The Rapid City Police Department and the Pennington County Sheriff's Office would share a common information technology department under a proposal currently being considered by the city.

If approved, the city would pay for the equivalent of 1-1/2 full-time employees to work with the sheriff's office's two existing IT employees to handle all public safety technology needs. Both new positions would be fully paid for by the county.

Kevin Thom, the city's community resources director, said the move would formalize what is already happening every day at the Public Safety Building. The agencies already use the same software system to manage "almost everything that the sheriff's office and police department touches."

"We're very integrated in a lot of the IT practices already," Thom said. "Their offices are right next to each other. They're working with each other every day already."

The joint public safety IT section would be overseen by the city's IT officer, and according to the memorandum of understanding, county funding would total $79,279 a year for the new city employees.

Sheriff Don Holloway's 2010 budget already includes the funding, which is the same as what was being paid to his IT supervisor, who retired earlier this year.

Holloway said paying for 1-1/2 full-time employees rather than another supervisor would be a better use of the funds.

"The real key to this is we share a lot of the same software right now," Holloway said. "If we consolidate our efforts, it gives us more flexibility, since law enforcement operates on a 24-hour basis. With me only having three people, I was caught short-handed sometimes."

Thom said the agreement would be similar to the Rapid City Public Library, where the county fully funds a number of positions. The county and city also currently share the IT staff that oversees RapidMap, the joint city/county Internet mapping site.

Some on the Rapid City Council who heard about the proposal at last week's Legal & Finance Committee meeting, though, weren't sold on the change. The committee will revisit the issue at its meeting Wednesday.

Alderman Ron Weifenbach, a big proponent of finding synergy in city departments, said he wasn't convinced yet the move would make the most of city and county tax dollars.

"On the onset, it's a great idea," Weifenbach said. "But they're proposing taking a job that had three people in it and putting in three and a half. To me, synergy means reducing costs.

"It doesn't make sense to synergize something without having cost savings at some level or an increase in capacity."

But Thom said he is optimistic more information will sway the council, especially because public safety has already integrated a great deal, including dispatch, evidence and records. Holloway agreed.

"We're already crossed over in a lot of ways. Our computer system allows us to do that," Holloway said. "So it only makes sense to put these efforts together to be more efficient."