The Board of Directors of the Lincoln and Sagadahoc Multicounty Jail Authority passed the 2011 fiscal year budget for Two Bridges Regional Jail at their July 14 meeting, but the counties remain at odds over funding.
The authority passed the $7,031,165 budget, without dissent. The total represents an increase of 1.4 percent over the 2010 budget. A separate vote determining assessments for both counties also passed, but split the Authority along county lines, 6-5, with members from Lincoln County dissenting.
Under the terms of the new budget, the Authority will assess charges of $2,799,476 to Lincoln County and $1,994,795 to Sagadahoc. The remainder of the funding will come from the Board of Corrections investment fund and from charges for state and federal prisoners and prisoners from other counties.
Lincoln County Commissioner William Blodgett indicated that Lincoln County would continue to pay only what they believe to be their share. “We budgeted the same amount,” Blodgett said.
According to Sagadahoc County Sheriff Joel Merry, that amount is about $11,000 less per month than assessed.
Lincoln County has long held that the amount assessed each county under the formula established by the state legislature in 2008 no longer reflects each county’s use of the jail. Lincoln County’s assessment represents 58 percent of Two Bridges’ $4,794,271 total assessments to the counties in the 2011 budget.
According to jail statistics for July 1, 2009 to June 30, 2010, Lincoln County had an ADP (Average Daily Population) of 42.38 to Sagadahoc’s 40.36 – a 51/49 split.
“When Two Bridges opened they were 57/43, but it soon dropped and it kept dropping,” Lincoln County Commissioner Sheridan Bond said.
In a June 9 letter, the Authority asked Lincoln County for “$130,079 in unpaid assessments.”
According to the letter, signed by Authority chair Todd McPhee, “Lincoln County’s failure to pay the full assessment it owes, adversely affects the jail’s ability to operate.”
Attorney Kenneth M. Cole III fired back on behalf of Lincoln County. According to Cole’s June 29 letter to McPhee and the Authority, “Lincoln County disputes your claim of default for the following reasons…”
Lincoln County has paid “all amounts due under the terms of the Cost Sharing Agreement,” Cole wrote. It’s the Authority and Sagadahoc County, Cole wrote, that have attempted to alter the terms of the agreement with regards to funding.
According to Cole’s letter, “The Jail Authority and Sagadahoc County have consistently taken the position that the funding portion of the Agreement has been superseded by the enactment of 30-A M.R.S. § 701… Lincoln County has brought an action to declare that that statute does not change its obligations under the Cost Sharing Agreement.”
The “action” Cole mentioned refers to a lawsuit filed by Lincoln County against Sagadahoc County on Oct. 26, 2009. “We’re waiting for a court date,” Bond said.
The legislation in question, 30-A M.R.S. § 701, sets caps for each county’s contribution. According to the statute, “The assessment to municipalities within each county may not be greater or less than the fiscal year 2007-08 county assessment for correctional-related expenditures.”
On July 1 the Authority began to charge Lincoln County interest at the rate of ¾ percent per month.
At the July 14 Authority meeting, Treasurer Peter Lepari made a motion to suspend interest until the settlement of the lawsuit. “I didn’t think anything really was going to be served by this,” Lepari said. Under the motion, the Authority would have reserved the right to charge interest retroactively should the courts find in their favor.
Dan Billings objected to the motion. “If we think the money is owed, we ought to charge interest,” he said.
“The whole thing is a moot point,” Bond said. “The bylaws also say that the cost sharing agreement shall be enforced and it’s not.”
Lepari withdrew his motion.
Earlier in the meeting, Lepari acknowledged Lincoln County’s efforts. “I want to recognize Lincoln County for their tenacity in getting at least one member of the Board of Corrections to recognize the cost-sharing agreement has been ignored by the legislature,” Lepari said.
According to Bond, Lepari referred to a recent Board of Corrections meeting. “I gave a passionate speech representing Lincoln County,” Bond said. According to Bond, his speech won over Waldo County Sheriff Scott Story. “He finally gets it – what we’ve been talking about for two years,” Bond said.
Commissioner of the Department of Corrections Mary Magnussen also expressed sympathy for Lincoln County’s case, Bond said.
Bond nonetheless expressed frustration with the Board of Corrections. “The Board of Corrections was very condescending that day,” he said. “They talked to us like we were subservient to them.”
Bond is confident that Lincoln County is in the right. “We studied this for years, probably five or six years, and we did it right,” he said.
In other jail news, Correctional Administrator Mark Westrum said that, after the July 13 graduation of three new correctional officers, the jail is fully staffed for only the second time since opening in 2006.
