Thursday, December 20, 2012

Council Funds Jail Expansion - 20 December 2012 Dearborn County Council Meeting Notes


20 December 2012 Dearborn County Council Meeting Notes

Present: Dennis Kraus. Sr., President, Dan Lansing,  Liz Morris, Maynard Barrett, Bryan Messmore, and Bill Ullrich.

Councilman Jim Hughes passed away Dec 9th.

Also present: Gayle Pennington, Auditor and Teresa Randall, County Administrator

Charlie Keyes and Randy Lyness were present also ( councilmen-elect)

Everyone stood for a moment of silence for Jim Hughes.

REDEVELOPMENT COMMISSION-  Land Acquisition- Mike Rozow introduced Paul Kunkle who requested money to buy almost 42 acres in West Harrison TIF. $850,000 left out of $1.5 million they had been allocated. They want $550,000 which will be matched by City of Lawrenceburg. Economic development will own it and once a piece is sold they will turn it over to Redevelopment Commission. Survey was done for $1900 by Becker Bayer who had done multiple surveys on this area. They want to do it this year because of capital gains issues. Company interested in 15 acres and we will have 23 left. Original 72 acres in Tom Stone property. 8 acres went to Hirlinger. Paying under $40,000 an acre. This land is in the 500 year flood plain and out of the 100 year flood plain. They plan to close on Dec 27 at 1 PM. Ullrich motioned and Morris 2nded to transfer the $550,000 for the purchase of this land. Passed.

Commissioners- Terri Randall:

High Street Demolition- Mike Hrezo and Bob Hrezo of Hrezo Engineering was present as they requested the money to take down both buildings to finish it off and get the parking set up for 40- 60 spaces if we take down both Shumway and Votaw Building. $244,310 total cost. $110,407 is left of the Lawrenceburg money. $133,903.50 more is needed- but they requested $135,000. They will not ask for any more money for this. Randall said they need to spend the money from Lawrenceburg. You never know when that will go away. Lansing motioned and 2nd by Morris to approve the request for the money to demolish these two properties.

Salary Transfer- $6,970 to cover Randall’s paycheck for the rest of the year as they had calculated it incorrectly. They had money that was extra in insurance funds that they will transfer for this. Approved.

Jail Expansion/renovation- Terri Randall-introduced Brad Rullman from Maxwell and Mark Van Allen from Rosser inc and Jeff Lyness from Maxwell who were present as Randall gave the presentation the same as was given to Commissioners. She also commented on Jim Hughes who showed great character on the Jail Committee even though he was against the project. Randall said that Integrus study on this was independent because even though he was consulting with Maxwell on the project this fee was extra beyond that fee and his fee with Maxwell was the same no matter how big the jail was.

Lansing asked about the cost of home incarceration versus the cost of jail. Morris said that per some conversation she heard and that she knows this is unscientific- but that some of the people on home incarceration should probably be in the jail. We have more felons than we used to and they get longer stays. We will average 347 inmates in the next 10 years per the data projections.

100-125 per year were arrested due to the boat per Kreinhop (using numbers from when he was there 5 years ago.) He does not know what those numbers are currently. Lansing noted that the casino has 24% less patrons this Nov compared to last. That might translate to less arrests – particularly with the Cincinnati casino.

Morris noted that RQAW had projected 390 inmates for 2020. Kraus asked why there is no one smart enough to stop the revolving door with the rearrests due to alcohol etc. Randall said the 12% growth rate was the realistic estimate.

Mark Van Allen gave his spiel on the new things in this jail project. This was the same as what he told Commissioners. (see notes from that meeting)

Morris asked about the JCAP program. Answer from Van Allen was that JCAP has 16 beds for men and 16 for women in the intensive program and then 8 each on another floor for those continuing to serve their sentence as a graduate program- like a step down program.

Jeff Lyness went over the budget for each option:

$77,238 cost per bed for the 120 beds for $9.3 million

$48,000 cost per bed to go to 144 beds for $11.4 million

208 beds for $11,800 each for the additional $800,000 beyond the $11.4 million.

Brad Rullman gave the allocations to date.

Kraus asked about building it out all the way- and then they would have no reason to watch how fast they are filling it up. Randall said that the commissioners asked them to do these alternates. Lyness said that the construction market is making it more economical to do this.

Morris spoke out to go to the 144 beds and at least bid out the 208.

Lansing talked about how fast it will fill up and then we will have the operational costs out of savings. Kraus agreed that there would be increased personnel. They can use inmates to help clean floors etc. They saw this on some tours of other facilities per Randall. Video visitation and automated commissary might save some money. Morris said that people in the judiciary anguish over who to let loose to put someone more dangerous in jail. This is what we have to do to keep the community safe.

Kraus said once you build the 208 bed there is no incentive to have any other solutions to the problem.

Messmore has been part of this for a long time. I don’t think any of us want to build a jail- but we have taken this washrag and wrung it until it’s dry. I think it’s wise to get the bid for the 208. He thinks it will be better to build it out rather than take these costs to a later date.

Chris Mueller spoke requesting more data to be gathered from here on out to show what we are accomplishing with JCAP and also for the rate of incarceration. For more detail this was essentially the same request made to the commissioners to get all parties involved in seeing what policies and procedures could help alleviate jail overcrowding. (bonds, continuances etc)

Lansing said 70 % longer stays in Dearborn County than jails across the state. Not sure if that was from RQAW data.

If JCAP were to be changed to something else it would be difficult to change because it’s all built of very stout materials.

Messmore motioned to accept the Commissioner’s request for 144 bed version for $11.4 million with Barrott 2nding. 4 ayes and 1 nay form Lansing, Chair did not vote though he had previously stated he was in favor of this version.  Passed.

Kraus asked Randall to check on the JCAP data and see if Commissioners would request it. She said she would dialogue with them on this.

Jail Additional—nothing said about this.

Gayle Pennington-needed more for Wanda Treadway for $440 so that Sue Hayden can take her 10 days vacation. Passed.

Salary Ordinance- The salary ordinance- reflected all the things they had passed at budget time. Passed.

Park Board was removed from the agenda and they will have to re start the discussion for next year.Messmore motioned to do this Lansing 2nd. Passed.  Park Board was not on this agenda – but they had been tabled in November. This was about fencing for Gladys Russell Park.

Meeting adjourned at 8:25 PM 

Christine Brauer Mueller

Lawrenceburg Township

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