Som thyngs that provoke young men to wed in haste,
Show after weddyng that haste makes waste.
— from John Heywood’s book of English proverbs, 1546.
Of course, it’s not only young men who make hasty — and wasteful — decisions. The three Archuleta County Commissioners, who met for a work session on Tuesday, January 22, are not exactly young men, although to listen to their discussion one might worry that they’re on the verge of a hasty, and potentially wasteful, decision.
But let’s start at the beginning of the discussion. We’re listening to County Administrator Greg Schulte, introducing the two lead architects — Bob Johnson and Brad Ash — who’ve been guiding the Board of County Commissioners through two failed County jail elections, and who now — apparently — are advising the BOCC to act in a very hasty manner.
For the benefit of all of us taxpayers, of course.
Greg Schulte:
“And I guess for the commissioners, and also for the people in the audience, I’d like to do a slight introduction to this topic and why we’re doing this, and what we’re hoping to achieve today.
“First of all, this really doesn’t have anything to do with COP financing. Why we’re here today is to talk about an approach to how we may consider doing construction for the jail. And I would say that you all would be having this conversation regardless of whether the sales tax had passed and we had a new revenue stream, or if the decision by the commissioners was to pursue financing through Certificates of Participation.”
As most of our readers know, the BOCC spent two and a half years coming up with an expensive plan for a new Sheriff’s Office and Detention Center, to be funded by a one percent sales tax increase. The voters narrowly rejected that plan in 2017. The following year, the BOCC then put essentially the same plan on the ballot, thinking that a robust political campaign could get the tax increase approved. That plan failed by an even larger margin at the polls.
Going into the 2018 election, numerous community leaders had advised the BOCC to propose a smaller facility, on the belief that the 2017 election loss had been based on the public’s perception that the proposal was simply too expensive. The BOCC refused to consider that advice. And lost a second time.
Rather than change their detention center plans, however, the BOCC now seems stubbornly determined to built their planned 54-bed jail — without voter approval, and without any dedicated revenue stream to fund the project… using a rather expensive ‘debt’ mechanism called Certificates of Participation.
But as Mr. Schulte noted, the January 22 meeting with architects Bob Johnson and Brad Ash didn’t exactly pertain to this proposed end-run around the voters. It pertained, rather, to a method to get the project started even before the final architectural drawings were completed.
Is it possible that a hasty decision by the BOCC could actually save the County money?
Greg Schulte:
“So it’s not about how we’re financing, this is about how we go about doing the actual construction. So I’ve asked Brad and Bob to come here and help educate you about this.
“Obviously, the ballot measure failed. And staff has been proceeding to move forward with building the jail. And right now, the direction I’ve been given, is we are now working on a jail — 54-beds, located in Harman Park, and estimated at $13 million.”
As far as I can tell, from attending a dozen BOCC meetings since the failed election, the number $13 million is a merely a rough estimate. As of this meeting on January 22, neither the community nor the BOCC have seen finished drawings of the proposed jail, as a stand-alone facility. The only drawings we’ve seen so far were conceptual sketches from the architects dating from 2017, showing a combined Detention Center and Sheriff’s Office.
As a result, neither the BOCC nor the voters have been presented with accurate cost figures for a stand-alone 54-bed jail. When Mr. Schulte quotes a price — $13 million — that’s someone’s guess about the final cost.
I’m not entirely sure who came up with that number. But it’s someone’s guess about the cost for the 54-bed jail that two specific architects — Bob Johnson and Brad Ash — want the County to build.
When working with government agencies, architects are paid on a ‘percentage of the total price’ basis. The more expensive the project, the more the architects are paid. If the County were to spend $13 million on a new jail, the architects would expect to be paid about $1.1 million for their drawings.
If the County were to spend, say, $7 million on a new jail, the architects would earn $595,000.
I’ve attended a few BOCC work sessions and regular meetings since the existing 34-bed jail suffered a roof leak in 2015 and was summarily abandoned. (More meetings than I care to count.) As far as I can tell, the County leadership never made a concerted effort to identify the most cost effective type of jail construction. Instead, the BOCC seems to have purposely chosen the most expensive type of design and construction.
Bob Johnson and Brad Ash are telling us that we need to spend $13 million, for on a stand-alone jail.
In a Daily Post editorial back in June 2015, I shared a cost estimate given by County Administrator Bentley Henderson, for a new ‘Justice Center’ — courts, Sheriff’s offices and detention center: $8 million.
Courts, Sheriff’s offices, and jail. $8 million.
In that same editorial, I analyzed the cost of the brand new ‘Public Safety Center’ completed in Gunnison, Colorado in the spring of 2015 — built for a county government serving a population (15,500) that was slightly larger than Archuleta County’s population (13,300). I had received an email from Gunnison County Manager Matthew Birnie with updated figures for that project. (My thanks to Mr. Birnie for his thorough response.) Gunnison’s brand new Public Safety Center (Sheriff’s Office, Emergency Operations Center and Jail) measured 34,000 square feet and was completed at a cost of about $11.9 million.
Our County administrator was telling us, in 2015, that a facility could be built in Pagosa Springs for around $8 million.
Now, in 2019, a different County administrator is quoting $13 million for a facility that would not include Court facilities… nor a Sheriff’s Office. It would include only a jail.