STORY AND PHOTOS BY KAREN BOSSICK

On Monday morning Blaine County Sheriff Morgan Ballis invited members of the press to the sheriff’s office to meet the new Ketchum Chief of Police.

But a funny thing happened on the way to the introduction on Wednesday.

Ballis instead appeared at the podium alone and informed the three reporters in the room that Ketchum Mayor Pete Prekeges had asked him to hold off on introducing Brad Mecham, who had been selected to replace Lt. Jamie Shaw, who is slated to retire on April 30.

Prekeges added that he was having second thoughts about continuing the city’s contract with the Blaine County Sheriff’s Office.

Ballis said that Prekeges had requested to be involved in selecting the new police chief and that he had agreed with the others on the hiring committee that Mecham was the best candidate.

Ballis also said he had believed that the contract, which began with negotiations in June 2025, was a done deal only needing the city’s council’s approval at its next meeting on April 9.

Ballis then spent more than an hour going over each page of the 11-page contract, as well as several other exhibits that he said demonstrated why the city would be better off contracting with the sheriff’s office rather than reverting to an independent police department.

“Unless your goal is to cut police services and decrease public safety, I don’t see how this helps you,” he said.

Mayor Pete Prekeges, however, said that his side of the story is very simple: “Ketchum is a unique town with special policing needs. Right now, BCSO makes policing decisions for Ketchum. We would like governance of our police department and all related decisions to be in the City Council and the Mayor’s hands.”

The City of Ketchum began contracting out its police services to the Blaine County Sheriff’s Office in 2009. The city council unanimously approved a $1.92 million contract in 2024.

The 2025 Fiscal Year budget approved in December 2025 totals $1,966,422, including salaries and benefits, vehicle maintenance, certification and administrative fees.

Ballis said the city is not being billed for such things as using Blaine County patrol vehicles when Ketchum’s vehicles are out of service. Nor is it billed for such things as the training equipment and facilities to maintain certifications for officers, evidence storage compliance, recruiting, hiring and background investigation costs, attorney consultation costs, patrol equipment purchases, the use of investigation tools and vehicle parking in the sheriff’s lot.

Patrol vehicles need to be stored in a secured area because of the expensive equipment and sensitive information kept in the vehicles, Ballis told reporters. It could cost hundreds of thousands of dollars to create such a facility in Ketchum.

But that’s an expense that would be necessary as only the police chief and K9 unit take their vehicles home; others park their personal vehicles at the sheriff’s when picking up their patrol car.

Ballis also said that the city’s current evidence storage room is not compliant with requirements and does not have proper refrigeration to store sexual assault and other evidence.

Ballis said that the city wants to eliminate one position, making its full-time detective a part-time detective who would also work as a patrol officer. This will slow investigations, he said.

And he also questioned the wisdom of cutting one full position out of the budget, stating that the expenses the city would incur by not contracting with the sheriff’s office would eclipse those savings.

Start-up costs to bring the police in-house would be between $350,000 and $500,000 so the actual costs of bringing police in-house could be as much as $2.4 million.

The city estimates it would cost between $125,000 and $175,000, instead.

“The analysis was put together by the sheriff and does not reflect the numbers that the city derived, said Daniel Hansen, director of Community Engagement for the city.

Prekeges added that the numbers Ballis presented were his calculations based on preliminary numbers the city shared early last year. More refined numbers were presented to the City Council in September, the mayor said.

“Sheriff Ballis was in attendance and agreed with the estimates, so I’m not sure why he thinks the estimates are wrong now,” he added.

Prekeges also said that the city pays for most of the equipment and facilities it uses now and it has the other costs accounted for in the proposed transition costs.

“Keep in mind, the Sun Valley, Hailey, and Bellevue have their own police and operate great without the county’s backing. I’m confident we would as well,” he said. 

Hansen said that the decision on the contract has yet been made. The City Council will discuss the topic with an option of making a decision during its April 9 meeting.

He added that the city is confident it already pays for, or has accounted for the items Ballis listed, such as training and certification of new officers. And he said that the city’s police storage room was built to specs provided by the sheriff’s office.

Ketchum is a unique tourist town with unique policing needs, he added: “These include increased community policing efforts, such as officers on foot or bike spending time educating or building relationships with community members and assisting with parking and other code enforcement. Resident requests to the city echo these needs. Adding more of these community policing efforts into daily law enforcement operations has been priority number one for the city throughout these discussions.”

Bringing police services in house would allow the city director oversight and the ability to increase community-building activities, officer retention and compensation and adaptability to changing policing needs, Hansen said. Community policing efforts regarding parking, code enforcement and meeting with community members should increase.

“The bottom line is that the city is pursuing full control of its police operations to better serve the community,” Hansen said. “In all due respect to Sheriff Ballis, claims are being made to create problems that don’t exist.”

If Ketchum City Council members elect to bring policing services in house, they believe a 120-day transition period would be adequate.

But Ballis points out that would mean Ketchum would have to have everything up and running by mid-August, which is one of the city’s busiest times with the Sun Valley Music Festival and Wagon Days. He also questions how they would handle the 2027 Audi FIS World Cup in March 2027.

“We’ve even suggested any unspent funds would go towards DUI prevention, such as ride share vouchers or taxi reimbursements to keep people from driving intoxicated,” said Ballis noting that Blaine County has the third highest number of DUIs per capita of Idaho’s counties and that Ketchum has the most in the county given its tourist nightlife.

WHAT COMES NEXT?

The contract is on the agenda of the next City Council meeting. It starts at 5:30 p.m. Thursday, April 9, at Ketchum City Hall, 191 5th St. West, Ketchum.