SOLANO COUNTY, Calif. — The Solano County Sheriff's Office may begin providing law enforcement services to the city of Rio Vista starting in February 2020.
On Tuesday, Jan. 7, the Solano County's Board of Supervisors unanimously approved a $2,536,930 million plan to have the county's sheriff's office patrol the city of Rio Vista from Feb. 1, 2020 to Jan. 31, 2021.
"[This] was the first step in what I believe will be a good partnership between Solano County and the city of Rio Vista. The proposed contract is going to provide a high level of public safety service to this community," Rustin Banks, interim police chief of the Rio Vista Police Department, said.
The city of Rio Vista initiated discussions with the sheriff's office for mutual aid assistance in September 2019 after the city lost it's police chief, according to a document from Solano County. Banks, who is also a captain with the Solano County Sheriff's Office, began serving as interim police chief shortly after.
The city of Rio Vista also "experienced a high number of vacancies in other sworn law enforcement positions, impacting it's ability to provide a minimum level of public safety services," according to text detailing the agreement. Part of the agreement is adopting a resolution to amend the list of numbers and classifications of positions to add one full-time lieutenant sheriff, two full-time sergeant sheriffs and nine full-time deputy sheriffs.
"There are currently nine Rio Vista Police Department officers and everyone of them is in some phase of the hiring process with the sheriff's department. If these officers are found to be eligible, they'll be put through the training program with the sheriff's office," Banks said.
The agreement would also:
- authorize the county administrator... to execute the memorandum of agreement and any future amendments including changes to terms and conditions and/or scope of services that remain within 20% of the total contract amount not to exceed $75,000
- approve an appropriation transfer request of $1,057,054 to recognize unanticipated revenue from the City of Rio Vista and appropriations for providing law enforcement services in FY2019/20
The Solano County Board of Supervisor's approval of the one-year agreement will not impact the county's general fund. The expenses incurred will be offset with compensation received from the city for the law enforcement services provided.
The agreement will now go before Rio Vista City Council on Tuesday, Jan. 21, 2020.
"If approved, the community will see a very high level of safety. We'll do everything we can to make people feel like this is their police department," Banks said.
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