HomeMy WebLinkAboutIntermunicipal Law Enforcement Technology Shared Services (LETSS) Group Agreement 7.7.2009.PDFFinal71712009
INTERMUNICIPAL
LAW ENFORCEMENT TECHNOLOGY SHARED SERVICES (LETSS)
GROUP AGREEMENT
Pursuant to Section 119-o of the General Municipal Law, the undersigned
municipalities hereby enter into this Agreement to form a two year renewable Law
Enforcement Technology Shared Services group, herein after referred to as LETSS.
The Participating Agencies ("MembersJ are:
Tompkins County Director Information Technology Services
Tompkins County Sheriff
Tompkins County District Attorney
City of Ithaca Information Technology
City of Ithaca Police
Village of Cayuga Heights Police
Village of Dryden Police
Village of Groton Police
Village of Trumansburg Police
This agreement shall become effective upon execution by each and every
Participating Agency and shall be in force for the period beginning upon full
execution through December 3t, 20tL and may be renewed for an additional five
years by appropriate resolutions by each of the paftner agencies on or before
December 3t,20L1, all other terms and conditions of this agreement remaining the
same.
Establishing a Program
The parties hereby establish an on going partnership for the purpose of jointly
planning, providing, and coordinating shared law enforcement technology seruices
within Tompkins County. The LETSS group will coordinate with the Tompkins County
Information Technology Services Department and other providers as necessary and
agreed upon by LETSS. LETSS will be governed under the terms and conditions of
the Law Enforcement Technology Shared Seruices By-Laws. LETSS agencies may
use the group as a vehicle for voluntarily sharing information, equipment, publicity
about programs, and/or coordinating their respective services.
Sharing Program Costs
LETSS shall have an annual operational budget as determined by the
Tompkins Counfi budgeting process programmed into the Tompkins County
Information Technology Services budgetary unit, A project revie@work plan based
on the use of these funds will be submitted to the Tompkins County Public Safety
Committee no later than January 31 of each year. For the base operational costs of
950,000 contingent upon acceptance of the Tompkins County 2010 budget, LETSS
Participating Agencies will receive the following:
1. Tompkins County Information Technology Seruices shall provide LETSS
paftners secure access to and technical suppott for the following
applications: Spectrum Justice System (SJS), Traffic and Criminal Software
(TraCS), Daily Run Sheet and Shift Summary Reports, NYS E-justice Poftal,
LiveScan Digital Fingerprinting, and any other systems or services included
in the annual LETSS work Plan.
2. Tompkins County Information Technology Services shall provide LETSS
paftners with technical assistance and/or project planning assistance based
on any new initiatives included in the annual LETSS work plan.
3. Tompkins County Information Technology Services shall provide services
for LETSS paftners between the hours of Monday through Friday, 7:30
a.m. - 5 p.m. In addition, ITS will distribute an Emergency Off Hours
Contacts list to padner agencies. There is no guaranteed response time for
the overnight hours between 5 p.m. and 7:30 a.m.. Emergencies non-
withstanding, any County provided service(s) outside of these core hours
must be scheduled one week in advance and mutually agreed upon
between Tompkins County Information Technology Seruices and the LETSS
paftner.
Any proposed project outside of the scope of the base operational seruices
described above must include a funding plan and be mutually agreed upon by the
LETSS group through a majority vote. Any additional funding required from
Participating Agencies above and beyond the annual County Budget allocation must
be approved by each individual agency participating in the project.
Governance
Name: The governing board shall be called Law Enforcement Technology
Shared Seruices (LE[SS) Group.
Membership: LETSS shall have a total of 9 (nine) voting members. The
paftners include: City of Ithaca Police Department(1), City of Ithaca Information
Technology Department(1), Village of Cayuga Heights Police Department(1), Village
of Dryden Police Department(1), Village of Groton Police Depaftment(1), Village of
Trumansburg Police Department(1), Tompkins County District Attorney(1),
Tompkins County Sheriff(1) and Tompkins County Depaftment Information
Technology Services( 1).
Roles of the Law Enforcement Technology Shared Services
Group
LETSS shall operate under its own by-laws that have been approved by the
Tompkins County Legislature and then ratified by all Pafticipating Agencies.
