ÍáÍáÂþ»­

GOODHUE, Minn. — By Aug. 24, the City of Goodhue will be without any police officers on staff.

On Monday, Aug. 14, the City Council accepted the resignations of Police Chief Josh Smith and full-time Officer Anthony Brecht. Five part-time officers also resigned, leaving the town of 1,250 without any officers.

"We no longer have a police force," said Goodhue Mayor Ellen Anderson Buck.

Buck said all current investigations being conducted by the city's police department would be handed over to the Goodhue County Sheriff's Office.

"Josh is working with (Sheriff's Office Chief Deputy) John Huneke," the mayor said. "All current cases will be handed over to Goodhue County."

Buck said she wanted to assure the City Council and the residents of Goodhue that the city would continue to receive police coverage, mainly from the Sheriff's Office, on an interim basis.

She added that she has a meeting scheduled for Wednesday with Goodhue County Sheriff Marty Kelly and Huneke to talk about the Sheriff's Office providing coverage.

While the situation may seem unprecedented, Buck said Goodhue was not the first small town to lose its police force, and it would likely not be the last. The city has reached out to the League of Minnesota Cities to get help with rebuilding its police force.

There are currently 202 job openings in Minnesota for peace officers in law enforcement jobs, Buck said.

Not all cities have their own police department. For example, the City of Stewartville contracts with Olmsted County for law enforcement coverage in its town. Stewartville pays the county annually to staff deputies whose main job is to patrol the city. The city also gets coverage from the county because county law enforcement will respond to a call even if that call happens outside any time period of contracted coverage.

In Goodhue County, the City of Wanamingo contracts with the Sheriff's Office for coverage around seven hours a day, said Goodhue City Council Member Joe Benda. Goodhue would be looking for 16 hours of coverage per day from the Sheriff's Office to make up for the coverage lost by the resignations.

City Council Member Chris Schmit said 112 hours a week of Sheriff's Office coverage multiplied by the going rate of $55.83 per hour would come to a little more than $325,000 annually.

One of the reasons for the resignations — and an item on Monday's special session agenda that was pushed back — is pay. Recruitment of new officers was another, according to Buck and Schmit.

During a July 26 meeting, Smith said the current rate of pay for officers in Goodhue was $22 per hour, adding the rate is not competitive compared to other cities in the region.

He also said the Goodhue department has been having issues with recruitment, as young officers are getting hired to work in larger cities.

"There's zero incentive to come out here to a small town," he said during the meeting. "Low pay, being on call, affecting your free time and everything else."

The city had three police officers, but one quit in June, Schmit said. That officer has not been replaced.

"The small-town policing that they did, we want that back," he said.

Council member Patrice O’Reilly agreed.

Buck said the city is going to have to work hard to bring the pay up to a level that will attract officers to Goodhue.

"This is a great place to live and work, and I think we'll get them back here," she said. "It's just going to take some time to rebuild."