Jackson council to discuss pausing joint-powers updates until July joint meeting

Jackson’s Town Council is scheduled to spend 90 minutes at its April 20 workshop discussing how (and how fast) to proceed with updates to the town’s joint-powers agreements and related intergovernmental agreements with Teton County that govern shared services like START Bus, Fire/EMS, Parks & Recreation and others. The agenda packet lists the item as “Joint Powers Agreement Updates” with public comment. Town Council Workshop Agenda Packet

In the staff report, the town administrator’s office recaps a July 2024 joint-funding MOU that set a phased cost-share shift for both operations and capital from the then-current 46% town / 54% county split to 57% county / 43% town starting July 1, 2025; 60% / 40% starting July 1, 2026; and 62% / 38% starting July 1, 2027. The MOU also states that if the parties do not reach a governance agreement by Jan. 1, 2031, the cost split would revert on July 1, 2031 to a census-based distribution. Town Council Workshop Agenda Packet

Staff say the town and county already updated Fire/EMS funding using a weighted four-factor method (incident count, population served, staffing and fleet—each 25%) and started—but did not finish—talks on Parks & Recreation funding. The next major agreement flagged for review is the START joint-powers agreement, though staff note it may be rescheduled to prioritize the 90 Virginian Lane housing work and spring budget deliberations. Staff recommend “no further work be completed on joint efforts” until a town/county joint meeting in July, and ask council to give direction on whether to continue on the current track, pause to focus on a potential 2028 “general penny” sales-tax election discussion, or step back to define the overarching goal of joint services (potentially with outside facilitation) before revisiting specific agreements. Town Council Workshop Agenda Packet