The Cole County Commission has signed the agreement for MUSTANG Drug Task Force grant money for 2014-15 after rejecting the contract last November with the Missouri Department of Public Safety (DPS) when county officials said the terms of the contract were changed without their knowledge.
According to county attorney Jill Lahue, the terms of the contract were changed to what the county had originally anticipated, and on Thursday, the commission signed the agreement.
"Concerns from other state and federal officials prompted the change," she said.
Lahue said terms of the contract were changed between when it was awarded for $107,689 on July 1, 2014, and when DPS sent it back to be signed in September 2014. The main changes in the contract, she said, would make Cole County, which is MUSTANG 's administrative agency, responsible for paying any legal judgment if DPS is found liable in connection with drug task force activities.
"It took three months to get this back, and that was unusual," she said. "We expected to sign a document showing what we agreed to when the contract was awarded, just as we have done in the past. We would have had to pay for Department of Public Safety legal fees under the old agreement - and they already have the attorney general's office to defend them."
Sheriff Greg White said the county - and none of the other law enforcement agencies who make up the task force - could take on this responsibility.
White had told commissioners he thought they could handle the loss of this funding for this year and maybe one more year, but after that, if the grant funding wasn't available, it would affect narcotics enforcement in the area.
"Over 50 percent of the salary of one of our personnel comes from grant money," he said. "I know that's also true for Jefferson City, Fulton and Boonville."
County officials speculated that the changes were made after violence erupted in Ferguson last summer when a black teenager was fatally shot by a white police officer.
Officials said DPS had seemed concerned over bad publicity about surplus military equipment being used during fights between Ferguson protesters and police and were concerned they could be pulled into court over a lawsuit.