fuel costs.   “If you recall, our previous agreement was a five-year contract. For this one in front of you, we wanted to keep it simple with just one payment a fiscal year and it went out three years instead of five.”

Roth says the new agreement addresses concerns about the overall costs of providing the services to Ventura.   “At the end of this year, Ventura will have paid total around $118,000. Starting next year, it will be $150,000, so that’s a pretty significant bump for them and for us. I believe that kind of covers the concerns that were fielded over the years between both towns, and again I’m just very grateful that we kind of came to a conclusion on that.”

City Administrator Scott Flory says it has been a good agreement that’s been in place since 2006.  “I think it’s been a good relationship between the communities, so I appreciate all of that. I know at the time when we started this, Ventura like so many other small communities was struggling to maintain an officer, and often time it became a stepping stone for officers looking to go to other opportunities in other communities. We’ve been able to provide a lot of stability to them, so I think it’s just been a real good win-win, a good strong partnership.”

The Ventura City Council approved renewing the agreement between the two cities at their February 13th meeting.