In the search for a funding source for a growing list of repairs at the Shelby County Jail, county commission members opted for a two-pronged solution, during the Wednesday, Sept. 18 Law Enforcement Committee meeting.
Commissioner Charlie Caswell’s $10 million emergency funding resolution draws equal parts from the American Rescue Act and capital improvement project funds to cover the costs. It’s also preserving CIP dollars already allotted for a mental health facility for struggling inmates.
“It only replaces the source of funding to the point of $5 million coming from CIP and $5 million coming from ARPA,” said Caswell. “If something comes up, than there’s an opportunity to bring that back.”
According to Shelby County Sheriff Floyd Bonner, that seems likely.
“We’ll probably be back,” said Bonner. “We’ll have a jail inspection probably some time this week, as well as in the spring. We need to be moving forward to get these items taken care of.”
The resolution supplants a larger resolution offered by Commissioner Amber Mills. It sought to provide over $16 million to fund the litany of repairs at the jail. The defects include hundreds of broken cell doors, that imperil the safety of inmates and staff alike.
However, during the discussion, some of the items on the laundry list of fix-ups deemed an “emergency” were questioned.
“Also included in this $17 million list is $5 million for the escalator. While the escalator is nice to have, if an escalator breaks it’s a set of stairs. So we can still use it to get where we’re going,” said Commissioner David Bradford.
Bonner disputed the logic – particularly, with the looming scrutiny from the Tennessee Corrections Institute.
“These are the things they look at our jail,” said Bonner. “They put escalators in the jail and now we have to deal with it.”
Along with the cell doors and repairs to the escalator, a new jail access control system is needed, in addition to a walk-in freezer. HVAC systems and lighting fixtures also need repairs in the 2,400 inmate facility.
The sheriff’s department has already spent $1.5 million for 184 new cell doors. Another 502 doors will be replaced through a second contract.
Any expenditure over $50,000 requires commission approval.
Voting in favor of the resolution were Chairwoman Miska Clay-Bibbs, Erika Sugarmon, Bradford, Shante Avant, Mark Whaley, Mickell Lowery, and Caswell. Voting against were Mills, Mick Wright, Brandon Morrison and Henri Brooks.
A second vote is expected at the next full meeting on Monday, Sept. 23.
If the resolution passes on a third and final vote, the Shelby County Sheriff’s Office will also have to eat the cost of more than $4 million already spent on repairs.
It was pointed out that maintenance costs have always been covered by the SCSO’s annual budget. Like any office, the sheriff’s department is expected to manage its finances, including moving money around to cover needs.
“We have never been in the reimbursement business,” said Shelby County Director of Budget and Finance Michael Thompson. “We are in the business of setting appropriate adequate budgets for our needs.”
The “blended budgeting process” includes minor maintenance issues normally budgeted within the compliment. While, emergency funding costs can be achieved through funding resolutions.
“Throughout the fiscal year, all of the offices move money and shift money to take care of their needs, that have already been budgeted through the budget process,” said Thompson.
SCSO warnings about keeping the costs of repair in-house were also brushed aside. These include using money earmarked for payroll to cover the costs, which could endanger the department’s maintenance of effort.
“Everyday that we go without being reimbursed, there’s something that we’re giving up we had already previously budgeted for,” said SCSO CAO Alicia Lindsey “If the answer is to find something in our budget, basically what that means is, we need to redirect from personnel into ONM to cover the expenses, which then would make us below maintenance of effort,” said Lindsey.
A maintenance of effort required by state law forbids cutting salaries to law enforcement agencies, unless requested by the sheriff. The Shelby County Jail is also required to be fully-staffed.
While the jail repairs and mental health facility have become competing causes, the two are intimately related. During a Sept. 9 committee meeting, Bonner said that “a third” of the jail’s population struggles with mental health issues.
The proposed 60-bed mental health facility is estimated to cost $25 million and take two years to build.
Earlier in the year, commissioners approved $250,000 to study the costs of a new jail.
Shelby County Mayor Lee Harris has said a new facility could cost $1 billion and take 10 years to complete.
