The Savannah City Council and Chatham County Board of Commissioners have a new framework agreement to consider for the shared city and county police department. City Manager Stephanie Cutter and County Manager Lee Smith announced the agreement at a joint press conference Wednesday morning.

Click here to read the full SCMPD Framework Agreement.

The new proposal comes after months of negotiations that appeared at times to approach a stalemate. Throughout the process, the two sides disagreed over control of the department, the breakdown of funding and the county's request for separate jurisdiction over precincts in the unincorporated county.

If both governing bodies pass the new framework, leaders would have two years to finalize details of those issues. A committee made up of the city and county managers, the police chief and their staff would work with a jointly-hired law enforcement consultant to develop recommendations on the cost structure and precinct composition.

"It's better to have a good agreement than a fast agreement," City Manager Stephanie Cutter told reporters of that two-year process for phasing in a new agreement.

Under this plan, the police chief would fall under the city organizational structure. But the agreement calls for the county manager to have "full access" to the chief and participate in joint evaluation of the chief with the city manager.

If adopted, the new agreement would begin July 1, 2015.

Tags: scmpd, Savannah, Chatham County, police merger