Negotiations on 911 service and tenant agreements between the city of Durango and La Plata County are moving too slowly for city staff’s liking, City Manager José Madrigal said.
At the current pace, there is “still a long way to go” before finalizing two agreements – a tenants-in-common agreement and a client services agreement – he told councilors at a recent City Council meeting.
With the city’s 2026 budget year approaching, he said the client services agreement is needed to ensure the Durango Emergency Communications Center is adequately funded.
Interim County Manager Kevin Hall said in an interview Friday that negotiations take time and that draft agreements require review by multiple staff members – a process complicated by the departure of former County Manager Chuck Stevens and the recent seating of a new commissioner.
“We’re certainly working on it,” Hall said. “We’re interested in bringing this whole matter to resolution, and I’ve been communicating with the city manager on exactly that for the better part of a month and a half.”
He said the agreements can still be finalized by the end of the year.
Madrigal said he received redline comments on a draft tenants-in-common agreement – a joint ownership agreement – from the county on Monday, marking the first tangible update to negotiations since the city submitted the agreement for review in May.
He said he asked the county about the status of the tenants-in-common agreement three times last month. He was told that, despite best intentions, the agreement was stuck in a holding pattern.
City Attorney Mark Morgan said he will make his own redline edits and return the draft to the county within a week. He added that if his office were to “respond in kind” – taking as long as the county did to reply – the draft wouldn’t be returned until January.
“That’s not the way we do business at the city,” he said. “We’ll turn around their comments within a week.”
Having briefly reviewed the agreement, Morgan said he identified at least one concern about the agreement’s premise and will include it in the draft returned to the county.
Madrigal told City Council that the county is behind on its 911 service payments by about $17,000. The county paid $170,687 in the first two quarters, below the city’s expected quarterly amount of $179,038. If that trend continues, Madrigal said, the city will be about $34,000 short at the end of the year.
Hall said the county’s payments were made under its current agreement with the city. Any payment adjustments will be made once a new agreement has been executed.
The county and other clients – Durango Fire Protection District, the Upper Pine River Fire Protection District, Fort Lewis Mesa Fire Protection District, Bayfield Police Department and Fort Lewis College – are on a quarterly payment schedule to the city for 911 services.
Madrigal said he’s concerned about how long the process has taken. He emphasized the importance of finalizing the agreements before the end of the year, adding that the “lack of responsiveness that we’ve had at this point” is “a point of concern for us.”
“We haven’t even gotten to the client services agreement. They won’t discuss that until they finish the tenants-in-common. It does look like this is still a long way to go, with a lot more discussions to be had,” he said.
Still, he said, the city remains committed to working with the county in good faith to finalize the agreements.
At a joint meeting between the city and the county in May, county officials raised concerns about budget flexibility, ownership of the 911 center and being obligated to pay fees determined solely by the city.
Stevens, the former county manager, said at the time that the county was under financial strain, and language in the draft client service agreement could commit the county to payments not yet reviewed before budget season.
Hall said the county’s financial situation has been influenced by a variety of things, including recent legislative changes to property taxes, the loss of revenues previously supplied by the gas industry, and the rising cost of doing business, among other factors.
But he said none of that affects the county’s intent to execute an agreement with the city.
“Those services are critical to the non-city residents as well as the city residents,” he said. “This stuff takes time, and we have to make sure we get it right. So we’re working on it, and José is aware of that. We'll continue to work with them to get it resolved.”
cburney@durangoherald.com
