Jail expansion commission approved by Boone County Council

Sep. 9—The Boone County Council has approved the creation of a commission to investigate the need and cost of a jail expansion at a rare special public meeting that lasted no more than 10 minutes Wednesday evening.

"We are here this evening to discuss investigating the need for structures," Council president Elise Nieshalla said in opening the meeting with only five members in person and two members attending electronically. "Structures pertaining to the jail expansion and justice center proposed project."

She opened it up for discussion and vice president Don Lamb said it was the responsibility of the county council to investigate the need for this project.

"There is need," he immediately added. "This project has many moving parts and many options for how it is ultimately carried out. I would support to have a lot of stakeholder and community understanding — not necessarily buy-in — understanding and communication, at least, on accomplishing a task this big with tax dollars."

He then made a motion to create a commission to investigate the need. The council voted in favor 6-1 with council member Jennifer Hostetter trying to cast a nay vote from her phone. The next motion was to adjourn. It was passed.

Council members thanked the audience of about 35 people and then started to move to the closed-door executive session to discuss a real property transaction under the Indiana open door law.

Not one person in the audience moved. One man stood up to ask if that was it. The audience assumed there would be an opportunity to offer opinions and input.

After the newly-hired council attorney Chou-il Lee said the discussion could happen in an informal manner, the audience started asking some questions and made comments. Neither side — for or against the project — seemed pleased with the short meeting.

Nieshalla said the details of the commission would be revealed at the regularly-scheduled council meeting at 8:30 a.m. Tuesday.

"Public input is so highly desired," she said emphatically. "It needs to be absolutely integrated into this process. The fact that you're hear speaks loudly."

Hostetter, attending by phone, said she was told the reason for the meeting was to discuss the need for a commission and that there wouldn't be enough time to do it at the Tuesday meeting.

"I think this meeting being held is illegal and the discussion after this meeting," she said, "and I'm completely frustrated and embarrassed by the council right now."

The comment received some applause.

"It's being rammed through, is what it seems like," a man in the audience said.

Boone County Commissioner Jeff Wolfe said the question of whether there is a need for a jail expansion or not has already been completed.

"We've been working on that for several years," he said. "What the council's doing is outside of what we've already done. So I'm a little disappointed in the move."

The commissioners point to a study released in April of last year which concluded the need for another 250 beds at a cost of $55 million. Along with Sheriff Mike Nielsen, the commissioners have initially compiled a list of needs and wants for the expansion. This summer, the commissioners hired an engineering firm to work on the scope of the project. Wolfe said a Veridus Group representative was there last night to offer some facts and figures about the expansion. Currently, the commissioners are estimating that the expansion project which will include office space for community corrections, a new administrative area for the sheriff's office, an increase in beds for the infirmary and more beds for inmates, is $45 million.

Wolfe explained that the commissioners have been pushing to get the council to approve of the implementation of a 0.02% jail local income tax to start collecting in January 2022. If it is not approved by the end of October, the county cannot collect the tax until January of 2023.

One of the reasons for the push for the LIT for a jail is based on low interest rates, Wolfe said. The idea was to start shopping bonds and locking in a low interest rate which the commissioners are afraid will increase. Also, the revenue collected could have been used to pay for furniture and interior fixtures. If the income tax doesn't get collected until 2023, then the cost of the interior items will likely have to be added to the bond and that could be as much as 10% of the cost, he added.

"That first year of collection, before we have to start paying on the bonds, we could pay for all the short term items up front and not have to bond for things that only had a shelf-life of seven or eight years," Wolfe said. "We really want to pay for this stuff out of a cash pot instead of having to bond for items that don't have that 20-year life span."

Wolfe said he has asked how long the commission will take to make its findings and he has not received an answer.