Lincoln County may end up paying more than its fair share of Two Bridges Regional Jail’s operation if the state Board of Corrections (BOC) has its way.
Commissioner Bill Blodgett hit the roof last week when he heard about the BOC’s decision to make the county give back to the jail the $130,079 it saved by scrubbing its budget down toward the cost of jail operation instead of keeping it for future county budgets.
“Unless we challenge it, they’re going to get away with it,” he said.
The Lincoln County Sheriff’s Office trimmed its budget and came up with $130,079 in savings that county officials argue should go back to the county for future county budgets, but a BOC financial officer determined a large chunk of it should go toward any jail expenses over the cap, which the state promised to pay.
Blodgett seriously questioned the authority of the officer to make that determination, which some Jail Authority members consider not in keeping with the current legislation establishing a unified correctional system.
News about the BOC’s recent decision shared at the regular monthly meeting of the Multi-county Jail Authority July 8, received similar reactions from other Lincoln County representatives on the board, including the chairman, Lincoln County Commissioner Sheridan Bond.
“I don’t blame Commissioner Blodgett for being upset,” correctional administrator Col. Mark Westrum said this week in retrospect. “He should be upset.”
Blodgett and other county officials feel Lincoln County is already paying too much with its cap set by the new state LD 2080 legislation at $3 million as the amount it has to raise by taxation while the state set Sagadahoc’s cap at $2.9 million. They believe the cap numbers should actually be Lincoln at $2.29 million and Sagadahoc at $2.46 million.
Sagadahoc County shows a lack of $66,898 in efficiencies that it should pay. Sagadahoc Sheriff’s Office budget for fiscal year 2009-10 totals $499,722 and shows $1.9 million required for its programs. Its 2008 jail assessment totals $2.01 million, according to Authority figures
Lincoln shows $2.8 million for sheriff’s programs and a $2.67 million 2008 jail assessment.
“If the BOC finds efficiencies in the cap numbers, the loss has to go back into the jail’s operation,” Westrum said this week.
The county would have that much less to draw down from the state corrections investment fund set up to redistribute surplus monies unused from county jail caps resulting from mission changes, he explained.
A couple of weeks ago, the BOC decided it would delay approvals of county jail budgets until the Aug. 5 meeting.
“Here we sit, the second week in July, without a budget,” Westrum said during last week’s session. “I’ve made a decision on my own to not take in any new inmates.”
Currently, the average number of inmates has reached 140-145.
“The stress and strain is starting to show up on the floor and that just can’t happen,” Westrum said.
At the same session in Belfast, the BOC made no promises about the $3.5 million in additional operating costs the state promised to pay above the caps set. Two Bridges was to receive a portion of that amount for expenses beyond the cap and now also has to deduct the amount that goes back to the jail’s operation from budgetary efficiencies.
Following that meeting Lincoln County Administrator John O’Connell made known in a memorandum his adverse reaction to the BOC’s decision in a letter dated June 30.
“We have questions about the impact of recent BOC actions on the future operations of Two Bridges Regional Jail,” he said.
O’Connell’s memorandum cited factually that the county and regional jail corrections budgets were not approved by the June 30 deadline and will not be approved before Aug. 5; the state’s $3.5 million commitment to the county corrections system was in jeopardy; the county fund corrections balances are to be restricted; and, approval for contingency expenditure in excess of $10,000 has to be sought from the BOC.
“The counties bargained in good faith on the understanding that once the budgets had been worked over and could be justified then they would be approved,” he said. “It was not contingent on the financial health or otherwise of the state.”
Furthermore, O’Connell said many people believed the $3.5 million promised to cover expenses beyond the cap are inadequate and made the point repeatedly for supplemental funding for fiscal year 2010 along with another $3.5 million or more for fiscal year 2011.
“There was not as much waste in the county system as expected by the BOC, so it is definitely required that the state honor its commitment,” he said.
O’Connell voiced the opinion the fund balances prior to July 1 belong to the county, whether or not they were corrections related and should thus be allocated by the county where needed.
“At Two Bridges, both Lincoln and Sagadahoc are required to reserve $42,370 each year to a capital improvement fund,” he said. “The state should not control these because they are not contingent related.”
Now the state corrections commissioner can determine where any inmates can go, and the state sets marginal housing rates ignoring financial costs, which are a major factor in new facilities like Two Bridges, he said.
O’Connell voiced an objection to the “so-called marginal rates,” which, he said, allow the state Dept. of Corrections to shift inmates from the state’s high-cost facilities to lower cost and regional facilities, putting an even greater burden on the property taxpayer.
“The state assumes no liability for any of these decisions, and again the costs fall on the property taxpayers,” he said. “It is hard to understand how no responsibility or liability adheres to the state. This cannot have been the intent of the legislation.”
In opposition to O’Connell’s comments, Sagadahoc County commissioners stated in a letter to the Lincoln County board, “Based on a recent legal opinion, it is our understanding the state jail consolidation legislation supersedes and negates Two Bridges Regional Jail’s original founding documents.”
The Sagadahoc board argued that, if challenged, the state could and would quickly and easily pass legislation to put an end to any debate about it.
“The truth of the matter is that whether our two boards meet to discuss this issue or not, neither county has the power to change the existing law and neither has the authority to alter our legislatively set corrections related cap,” the board said. “For these reasons, Sagadahoc County’s recently approved 2009-10 county operating budget complies with the jail consolidation statutes as those laws currently stand.”
The budget the Authority has proposed for operation expenses totals $6.89 million.