Roles of Tompkins County Information Technology
Services Depaftment
Staff from the Tompkins County Information Technology Seruices Depaftment
will work in close cooperation with the City of Ithaca Information Technology
Depaftment staff and Participating Agencies to provide suppott to LETSS that
includes:
o assistance in developing an annual work plan of priority planning, oversightn
and evaluation issues;. assistance in developing policy options and guidelines for the LETSS Group's
action as needed to implement the work plan;
o pr€pdfation of meeting agendas in consultation with the LETSS Group chair;o pr€pdration of meeting records;o pr€p?ration of contracts with providers as authorized by the Law Enforcement
Technology Shared Seruices Group;o coordination with the partners to assure that program meets the needs of the
Law Enforcement Technology Shared Services Group;o coordination with partners to assure that policy questions that require LETSS
decisions are acted on in a timely way;. staff suppoft to LETSS to implement work plan.
Roles of Law Enforcement Technology Shared Seruices
Pafticipating Agencies
The Participating Agencies will be responsible for:
o providing a yearly summary of participation and periodically highlighting any
trends or significant changes in program pafticipation, feedback, expenses or
revenues for LETSS;o tracking participation in formats and on a schedule requested by or acceptable
tO LETSS;o recommending programs or changes to improve services and/or lower costs.
Fiscal Accountability
Tompkins County Information Technology Services is the fiscal agent for the
Paftnership. The County Information Technology Services Department will administer
those funds in accordance with the LETSS annual work plan.
As a condition of this agreement, Tompkins County Information Technology
Seruices and designated provide(s) shall maintain records of expenses and revenues
as required by LETSS.
Liability
No padry (Participating Agency or municipality) shall have any financial liability
to any other Participating Agency other than the contributions agreed to by
Participating Agencies, and no Participating Agency or municipality shall be liable to
any other agency or any member of the public for the performance, non-
performance, or any breach of this agreement.
Dispute Resolution
In the event of any dispute, claim, question, or disagreement arising from or
relating to this agreement or the breach thereof, the parties shall use their best
efforts to settle the dispute, claim, question, or disagreement. To this effect, they
shall consult and negotiate with each other in good faith and, recognizing their
mutual interests, attempt to reach a just and equitable solution satisfactory to all
pafties.
Ratification
by
CITY OF ITHACA
Mayor
Chief of Police
Director of Information Technology
LLAGE OF CAYUGA HEIGHTS
Mayor
Chief of Police
LLAGE OF DRYDEN
Mayor
Chief of Police
date-
date
date
date
date-
date-
date
by
by
VI
by
by
VI
by
by
VI
by
LLAGE OF GROTON
Mayor
County Administrator
Sheriff
Director of Information Technology
date
date
date
date
date
date-
date
date
by
Chief of Police
VILLAGE OF TRUMANSBURG
by
Chief of Police
TOMPKINS COUNTY
by
by
by
by
District Attorney
FinalT/7/2009
1 BY-LAWS
z Law Enforcement Technology Shared Services Group (LETSS)
4 l. Name
s The name shall be Law Enforcement Technology Shared Services
o (LETSS) Group .
7g II. Preamble: Law Enforcement Technology Shared Services Group is a
e unique inter-agency group created to jointly plan, provide, oversee and
l0 coordinate shared law enforcement technology services within Tompkins
11 County.
t2
13 III. Purpose: The Law Enforcement Technology Shared Seruices group shall
t4 have the following duties, powers, and responsibilities:
ts - Identify a set of shared services to be provided to paftner
t6 agencies.
ri - Authorize additions or deletions of LETSS program services.
l8 - Recommend to the Tompkins County Public Safew Committee
ts and the Tompkins County Legislature a net operating budget
20 and necessary resources for the costs of services, fees,
zr revenues, and grants.
22 - Recommend contracted services, monitoring the quality and
23 costs of the seruice Providers.24 - Evaluate the performance of providers.
2s - Provide repofts to the Tompkins County Public Safety
26 Committee, Tompkins County Legislature and other local
27 government agencies as necessary.
282s IV. Membership:
JT-,
3t A. Voting membership shall consist of nine members with no set terms:
;; 1. Tompkins County Director information Technology Services or designee
34 2. Tompkins County Sheriff or designee
3s 3. Tompkins County District Attorney or designee
36 4. City of Ithaca Information Technology Director or designee
3i 5. City of Ithaca Police Chief or designee
38 6. Village of Cayuga Heights Police Chief or designee
3e 7. Village of Dryden Police Chief or designee
40 B. Village of Groton Police Chief or designee
4t 9. Village of Trumansburg Police Chief or designee
A1
43 In addition, each agency may appoint one alternate per seat, in the
44 | event the member or designee is not available- Each Participating
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Finall 17 /2009
Agency("Member") will strive to fill these seats with agents willing and
able to make program and policy decisions. The Law Enforcement
Technology Shared Services Group may determine the need to create
ar'ty non-voting at-large seats to add expeftise andlor additional
coordination. This may be done by a 314 majority vote of the
members. The at-large seats will be filled for a period of up t0 two-
years,
B. Joining LETSS: The group may invite a new member to join LETSS
after August 2009 with a 3/+ majority vote of the existing LETSS
members. After signing this Agreement, the new agency or its
designee will become a voting member, and the size of LETSS shall
increase by one.
