Joint board to revisit Parks and Recreation cost split, governance timeline

Teton County commissioners and the Jackson Town Council are set to spend up to two hours Monday reviewing the Parks and Recreation Joint Powers Agreement, the contract that governs how the joint department is funded and overseen, according to the Regular Joint Meeting Agenda.

The discussion comes as the town and county operate under a one year interim agreement that kept the prior deal’s structure but reset the cost split to 60 percent county and 40 percent town starting July 1, 2026, staff wrote in a July briefing. That staff analysis put the department’s net operating cost at about $4.7 million in FY 2026 and compared the current cost share to alternatives like a population split (54/46 county/town) and a jurisdictional cost of service model (44/56 county/town). Staff also flagged a proposed FY27 to FY31 capital program of roughly $19.9 million, where who pays can swing depending on which projects land in which jurisdiction, as laid out in the Parks and Recreation Joint Powers Agreement Review Packet.