Local activist — and former Town Council member — Mark Weiler has spent the past year developing an alternative plan that would allow the Archuleta County government to build a new jail without putting the taxpayers deeply in debt.
Two of our County Commissioners — Ronnie Maez and Steve Wadley — have shown little interest in exploring Mr. Weiler’s plan, and have instead been pushing for a $13 million, 54-bed jail funded through ‘Certificates of Participation’ — COPs — essentially, a financial ‘end-run’ around the taxpayers. Because COP investors charge interest on their loans, a $13 million jail would actually cost the taxpayers in the neighborhood of $18 – $21 million, depending on whom you talk to.
Our third County Commissioner — newly-elected Republican, Alvin Schaaf — has not yet expressed an opinion, at any of the BOCC meetings I’ve attended recently, about the 54-Bed-COP-CM/GC proposal.
According to my recent conversations with Mr. Weiler, he plans to run a full-page advertisement in the weekly Pagosa Springs SUN, encouraging Archuleta County taxpayers to pick up their phones and call our three commissioners:
- Ronnie Maez, 970-264-8303
- Steve Wadley, 970-264-8304
- Alvin Schaaf, 970-264-8305
… or send an email to all three, at commissioners@archuletacounty.org
Assuming that you, dear reader, would like to see Archuleta County build a new jail without creating a massive new debt… you might be interested in Mr. Weiler’s plan, and you might also be interested in urging our BOCC to stop their headlong rush into debt, and consider a different approach.
Mr. Weiler’s money-saving plan is based partly on reducing the size of the proposed jail, down from 54 beds to 32 beds. Last summer, Undersheriff Tonya Hamilton provided Mr. Weiler with a summary of Archuleta County detention trends between 2000 and 2018.
In the far left column, we see the years 2000 through 2018. In the next column, we see the number of arrests made by the Archuleta County Sheriff’s Office. The third column shows the total number of ‘inmate days’ for each year. (For example, an individual inmate housed for three days would equal ‘three inmate days.’ Three inmates, housed for one day each, would also equal ‘three inmate days.’) The highest number of inmate days — 16,251 — dates from 2004.
The fourth column shows the average daily number of inmates housed by the Sheriff’s Office. As we see, the highest average dates from 2004: an average of 45 inmates per day. The lowest number of inmates dates from 2015: 10 inmates, on average — less than a quarter of the average number housed in 2004.
2015 also saw the lowest number of arrests since 2000: only 305 arrests. So we have an interesting situation here. In 2015, the Sheriff’s Office made about half as many arrests as in 2004, but those arrests resulted in less than a quarter of the total ‘inmate days.’ We also see, from Undersheriff Hamilton’s chart, that, between 2015 and 2017, the number of arrests increased greatly — from 305 arrest to 521 arrests. And the average number of inmates housed also increased; in fact, it nearly doubled between 2015 and 2017. Nearly doubled, to an average of 19 inmates per day.
19 inmates per day. That’s a number which, presumably, could be accommodated in a 32-bed jail. Mr. Weiler’s plan assumes the jail will be designed for future expansion, should we have the need for a larger jail in the future.
In his SUN ad, Mr. Weiler also plans to share a chart, showing how a 32-bed jail could be funded without any debt. Or at least, very little debt.
In 2018, the County placed $2 million in reserves in a ‘Justice System Capital Fund.’ Mr. Weiler’s “Plan B” funding option would require the same annual allocation — $2 million per year — for just three more years. The jail would include infrastructure for a fully built 54-bed facility, but the initial build would fulfill today’s need – 32 beds – on a budget of between $8 – $10 million.
In other words, the Commissioners would finance the facility by doing exactly what they did last year: putting $2 million annually into the ‘Justice Fund’ and allocating money to our most important project, first: the new jail. Your phone call or email, telling our Commissioners to adopt Plan B, could help us avoid a County government teetering on the edge of fiscal solvency for the next 20-25 years.
This upcoming newspaper ad might be very timely. The Commissioners appear ready to vote whether to move ahead with their $18-$21 million jail plan at their Tuesday, February 5 regular meeting (1:30pm). The taxpayers have the opportunity, right now, to save our community from incurring this
huge debt by reviewing the proposed ‘Plan B’ — above — and by voicing their concerns to the Commissioners by Monday, February 4.
Mr. Weiler notes:
“The commissioners have the opportunity now to exercise the same fiscal discipline that took our county from a financial wreck in 2010 to the financial powerhouse it is today, using the same discipline to fund our new jail.”
Those phone numbers, once again:
- Ronnie Maez, 970-264-8303
- Steve Wadley, 970-264-8304
- Alvin Schaaf, 970-264-8305
Bill Hudson began sharing his opinions in the Pagosa Daily Post in 2004 and can’t seem to break the habit. He claims that, in Pagosa Springs, opinions are like pickup trucks: everybody has one.