C. Resignations. An agency may elect to withdraw from the group at
anytime, providing a letter to that effect to the Chair of the LETSS
group. Tompkins County Information Technology Services shall have
up to six(6) months from the notification of resignation to provide, if
possible, any data or records specific to the resigning agency. By
entering into this agreement, each agency pledges to honor its
contractual obligations to the other members when it desires to leave
LETSS.
V. Officers
A. Each year the Group shall elect a Chairperson, and a Vice Chairperson,
from among its members.
B. Duties of Officers:
1. Chair: shall develop the agenda in consultation with the Tompkins
County Information Technology Services staff, chair the meetings,
represent the Law Enforcement Technology Shared Seruices Group at
inter-municipal or public meetings, and assist as needed in contract
negotiations to implement the wishes of the Law EnfOrcement
Technology Shared Services Group'
2. Vice Chair: shall act in the absence of the chair'
C. Terms of Office: For the first term, officers will be elected in August
2009, with their term ending December 31, 2010. Thereafter, terms
shall be for one year beginning January l't and ending December 31't.
Officers for the new year shall be elected at the last quarterly meeting
of the previous year. New names for nomination can be put forth up
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FinalT/112009
wI.
to and at the last quarterly meeting for consideration. Prior to a vote
nominees must have agreed to serve. Vacancies shall be filled as soon
as possible for the remainder of the unexpired term.
Meetings
c.
Quorum: A quorum shall be at least a majority of the full
membership (9 members) or their designated alternate.
Voting: Each member is entitled to one vote per item at any official
meeting. An appointed alternate is permitted to vote when replacing
their official agency representative. Passage of a motion requires a
majority vote of the full group (9). In order for an alternate to vote,
the officially appointed representative must notify the Chair of the
Committee prior to the start of the meeting. To the extent permitted
by law, participation via electronic means will not be permitted.
Agendas. An agenda will be sent out at least 7 days prior to the
meeting. While not required it is desirable that information of
substance be distributed with the agenda so members have time to
review the information prior to the meeting.
Records: The Tompkins County Information Technology Services
Depadment shall maintain a public record of all proceedings of the
LETSS group in accordance with the procedures as followed by the
Clerk of the Legislature.
Attendance: The Group shall set an annual meeting schedule, but
will meet quarterly at a minimum. Any member missing greater than
fifty percent (50%) of any given year's meetings will lose their voting
member status, in effect becoming a non-voting at-large seat. The
LETSS group may choose, at any time, to make that Participating
Agency a voting member again by a 3/+ majority vote of the full group'
Code of Ethics: All duly appointed members shall be provided a copy
of, and be bound by, the Code of Ethics of Tompkins County.
Fiscal Year: The fiscal year shall be from January 1 to December 31.
Amendments of ByLaws: Future amendments to the by-laws that are
not inconsistent with this agreement shall be made by a 213 majority
vote of the full LETSS group, subject to subsequent approval by the
A,
B.
D.
E.
F.
VIII.
Final 71712009
I Tompkins County Legislature, provided that the proposed amendment
z has been presented for consideration of the LETSS group at the
3 preceding regular meeting. An amended copy of the by-laws will be
4 sent to each Pafticipating Agency for their records.
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z IX. Saving Clause: In the event any paft of these bylaws shall conflict with
8 any provisions or requirements of state, local, or federal Law, the
e provisions of any state, local or federal Law shall control and the other
l0 provisions of these bylaws shall not be invalidated by such conflict.
l1
12 X. Conflict of Interest: If a member has a potential conflict of interest s/he
13 must explain her or his relationship to the agency before the matter is
14 discussed or voted on. Members must abstain from discussing andlor
t5 voting on any specific actions that are, or give the appearance of,
16 being motivated by a desire for private financial gain for themselves or
t7 others such as those with whom they have family, business, or other
18 ties.
t920 XI. Adoption: These bylaws shall become effective upon adoption by a
zr majority vote of the members of the Law Enforcement Technology
zz Shared Services Group and approval of all of the pafticipating partner
23 agencies and the Tompkins County Legislature.
.A
zs As amended by the Law Enforcement Technology Shared Services
26 Group on7l8l2009, and approved by all paftner agencies 7l8l2OO9.
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