Ada sheriff wants jail bond put to voters again. What county commissioners just told him
Ada County Sheriff Matt Clifford wants to ask voters, again, to pass a bond to expand the overcrowded county jail.
In November, the question of whether to raise property taxes to pay for a $49 million bond to expand the Ada County jail failed to garner the needed ⅔ majority of voters. Now, Clifford sees no other options to solve jail overcrowding and infrastructure updates and hopes to run the bond again in the next election.
Clifford told county commissioners on Thursday that he would like to see the bond question on ballots for the primary election in May. The commissioners were less enthusiastic about the timeline.
“It’s a different kind of election than say a municipal election, or even a general election,” said Commissioner Rod Beck during a county meeting about the jail expansion. “You get a lot of people that don’t want to vote in a primary election.”
While the jail bond is still ‘fresh in people’s minds,” Clifford would prefer to run the bond as soon as possible, he said.
“People are asking me everywhere I go, ‘What are you guys gonna do? (Are you going to) run it again?” Clifford said. “It doesn’t matter who I’m talking to you, it’s fresh in their minds.”
The commissioners don’t want to make the same mistake twice. They told Clifford that he should get a group of community organizations together to advocate to voters for the bond. Beck said that the bond did not have a group of people actively supporting it before the November election, since elected officials are not allowed to advocate one way or the other on a bond election by Idaho law.
“We need a group out there to encourage people to get out and vote yes,” Beck said.
But Clifford doesn’t want to waste any time.
“It’ll be my intention to do that, immediately,” he said.
Before deciding on when to run the bond, the commissioners also want to analyze voter turnout data to decide whether it is best to run a bond during a primary, when voter turnout is typically 30% to 40%, according to Ada County Clerk Trent Tripple, or in the November general election when turnout could be as high as 85%.
A bond would be the only reasonable long-term option for jail expansion for the county, Clifford said. A slower, phased approach would be more costly to taxpayers and take longer, he said.
The jail needs nearly 300 new beds for jail residents and a new kitchen, booking area and warehouse, officials say.
In the short term, the commissioners urged the Idaho Department of Correction to be proactive in moving state prisoners out of county jail and into the state prison. Beck also said the Idaho Legislature should increase the payment IDOC makes to counties to house their prisoners. On Thursday, Clifford said the county jail had 85 people who were ready to be transferred to prison.
“The state could alleviate most of our overcrowding today if they get their prisoners out of our jail,” Beck said.
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