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Show NOVEMBER 1, 1996 Beaver County Monitor | An open Letter To Beaver County Residents From Your County Commission Chairman: During the past several weeks there have been articles and letters to the editors, in the local newspapers, concerning the County's efforts to construct a new jail. I have found that these articles and letters do not supportthe facts as known by your County Commission. I Dear Commissioner Sullivan, Editorial comment by Alice Smith: For at least two years Beaver County Commissioners have solemnly sworn that they could save the taxpayers countless thousands of dollars by building a jail to house state prisoners. They have invited “experts” to help convince voters of the validity of these claims. Yet....when the commissioners were presented with the following information last September, it was immediately filed in the nearest trash can. Available Facilities would like to set the record straight. 1. Your County Commission has not determined the size and cost of a new jail. 2. Your County Commission believes that the size and cost of a new jail should be decided through a public hearing process. Every County resident should be able to voice their opinion on this important decision. We will hold public hearings in each County Community, before the end of this year. Additionally, we will ask you to provide us with your written comments and options. 3. Your Commission believes that we must have a clear picture of the new jail financing costs before we can decide on the size of a new jail. The interest rate available for financing” construction will affect the overall cost of the project. 4. Your Commission is asking you to vote for a General Obligation Bond issue on November Sth. Your approval of this Bond election will provide the County with the lowest possible interest rate for financing the project. 5. The November 5th General Obligation Bond election is for the issuance of a $6.5 million maximum Bond. The key word is “maximum”. Your Commission has no intention of issuing the maximum amount of the bonds, unless it is supported in the public hearings. Approval of the Bond issue will provide us with the flexibility to build the size facility determined through the public hearing process. 6. Your Commission will not construct new State Court facilities unless the State agrees to pay a lease rate that will fully pay for the facility. Sincerely, /s/ Gary Sullivan | Your County Commission Chairman P.S. Your Commission also seuss to purchase the land for the new jail prior to the start of construction. However, until we receive your input on the size of jail to build, etc., we really don't know the size of land parcel we should purchase. Beaver County Commission An Open Letter To Beaver County Residents From Your County Commissioners: Your County Commission is tight fisted when it comes to spending your property tax dollars. We know how hard you work to make a living, and the impact property taxes have on your income. PAGE 4 Gunnison 192 per year X 8 years = 1536 + 582 current = 2,118. Current appropriations for (2) 192 bed pods and core building bring the facility to 966 by late 1997. Total site plan and feasibility study actually allows for (3) new core buildings and a total of (12) new 192 bed units. 12 X 192 = 2,304 + 582 current = 2,886 within 10 years. (The Carter Goble Associates study for Utah Corrections allows for only the 384 beds already appropriated at Gunnison by the year 2000. Although it is highly unlikely that the state is allocating funding for core buildings that they do not intend to finish, let’s use their figure of 966 beds.) Each 192 bed unit creates approximately 60 new jobs with starting salary of $9.00 per hour. (Staff to prisoner ratio= 3.17) question is in how to finance and then pay for the new jail. Financing of a new jail can be done through General Obligation Bonds, Revenue Bonds, or a combination of General Obligation and Revenue Bonds. We can borrow money cheaper by issuing General Obligation Bonds than in any other way. The bottom line is that the less we pay for borrowing money, the lower the cost of the new jail. This is why we have placed a General Obligation Bond election on the November Sth ballot, a vote for the General Obligation Bond issue will give you the lowest possible financing cost for a new jail. How we pay fora new jail is a difficult matter. Where can we get the money to Inmates will make clothing for other County Jail Beds Under Contract: 310 County beds inside Utah - with 280 to 290 consistently occupied. (4,707) 100 Eons are housed in Texas. (Ralph Stansfield 738-2015) Washington County: 200 beds (up to 5,027 total now) Washington County is now using portable units in addition to 70 + or - beds in the Hall of Justice. Negotiations are nearing completion for the sale of that building to the State. Those beds may or may not remain in use. From a practical standpoint it is not feasible to include them in our total......... but, that does not necessarily mean they have gone away. Note: This facility will open with 400 beds. It is designed for expansion to 600 beds in the near future......possibly before completion of the proposed Beaver County project. (John Willie 634-5701 or Russ Gallian 628-1682) Utah County: There is a new....unoccupied.....600 bed jail in Utah County. The current county jail....still in use....is rated for 190 prisoners (but houses 225 average......It appears that there may have had a little trouble with the ACLU when they tried to push the number to 275.) Utah County’s total will be 790 beds available. If that county immediately increases their inmate population by 50%, or 112.5 inmates, they will need 337.5 beds, leaving 452.5 beds to go into the system. (5,479.5) (Dave Bateman 370-8850) Salt Lake County: Figures for contract beds in this proposed jail have ranged from 500 to 1,000 during the past year.’ Using the smaller figure of 500, total is 5,979.5 by the approximate first possible date the Beaver County facility could be completed. Prison Population Before we spend your property tax dollars, we want to make certain that you will get your dollars worth. It is because of this spending attitude, that we have struggled with the need to replace the County jail. There is no question that the jail must be replaced. The Construction of a sewing factory is underway. inmates and mattresses for correctional facilities. These products and any compensation for prisoners will be paid for with tax dollars. Draper recent addition of Uinta 4 unit brings current bed space to 3,079. Another 192 bed unit will open next month, bringing the total to 3,271. A 74 bed remodel project underway at Wasatch ups the effective total to 3,345. (Chris Mitchell 265-5597) Iron County has 86 beds in Cedar City. (4,397) Future increase currently undetermined. December 31, 1995 = 3,971 total state prisoners. August 29, 1996 = 4,320 for an increase of 349 in 8 months or 43.6 per month or 523.2 per year. Carter Goble projection was 550 per year increase. Using that figure December 31, 1996 = 4,521.....and December 31, 1997 = 5,071 December 31, 1998 = 5,621 at projected rate of increase, There will be a 358 bed surplus before the proposed Beaver County jail is completed. This figure does not include expansions planned in Sevier, Box Elder, San Jaun, Counties. Millard County is scheduled to submit an application to CIB in February 1997 Numbers from these expansions are not included in our total because they are still in the Surplus amount excludes any additional 1998 expansion at Draper. It also excludes the Camp Williams. Summit, and Wasatch for a 60 bed addition. — “promotional” phase. correctional project at It is pertinent to note that...on August 13, 1996.... when the state applied for a Violent Offender Incarceration and Truth-in-sentencing Grant, that application projected prison population i increase at 400 adult repay the Bonds? This is the question that~yourCommissioners; “and” the} ~cinmates per year «..... not the 550 increase used above. Using that presumption, the state would have a surplus of at least 658 jail beds by December 31, 1998. What may have been a “windfall” for a few rural counties Commissioners of other Counties in Utah have struggled to answer. The Commissioners in Sevier, Washington, Duchesne, Box Elder, San Juan, Summit, Salt _|Lake, and Wasatch Counties have answered this question by constructing or planning to construct jails larger than their current needs and renting the excess jail beds to the State of Utah. | Your Commissioners are also considering the possibility of constructing.a new| : jail that would be larger than the current jail needs of the County, and renting the excess jail beds to the State of Utah. Currently the State is paying other Utah Counties $35 per day rent for jail beds. Depending on the size of the jail we construct, the rent money we would receive could allow us to repay the Bonds with little or no increase in your property taxes. However, in the worst possible case, should we be unable to rent the excess jail beds to repay the General Obligation Bonds, the maximum property the bonds would be: tax increase required to repay Market Value of | Primary Residential Home S50 00005 0 | Soe S75.000 0:0. el SIOO000 SIS@000 20g oe Se ........ Yearly Increase ........ Increase a $3.70 $ 44.43 a. $5.55 $ 66.64 Ue $7.40 $ 88.86 ee ee 2 Commercial Property | per $ 100,000 of market value Monthly $11.11 $133.29 ............. $13.46 $161.56 Farmland per 100 acres of land: irrigated/III land ($400 per acre) ........... $5.39 meadow/IV land ($200 per acre) ........... $2.69 dry/IIl land ($75 per acre) ................ $1.01 $ 64.62 $ 32.31 $ 12.12 Along with the new jail, we are also considering the construction of a new State and Justice Court facility. However, we will not make a decision on this construction until we have an agreement with the State Courts on their payment for the facility. We intend to have the State Courts pay their full share of any new Court HELP US WITH OUR TIGHT FISTED YOUR PROPERTY TAX DOLLARS. VOTE OBLIGATION BONDS AT THE ELECTION facility costs. APPROACH TOWARD SPENDING FOR THE ISSUANCE OF GENERAL TO BE HELD ON NOVEMBER 5TH. Looking Forward to Your Support in Our Effort to Keep Property Taxes Down, aed Commission Beaver GAknost> Chad Johnson Commissioner Published in Beaver Unless...we want to petition the state to raise our taxes to support locking up misdemeanors! The “Experts” Haze Locke, prisoner placement officer with the Utah State Department of Corrections, has not been - back to Beaver County to promote this jail since last January when a Carter Goble