Councilwoman Jade Piros de Carvalho revealed the disputes during Tuesday s Hutchinson City Council meeting.
The brief statement, released after 7:30 p.m., indicated it was being issued jointly by the chief and Reno County Sheriff Darrian Campbell.
“The Sheriff and I met this morning,” Hooper wrote. “We sat down to discuss points of contention to bridge any divide that may be forming between the Hutchinson Police Department and the Reno County Sheriff’s Office.”
“Both of us came into this meeting completely dedicated to working out those issues and with a strong desire to bring our agencies back together. Only by working together can we provide the best possible Law Enforcement service to our community. We are both fully committed to a strong and cooperative relationship between our agencies.”
A pair of bids separated by less than 1% for the city’s annual summer street mill and overlay project sparked a brief debate by the Hutchinson City Council on Tuesday about granting a preference to local bidders.
Ultimately, the council awarded the $1.139 million project to the low bidder, Pearson Construction LLC of Wichita, but several council members asked that the board revisit the city’s bid policy.
Mayor Steve Garza first raised the local preference issue on the paving bid, saying he’d received a lot of phone calls about the No. 2 bidder, APAC-Kansas Shears Division, being a local company with lots of employees in Hutchinson.
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An annual change in leadership at the Hutchinson City Council this week led to the elevation of the board s two newest members to mayor and vice mayor.
Also on Tuesday, the council approved amending an engineering contract on developing plans for the first phase of the Washington Street bicycle path, adopted new maps that will put more than 200 additional properties in the city under federal flood plain designations and extended a lease for the Airport Steakhouse.
At the start of the meeting, Southeast District representative Steven Garza was elected as mayor and At-Large Councilman Sara Bagwell as vice mayor.
Bagwell nominated Garza for the post, and vice versa. There were no other nominations.