The Lincoln and Sagadahoc Multicounty Jail Authority held their bi-monthly meeting July 11 at the Two Bridges Regional Jail in Wiscasset. Under discussion was the fiscal year 2013 budget and educating the legislature.
Finance committee chair Peter Lepari reported that there was a $58,000 balance left at the end of FY 2012, but that “some of that will change after the audit.”
TBRJ is allowed to carry money over from one fiscal year to the next. This was put in the statute and is unique to TBRJ, said TBRJ administrator Mark Westrum.
Westrum reported the state Board of Corrections has told him the FY 2013 budget will be flat-funded from last year. Because of increases in health insurance premiums and retirement, having a flat-funded budget makes things very difficult, said Westrum.
“We cut back on food and pharmaceuticals,” Westrum said. “We based the budget on 165 inmates instead of 181. We built the jail for 120 inmates. We are now at 181 or 185 inmates.”
Westrum said the TBRJ facility guards are at risk when the inmate population is too high. “Our facility wasn’t designed for that,” he said.
Although the fiscal year began on July 1, the fiscal year 2013 budget will not be ready to vote on until September, said Westrum.
The Jail Authority also briefly discussed the possibility of giving a two percent raise to the staff. With the flat-funded budget, giving raises was not possible, Westrum said. Westrum said he met with the staff on the issue and reported 13 out of 14 employees said they would rather keep the benefit package the same instead of having a pay increase and a reduction in benefits.
Westrum mentioned that some jail authorities have taken money from the capital fund to pay for raises, but then the BOC has to find money for capital improvement when the time comes.
“The state reduces the amount they give the counties if they have additional money left over at the end of the year. This is a huge disincentive for the counties that are trying to keep costs down; the counties that have kept costs down should be rewarded,” Westrum said.
Westrum also said that the board’s inverse debt is not funded. “The infrastructure in the State is about to crumble. Jails need improvements and upgrades,” he said, mentioning the Androscoggin jail’s air system.
“At some point we’re going to have to get more money from the state or things are going to have to change,” Westrum said.
Westrum said he found a wide disparity of salaries statewide, in some pockets of the state. For example, Waldo county pays $16.50 per hour to start, whereas TBRJ starting hourly wage is $14.00 per hour.
“In the six years we’ve been open we haven’t changed the payscale. It was $14 to start in 2006, and it’s $14 to start in 2012.
“We never asked the legislature for what we really needed. We need to take the time to educate the legislature. Get the legislative candidates in here, MCCA suggested. It might be wise to educate people on the front end. We’ve got to start somewhere,” said Westrum.
Lincoln County commissioner William Blodgett, a member of the jail authority, asked Westrum if he would be willing to host legislative candidates from the Waldo, Lincoln and Sagadahoc counties at TBRJ. The committee agreed this was a good idea and voted to allow Westrum to start organizing an event to be held at TBRJ.
Mark Westrum told the committee he is relieved since the graduation of seven officers from the jail authority’s training program brought in seven new guards to work at the jail.
The graduation was the culmination of a rigorous testing process, he said, which included six different essay questions, of which they were required to pick five, and an oral exam.
