Budget Constraint, Discussion on Possible Jail Closure
On Monday, March 25th, the Adams County Commissioners met for their final meeting of the month. Building inspector, Kody WIlliams, said that things are picking up in the building department. He is heading down to Midvale today again to look at the school, no update yet from the city. He talked to an inspector who has contracts in Washington and Payette County and who said he would be happy to pick up Midvale as well.
Meredith Fisher, with Planning and Zoning, had a variance application for a subdivision going in South of Council Greens. The land is more than 10 percent hill, which would normally fall under requirements for a hillside subdivision, but the owner has submitted a variance application to see if that is absolutely necessary. Fisher also had a boundary line adjustment and wanted to see if the commissioners were okay with it. After this, the commissioners went into an executive session to consult with legal council from MSBT Law. When they came out of the executive session they discussed possible ordinance changes regarding splitting parcels, but didn’t come to any new conclusions.
Steve Shelton, with Solid Waste, wanted to know about the CAT rental. He was concerned about waiting on it as there weren’t many available and they might all get rented. The commissioners had spoken with Prosecutor Boyd who said that there was a process by which they could bypass the bidding process due to the circumstances so the commissioners decided to do that. Shelton said he also had a few people interested in buying rock, and was thinking of auctioning it off if Road and Bridge didn’t want it. Adam Balderson, with Road and Bridge, said they didn’t really need it for rip rap. Most of it is two or three foot pieces. Balderson said that’s a little too big for what he might need. Commissioner Daren Ward said Republic Services contacted him with some different prices, they were supposed to call Shelton but haven’t yet. The only thing they won’t be getting paid for is mixed paper, but they will take it. They will pick up as well. Ward said he will ask them to come in and do a presentation for the commissioners so they can make a final decision.
Adam Balderson, with Road and Bridge, had a question about culverts running irrigation water that go under county roads. He was wondering whose responsibility they were. Some nearby property owners were trying to get Road and Bridge to replace one. Commissioner Ward said he would feel more comfortable with county people replacing it, but not necessarily buying the culvert, depending on the situation.
After this the commissioners discussed letters to the ambulance and fire districts asking for a review of upcoming budgets. They signed and approved the letter to Council Valley Ambulance asking for their budget. Then they discussed where to find funds for Sheriff’s department hires. Commissioner Iveson asked if Clerk Sherry Ward could look at unfilled part time positions and maybe they should freeze those, they could also consider a freeze on merit raises. “We’re going to have to figure out what the most important thing is and spend our money there,” said Iveson. He mentioned that Sheriff Zollman also had the idea of cost sharing their IT person with the city or school down the line. Commissioner Ward thought that was a great idea if she had the time.
Sheriff Ryan Zollman arrived with one of the new deputies to introduce to the commissioners and swear in. Andrew Arnold is from Homedale and has over 18 years of experience. Everyone was excited to welcome him. Zollman said there are currently 23 state inmates and one county. It was a busy week. The escaped convicts from Boise passed through the county last week and they were involved in the search and were close behind them at one point. “I wish we could have caught up to them,” said Zollman, “it may have saved two more lives.” There are still a lot of details they don’t know yet, but the whole incident is keeping everyone on their toes.
Then they started to go over the budget and projected budget with Clerk Sherry Ward. Unfortunately, the news was not good. There were no extra funds and they actually needed to find places to trim the overall budget by several hundred thousand dollars already. Zollman was not pleased to hear this and responded by saying “we need that other deputy, or we’re going to be paying it in overtime or we’re going to be paying it in a lawsuit.” Sherry Ward said ”I’m just telling you the numbers, you guys have to decide what’s best for the county,” referring to the commissioners. Commissioner Iveson asked how long Zollman could hold off hiring someone. Zollman said he had someone who is probably going to retire in April, and while that’s already budgeted it would be best to start training someone now so they don’t end up without anyone for a stretch. He can wait to hire the other position, but he’d like to start looking now. He said he didn’t mean any offense, but the people at the jail were overworked, and have still been doing a good job. They have had one escape in 40 years, one hanging ever to his knowledge. There are very few fights. That is a testament to what the deputies are doing. “We run a very good facility here.” Commissioner Viki Purdy said she didn’t mean any offense either, but she was more concerned about the citizens in the county, not turning the jail into a state hotel. And she thought it was more important to get more deputies out on the street.
