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Mutual aid. Tinder the mutual aid approach, two or more cities agree to assist each other M specified circumstances; e.g., when an emergency in one city requires additional personnel, or when one city is short - staffed because of vacancies, vacations, injuries# sickness, etc. Generally, no money changes hands; the assumption is that in the long run, things will even out and each city will receive roughly as much assistance as it provides. Note that a mum aid arrangement could involve complementary, rather than identical, services; e.g., you buy and maintain a snorkel truck and we' 11 buy and maintain a ha rnat vehicle, and we'll both make them available to the other when needed. Of course, in practice joint powers arrangements don't always neatly fall into one of these tluee categories. There may be ammgements under which a ,point managing board is created and given the responsibility to be a consolidated service provider for several jurisdictions, and the joint board in turn purchases the service from one of the member cities — more or less a hybrid of the ` ',consolidated service"' and the "service contract" approaches. im darly, mutual aid agreements sometimes provide that if the mutual assistance continues longer than a specified tune, the city receiving the assistance must begin paying the city than s providing the assistance. But while these kinds of variations are possible, it's probably helpful at least to begin the discussions by t1finking in terns of one of the three basic models: consolidation, service contract, or mutual aid. Once structure is determined, cities must also decide how the operation will be governed and managed. Fora consolidated service, homer will the board be structured? will it consist of elected officials, appointed city officials, citizen appointees, or some combination? Do all the cities have equal representation? How are the members appointed, for what terms, etc."? Are there certain specific types of decisions that will need to be approved by the participating city councils, its addition to (or instead of) by the joint hoard? For service contracts, will them be a formal structure for the purchasing city to have input, such as an advisory board, a designated liaison, regular meetings, etc.: Contract provisions It's important that the contract not only establish the legal organization of a new consolidated service, service- contract, or mutual aid agreement, but that it also consider the financial obligations of each participating city. Hoer will each city's share of the cost be determined`? What might be grounds for changing the cities" respective shares in the future? How will any unexpected or unbudgeted costs or uninsured/unfimded liabilities be handlied? How will decisions about future capital expenditures be made and funded? Since many arrangements may also include equipment contributions, one rluesdon is whether cities" respective contributions may not be equitable because of the age, condition or amount of the equipment contributed,, P)