We concluded Part Three yesterday with a statement that a new Archuleta County jail, if approved and funded by local taxpayers, would cost about $4 million per year to operate. We probably ought to justify such a claim, because you will probably not hear that number quoted by any of our County Commissioners, or anywhere on the ‘Citizens for a New Jail’ website. (You can visit that website here.)
The Archuleta Board of County Commissioners have promised to fund their appointed committee, ‘Citizens for a New Jail,’ to the tune of $5,000, to be used to convince ARchuelta County voters to raise the local sales tax by more than $3 million per year. (My estimate, based on past County documents.) That’s on top of the annual cost of running a much-expanded County jail.
That $4 million per year figure is only one of the numerous reasons why the community’s voters might ultimately decided to reject the plan being currently promoted by the seven-member ‘Citizens for a New Jail’ committee. Other reasons will probably also play into a voter’s decision next November, assuming the Archuleta Board of County Commissioners, someday soon, officially vote to place a tax increase measure on the ballot.
We’ll discuss those other questions later. But first, the $4 million question.
Near the conclusion of a joint-Town-County work session on July 24, Richard Vihel stood up and gave a sales pitch to the gathered government leaders. Mr. Vihel is one of the seven members of the ‘Citizens for a New Jail’ committee, and, as such, he’s an advocate of a new jail facility. (As opposed to repairing and perhaps expanding our existing jail?)
Several other members of the ‘New Jail’ committee also participated in the resulting conversation.
Mr. Vihel explained to the Town Council members that, in the opinion of his committee, the 54-bed jail — originally proposed in 2017 by “the premiere architectural firm for jails in Colorado” — is still the very best plan for 2018. (The voters rejected this plan in 2017.) Here’s what a 54-bed facility, including a much-expanded Sheriff’s Office, was going to cost us last year — if only the voters had cooperated.
As we can see, the total expected to be spent on facilities was $17.9 million… with another $2 million in other expenditures, including a $1.9 million “Reserve Fund.” (And let’s not forget the $100,000 ‘Underwriter’s Discount.’)
During the first three years of planning their jail project, the Archuleta BOCC steadfastly refused to allow the citizens of the county to participate in the decision-making process in any meaningful way. In the spring of 2015, a citizen advisory group was empaneled by the BOCC to look into sensible options for addressing County facility needs, but the group was summarily disbanded — after only two meetings — as soon as its members started to ask serious questions about the cost of the facility.
The ‘Citizens for a New Jail’ committee and the BOCC now seem to think we should increase our sales tax for up to 15 years, to fund an even more expensive $20 million facility. Last year’s proposal stated that the tax increase would amount to $2.95 million in the first year. (Maybe more in the second year?) Here’s a section of the BOCC’s ballot language as found in their August 15, 2017 agenda packet:
EXHIBIT A
SHALL THE COUNTY OF ARCHULETA TAXES BE INCREASED $2,950,000 (FIRST FULL FISCAL YEAR DOLLAR INCREASE) ANNUALLY AND SHALL THE COUNTY OF ARCHULETA DEBT BE INCREASED BY AN AMOUNT NOT TO EXCEED $20,550,000, WITH A MAXIMUM REPAYMENT COST OF $26,550,000…
If the ‘Citizens for a New Jail’ are able to convince the BOCC to try and fund an even more expensive jail facility on the 2018 ballot, then we can probably guess that the annual tax increase amount — the amount the taxpayers will be assessed, each year, to retire the jail debt — will be more than $3 million?
But we also have to operate the jail. Once upon a time — back in 2014 — we had a functioning jail, and a functioning Sheriff’s Office, located inside the County Courthouse. (They are both still there, but have been abandoned.) The jail accommodated up to about 34 inmates. Most were non-violent inmates — drug offenders, drunk drivers, petty thieves, parole violators, and so on — but inmates nevertheless. According to Mr. Vihel, the Sheriff currently houses, on average, about 23 inmates at the La Plata County Jail.
Back in the winter of 2015, when the County Sheriff still operated and maintained our existing jail, his budget for 2015 was $990,000. For running a 34-bed jail.
$990,000 would have been slightly less than what the Sheriff actually spent in 2013. Then we had a roof leak, and the County government summarily abandoned our Sheriff’s Office and detention center.
How much would the taxpayer have to chip in, every year, to operate a 54-bed jail, as proposed to us by “the premiere architectural firm for jails in Colorado”? We don’t have any cost estimates from the ‘Citizens for a New Jail.” (In fact, the ‘New Jail’ website is almost totally devoid of cost estimates.) We don’t have any estimates from the BOCC and its staff of professionals, either.
Shall we guess that a 54-bed jail will cost us more to operate and maintain, per year, than our existing 34-bed detention center was costing us in 2013? Like, maybe half again as much?
Like, maybe $1.5 million per year?
When we add the cost of the annual debt payments for a much larger, new jail to the likely cost of operating a much larger, new jail — I come up with a figure in excess of $4 million per year. (You will not find that number anywhere in the ‘New Jail’ website, however.)
Are there better ways — much less expensive ways — for our community to keep track of (mostly non-violent) offenders? Like, maybe, ankle bracelets? In-home detention?
Could we, in fact, build or remodel a much smaller jail, instead of building the local Taj Mahal of Sheriff Facilities?
A couple of years back, Gunnison County (pop. 16,000) built a new jail and Sheriff’s Admin building.
According to an email from Gunnison County Manager Matthew Birnie, the cost of this combined Sheriff’s Office and Detention Center was about $11.9 million — about half what the Archuleta County Commissioners have been talking about borrowing for their Taj Mahal. As of yesterday morning, the shiny new Gunnison County Detention Center was housing 16 inmates. It appears that only four of those inmates are charged with violent crimes. (You can download that roster here.)
You will not find any of the above information on the ‘Citizens for a New Jail’ website.