Associates chart (same one ‘used above to calculate prison population) was presented as proof of demand for bed space. And.....a draft copy of a contract with the Utah Department of Corrections - faxed from Fillmore 10 minutes before the meeting was used as proof of ability to pay. There are two possible reasons he didn’t return for this round of promotion: (1) The numbers won’t hold up.....or, (2) The Department of Corrections questioned the ethics of advising a rural county to build a prison costing well above it’s bonding capability. (Remember the $9 million that was actually $11 million.) Gary DeLand, former Department of Corrections officer, is a justice consultant who commands fees upwards of $200. per hour outside of the State of Utah to advise government entities in funding, construction and management of tax supported correctional facilities. When DeLand addressed the Beaver County Council of Governments on October 23, he avoided discussing prison population by saying that he “hasn’t kept up with the numbers.” He WAS in touch with the Department of Corrections on another point. Previous claim: If a prisoner gives you any trouble, he will be removed immediately. That has now been amended to: The Department asks that you work with the prisoner a little more. Sheriff Yardley controls the records related to jail population. None of the outside studies reflect Beaver County’s needs as accurately as the actual daily jail population. Last March, the Monitor asked that the daily prisoner count be added to the sheriff's weekly report so that readers could be better informed as to the need of anew jail. The answer was, “It would be too much work for the secretaries.”. “Arrested and booked into jail” does not necessarily mean that the subject becomes a part of the jail population. The individual can post bail or be released OR. Another classified secret is staff to prisoner ratio. The Pentagon’s national security policy is second rate compared to the information policy concerning staff and prisoner count in Sheriff Yardley’s jail. Growth will lower our taxes! No question about it; as the County’s taxable valuation increases, the rate for payback on the jail will decrease. The relationship of county taxable valuation to tax rate applies equally to either an $8.5 million jail or a $2 million jail. Building a small facility for county use only would initially increase property taxes by a slight amount, which would decrease with growth. Currently, the state court leases 2,945 sq. fi. of court space @ $8.04. This provides $23,678. lease income for the County. According to Gordon Bessinger, minimum size for NEW state court lease facilities -in Beaver County or on the Wasatch front - is 7,000 sq. ft. Base construction, which currently is estimated to cost $130. per sq. ft. ($910,000), is only an itsy bitsy portion of the total. There’s furnishings, appointments, security system, parking, and the architect’s and engineer’s fee, indicate that the September 9 cost estimate of $2.5 million is right in the ball park. Using the current lease rate of $8.04, lease of the new complex would pay the County $56,280 per year. At 5.5% interest, payback on $2.5 million, using current county valuation, is roughly somewhere in the neighborhood of $168,750 per year for 25 years ......or..... $112,470 per year more than the income from the lease. Counting on growth to cover such a large amount is unrealistic. “Negotiations” with the state court, which would cover the cost of this court room at no charge to Beaver County, can be none other than asking for a tax increase at state level......unless, of course, the state court is in touch Santa Clause ae Ved simply will not work if everybody jumps on the bandwagon......... oe or the Easter Bunny. Jail ‘em or educate ‘em? Ross Marshall Commissioner County Monitor November 1, 1996 Are you three gentlemen ready to look your constituents straight in the eye and promise them that you will not ......under any circumstances......spend more than $6.5 million to construct this jail? Or, do they need to understand that you could possibly mean $6.5 million in GO Bonds, $3.2 million in CIB Bonds, and an undefined amount in Lease Revenue Bonds? Taking a closer look at that tax bill, you can’t help noticing that you are paying taxes for schools, too. Young families moving into the county to take advantage of employment opportunities will most certainly add students to our school population. Ultimately, it is up to the taxpayers to determine whether their communities will benefit more from schools or correction facilities. Legal expense for incidents happening inside the jail? Beaver County is obligated for prosecution of any offense which occurs inside the jail. Increasing the number of inmates quite logically increases the odds of legal liability. For the cynical, there is also the humanitarian consideration: Prisoners are the only segment of our population having 100% medical care paid by the state. As benefits are reduced for the poor, Beaver County taxpayers could provide a safe haven for homeless misdemeanor offenders. Any leftover pods? No problem. They‘can be used for elementary school classrooms. Jails have no source of income except tax dollars. Ah shucks, pa! I'll bet those good ol’ boys ain't never gonna let me be on one of them thar committees again. |