OSHTEMO TOWNSHIP, MI - Fewer sheriff's deputies could be patrolling Kalamazoo County roads if Oshtemo Township follows a consultant's advice to form its own police force.

At a time when state revenue sharing cuts and rising costs have lowered the county's road patrol force of 42 deputies to roughly the same as 1968 levels, Kalamazoo County Sheriff Richard Fuller says he is eager to reach a new contract agreement with Oshtemo to ensure the seven officers currently assigned to that township aren't lost.

Three years ago, when Oshtemo officials began examining ways to meet the township's increasing police needs, starting their own police force was considered a last resort. Recently, though, the township submitted a request for proposals to area police agencies to contract for 15 officers. It received one response: the sheriff's bid of roughly $1.8 million.

Township board members have expressed concerns that fuel, overtime and other personnel costs aren't provided as fixed costs in the sheriff's proposal, which they consider to be too open-ended. Those and other concerns led them to consider creating the township's own 14-officer police force, which their consultant estimates they could do for $2.4 million in the first year and $1.6 million in subsequent years.

Though Fuller said he expects negotiations to continue with Oshtemo officials on a contract with the sheriff's office, he stressed there isn't much wiggle room in his proposal.

"We're not making any profit in any part of this and I hope that's something that everybody understands," the sheriff said. "It was conveyed to us that they wanted to truly reflect what a police agency would look like for Oshtemo. And in our world, all of those costs are truly reflected in our bid that we gave them."

Oshtemo Township Supervisor Libby Heiny-Cogswell said she, too, expects negotiations with the sheriff to continue, but added that Oshtemo's residential and commercial growth has opened her mind to the possibility of having its own police force.

"I think we are at a point where we have seen sufficient growth and seen an increase in criminal activity that needs to be addressed," the supervisor said at a recent board meeting. "My view to opening the door for our own department is so we can look down the road to the next 20 years in the community."

The "full" cost of policing

Oshtemo is among four townships in Kalamazoo County that contract with the sheriff's office for additional deputies to patrol within their borders. Ten other townships are covered by 22 deputies and six sergeants assigned to general road patrol throughout the county. A 15th township, Kalamazoo Township, has its own police force.

Each of the four townships with contracts -- Oshtemo, Comstock, Ross and Texas -- have had to face difficult decisions about the level of policing they can afford since 2011, when the county began a three-year transition from 50/50 cost sharing for contracted deputies to townships bearing the full direct cost.

But, according to Fuller, the $102,000 cost per deputy charged to the townships accounts for only 73 percent of the sheriff's office's actual cost, since it still covers insurance, training, supervision and dispatch services, among other things.

"That's why I'm always cautious to have people say they pay 100 percent," Fuller said of townships with contracted deputies. "There's an indirect cost that because you're my partner and because we receive a benefit of having an extra number of people out there, I'm happy to pay a certain part of this."

The sheriff also noted that last year townships were automatically charged an additional $15,000 per deputy to account for estimated overtime, whereas his latest proposal to Oshtemo leaves overtime -- along with a portion of vehicle fuel costs and extra officers required for back-fill staffing situations -- as open-ended costs.

Oshtemo Township consultant Leonard Matarese told the township board April 28 in recommending it pursue Oshtemo's own police department that he was "surprised" the sheriff's office didn't present flat-rate costs for each line item in its contract proposal.

Matarese, who is director of research and program development for the Washington, D.C.-based Center for Public Safety Management, said he was also surprised under the proposal that the township would have to buy two additional patrol vehicles and uniforms and equipment for eight additional officers if it wants to increase its current policing levels from seven to 15 officers.

He contrasted the sheriff's proposal to a bid from a contractor on a road project.

"The contractor doesn't say, 'We'll provide that service, but you have to buy us two trucks, a couple more radios and uniforms for the men we're going to hire to do the work. Oh, and by the way, we're going to have to put people on overtime and you're going to have to pay that cost'," Matarese said.

Fuller disagrees with that criticism, noting that townships that contract for deputies were told they'd have to pay for additional vehicles or equipment if those exceeded the sheriff's office's budgetary limitations.

"Given the number of personnel they're asking to put out there, we saw a need to increase by two cars," Fuller said of Oshtemo. "They'd be paying the full cost of those two vehicles and not a penny more."

Oshtemo Township Attorney James Porter has said the fact the sheriff's office would need to buy additional vehicles and uniforms to meet the township's needs may be an indication the township is stretching the sheriff's resources too far.

"If there's any reasoning behind the recommendation, I think it has more to do with budgetary restraints at the sheriff's department and is absolutely not a negative reflection on them whatsoever," he said.

Fuller pointed out that he was asked to prepare a proposal as if he were creating a police force for Oshtemo, which he said is the township in the county that his deputies dedicate the most time to "by far," totaling 13,144 calls for service in 2014. Even subtracting the 2,151 of those calls that were fires or medical emergencies, the total far exceeds the next highest volume of calls for service last year, 8,039 in Comstock Township.

Oshtemo Township has about 22,000 residents, making it roughly the same size as Kalamazoo Township.

The future of policing in Kalamazoo County

Fuller has long envisioned a consolidated metropolitan police force that would be funded by and serve communities just north and south of the I-94 corridor -- the cities of Kalamazoo and Portage and Oshtemo, Texas, Comstock and Charleston townships.

Asked if Oshtemo starting its own police force would be a blow to vision, Fuller was diplomatic.

"I don't know if I'd be ready to say it'd be a disappointment, because as much as I have that vision that doesn't mean it can't be accomplished through whatever changes happen right now," the sheriff said. "I think the more that we have these discussions, making sure everybody understands we might all be better off to do some of these things together, the quicker those things happen."

Matarese told Oshtemo board members that his recommendation to start a township police department runs counter to his professional bias of regionalizing police services, but again noted that he couldn't recommend the sheriff's proposal without a hard dollar amount attached.

Jim Beelen, a former supervisor in Ottawa County's Allendale Township who works in member information services for the Michigan Township Association, said the MTA doesn't track instances of townships starting their own police departments. But he said he doesn't believe there has been a trend for townships to get into policing.

Beelen said the MTA encourages collaboration, while recognizing it may not always be viable.

"It's a case-by-case thing," he said. "Collaboration is always something that we would encourage, but that doesn't mean it's going to work. Collaboration just for the sake of collaboration isn't why we do it. It needs to make sense."

Oshtemo's county commissioners, Julie Rogers, D-Kalamazoo Township, and Dale Shugars, R-Portage, are among those who say they believe the township would be best off continuing to work with the sheriff's office.

"We'd like to see continued cooperation between the two sides to not only save taxpayers dollars, but to also provide the quality of services people in Oshtemo and the county require and want," Shugars said.

Interim Kalamazoo County Administrator John Faul also said he hopes the sheriff's office and Oshtemo Township exhaust all options before walking away without an agreement.

At this point, the township board appears to be divided, but even members who have expressed serious doubts about continuing to contract with the sheriff's office have said they want negotiations to continue.

"I believe what we're kind of hinging on is cost," said Oshtemo Township Trustee Grant Taylor. "I'd like to work further with the Kalamazoo County Sheriff's Department to find a solution. I believe there's something we can work through."

Fuller said his door is open.

"I really recognize that Oshtemo is looking for a hard dollar amount because that's how you budget," the sheriff said. "And I appreciate the process and the effort that they have put forward in this whole program because this is not taken on lightly.

"We're doing what we can as a partner help Oshtemo as a partner understand the true cost of the operation they're looking to do."

Alex Mitchell is a reporter for the Kalamazoo Gazette. Email him at amitche5@mlive.com or follow him on Twitter.