Ely Council Rejects Formal Police Merger with Struggling Babbitt Department

Ely's city council voted unanimously Wednesday to reject a formal police services merger with Babbitt, handing Mayor Andrea Zupancich a setback in her months-long effort to stabilize a department that has shrunk to two active officers against an authorized strength of five. The decision does not end Ely's involvement in Babbitt policing, but it draws a hard line: Ely officers will continue working overtime shifts across the border as a short-term fix, without any formal commitment binding the two cities together.

The stopgap arrangement is now the load-bearing structure of Babbitt's 24/7 coverage, and it is an expensive one. Babbitt has been paying outside officers at premium overtime rates while carrying a roughly $1.3 million budget shortfall, a financial hole deep enough that residents packed council chambers at a previous meeting to hear proposals that included a 20% property tax increase and service cuts. The collapse of the department accelerated after then-Chief Troy Bissonette departed Babbitt to join the Ely Police Department, a departure that left Zupancich scrambling for solutions from neighboring agencies and St. Louis County.

Ely council members and staff cited resource, geographic, and political constraints in declining to absorb another city's police operations into their own. The distinction matters: an overtime agreement leaves accountability diffuse, with no formal service-level guarantees, no staffing minimums written into contract, and no clear liability framework if coverage fails on a given shift.

Two alternatives remain on the table that could offer Babbitt more structural stability. St. Louis County submitted a proposal to supply four officers plus 100 hours of overtime, preserving round-the-clock coverage at a cost roughly $100,000 below what Babbitt currently spends on policing. The East Range Police Department, which serves Aurora and Hoyt Lakes, submitted a competing bid estimated to save approximately $60,000. Neither deal has been finalized.

The next pressure point for Babbitt is likely financial rather than operational. The city cannot sustain premium overtime spending against a seven-figure deficit indefinitely, and any significant incident, unplanned vacancy, or budget shortfall trigger could force the question back to a council vote before a long-term contract is ever signed. Zupancich now must weigh whether the county's four-officer proposal, East Range's leaner bid, or a structural reorganization at home offers the most defensible path to keeping Babbitt's streets covered without bankrupting the city in the process.