Clerk Sherry Ward asked, theoretically, what the numbers would look like if they got rid of the jail. They discussed this possibility for a while and the pros and cons. Zollman said yes, the jail is costing them for employees and inmate care. He said there are also jails that are not certified jails or counties that don’t have jails at all. Washington County is very full, Valley County is very full, and they hold for the marshal service and that pays a lot better so they might not be able to contract with a nearby county. “I don’t know where we’d go.” They would probably have to agree to pay for a set minimum number, which they don’t always need when they don’t have many county inmates. Commissioner Purdy thought it was odd that they haven’t had any county inmates for a while when they used to have 9-15 county inmates all the time. She was wondering why that was. Commissioner Ward said that Zollman was trying to be nice, and not saying that cases are not getting prosecuted as much as they used to. Commissioner Iveson asked that since a position was taken away from both patrol and detention, if they can only give him one right now which would he prefer? Zollman said in a perfect world he would like both, but he would like the detention spot now, and then the patrol back in Fall, or as soon as they can. Commissioner Purdy didn’t see how the numbers penciled out in the jail. Zollman said their ICRIMP deductible doubles if they are not certified, so they have to stay within certain numbers, and they are just barely passing right now and don’t have anyone to cover for time off or training hours. Commissioner Ward said there is only one jail in the state that he knows of that breaks even or makes money, and that’s Mini Cassia. Zollman said they have discussed closing the jail in the past, and it was still costing the county a lot of money and then they also wouldn’t be providing jobs here. “I know it’s not cheap,” said Zollman, “these are the resources we need.” “We’re never going to make money,” said Commissioner Ward, “they’re getting dang close to breaking even.”
Then Prosecutor Chris Boyd arrived. He said he had 9 cases in review and that was all. Of those, 7 of them are pending, waiting on deputy’s input. One of them will be charged by the end of the day because he just got some of the input he needed. Boyd said he doesn’t appreciate it if someone is saying he isn’t doing his job, because he doesn’t have any cases sitting and waiting. Every case he has waiting, he has a reason that it is waiting, and he is waiting on evidence or information. Commissioner Purdy said the question came up why was there no more crime in the county. Boyd said that former deputy Sean Moore was responsible for a lot of the volume and that there is definitely less volume since he left.
They turned the discussion back to the detention and patrol positions. Commissioner Purdy did clarify they didn’t just cut them, Zollman also wasn’t able to fill the positions at the time. She said she didn’t want to see the jail gone either but she didn’t know where the money would come from. “We’re going to have to get creative,” said Commissioner Iveson. Sheriff Zollman said thank you to the commissioners for their consideration “I know the budget numbers don’t balance, and I’m very sympathetic to that.” Then Clerk Sherry Ward noticed some money that was budgeted for vehicles that was unused and everyone agreed that would help a lot when combined with unused benefits from another position and they might be very close.
At the end of the meeting the commissioners spoke with Belinda Provancher with the Stibnite Foundation, who wanted to provide an update. She said that they have performed work last year as part of the early action cleanup work, which was an agreement with the EPA. They rerouted a couple stream channels so water would go into a fully lined stream where it would no longer interact with tailings. 325,000 tons of material has been removed from the stream bed in areas where there was a heavy concentration of tailings and moved to an area where it no longer interacts with water. They have been studying the quality of the antimony, some of the studies have come back and are very positive. They are also getting the advanced engineering done. They want to be ready to hit go as soon as they get their permits. They have also been conducting workforce surveys and are expecting a third of the workforce to be local, a third to commute, and a third to move in from out of the area. They will be releasing an economic study later this month. They think that because of housing constraints the group that will move will be delayed. They are also continuing with water monitoring and validating the results to ensure that Purpetua is issuing the correct numbers. Commissioner Iveson asked if they foresee any lawsuits coming that might forestall the project. Provancher said they know there will be litigation from someone, how long it delays, they don’t know.
After she ended the call, Clerk Sherry Ward mentioned that she just got notice that they are going to have over 1000 mining claim notices coming from another company. The commissioners joked that perhaps that might make up for their budget shortfalls.
