Fort Wayne Mayor Tom Henry (left) meets with Commissioners Bill Brown, Nelson Peters and Linda Bloom Monday to discuss a proposed interlocal cooperation agreement that would create a joint city-county communications department

A draft of an interlocal cooperation agreement that would combine all communications services currently provided by Allen County and the City of Fort Wayne 911 centers into a joint department of communications was introduced Monday at the weekly discussion meeting of the Allen County Board of Commissioners.  It is on the agenda for further discussion at the Commissioners' legislative session on Friday.

Among the conditions outlined in the agreement:

• Creation of a Consolidated Communications Partnership to provide for centralized communications services for certain County and City governmental offices.
• Creation of an Operations Board to oversee and administer the joint department.  The board would be comprised of seven individuals; three to be appointed by the Mayor, three to be appointed by the County Commissioners and a seventh member to be selected by the other six.  Its powers would include appointing an executive director and all employees of the CCP.
• Establishment of an Executive Board comprised of the three County Commissioners and the Mayor.  The Executive Board's only role would be to break any tie votes by the Operations Board.  If no matters come before the Executive Board in a two-year period following the effective date of the agreement, the Executive Board would be dissolved.

You can read the entire draft of the proposed interlocal cooperation agreement by clicking here.