Ensuring the Pottawatomie County Public Safety Center and the Carter Hall juvenile detention center are sufficiently funded is critical. It’s a public safety issue.
When law enforcement does its job and finds the bad guys and gals, officers and prosecutors need to be assured the suspects and alleged criminals are going to be incarcerated while awaiting their due process if they are not released on bail. Once convicted of the crimes and sent to jail, the judges and jurors must know the facilities are available to house them.
County commissioners are faced with making some tough decisions. The trust which oversees these facilities already has taken significant steps to reduce expenses and the commissioners have provided funding to help the two facilities make it through the end of the current fiscal year.
However, if sufficient funding isn’t found for the new fiscal year which starts July 1, then the jail trust and commissioners are going to find themselves in the same fix a year from now, and probably much earlier than that.
It’s time to fund these operations sufficiently.
Unlike some county operations, the jail must meet certain mandates and requirements regarding the number of personnel in both the Public Safety Center, which houses adult prisoners, and Carter Hall, which handles the juveniles.
Director Sid Stell, since April, has reduced his staff by about 15 percent. The jail trust this past week reduced the pay of all staff by 5 percent beginning July 1. Action on closing Carter Hall was tabled, and employees will keep their health insurance benefits, although there was an attempt to eliminate those as well.
When voters agreed in 2002 to extend the county one penney sales tax for 10 years, the real catalyst was for constructing, furnishing operating and maintaining the Pottawatomie County Public Safety Center. Voters supported allocating 20 percent of the county sales tax revenue for that facility.
In addition, another five percent of the tax was specifically targeted for capital improvements to be used solely for the jail, county roads and bridges.
In that June 11, 2002, election, 68 percent of the voters supported the 10-year extension. Clearly, a mandate was given that the jail was needed.
When voters less than two years ago made the county sales tax permanent beginning in July of 2013, the ballot stipulated 20 percent of those funds will be utilized for the jail. Once again, the support was unwavering, and voters reaffirmed their mandate for funding the jail.
Whatever is necessary to sufficiently fund the jail and Carter Hall should be done. This exercise of facing a dilemma each year over the jail is getting old. And it’s happening annually because each year the jail trust’s request for funding takes a significant cut at budget time.
Each year the county finds itself having to bail the jail out. It may be that county employees have to take some kind of pay cut or see staff reductions in order that the jail receives adequate funding and this annual exercise of the trust having to come back and beg for additional money ceases.
We are confident the county commissioners will figure out how to address this issue. It’s so important because public safety is and should be a priority for citizens.
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Ensuring the Pottawatomie County Public Safety Center and the Carter Hall juvenile detention center are sufficiently funded is critical. It’s a public safety issue.
When law enforcement does its job and finds the bad guys and gals, officers and prosecutors need to be assured the suspects and alleged criminals are going to be incarcerated while awaiting their due process if they are not released on bail. Once convicted of the crimes and sent to jail, the judges and jurors must know the facilities are available to house them.
County commissioners are faced with making some tough decisions. The trust which oversees these facilities already has taken significant steps to reduce expenses and the commissioners have provided funding to help the two facilities make it through the end of the current fiscal year.
However, if sufficient funding isn’t found for the new fiscal year which starts July 1, then the jail trust and commissioners are going to find themselves in the same fix a year from now, and probably much earlier than that.
It’s time to fund these operations sufficiently.
Unlike some county operations, the jail must meet certain mandates and requirements regarding the number of personnel in both the Public Safety Center, which houses adult prisoners, and Carter Hall, which handles the juveniles.
Director Sid Stell, since April, has reduced his staff by about 15 percent. The jail trust this past week reduced the pay of all staff by 5 percent beginning July 1. Action on closing Carter Hall was tabled, and employees will keep their health insurance benefits, although there was an attempt to eliminate those as well.
When voters agreed in 2002 to extend the county one penney sales tax for 10 years, the real catalyst was for constructing, furnishing operating and maintaining the Pottawatomie County Public Safety Center. Voters supported allocating 20 percent of the county sales tax revenue for that facility.
In addition, another five percent of the tax was specifically targeted for capital improvements to be used solely for the jail, county roads and bridges.
In that June 11, 2002, election, 68 percent of the voters supported the 10-year extension. Clearly, a mandate was given that the jail was needed.
When voters less than two years ago made the county sales tax permanent beginning in July of 2013, the ballot stipulated 20 percent of those funds will be utilized for the jail. Once again, the support was unwavering, and voters reaffirmed their mandate for funding the jail.
Whatever is necessary to sufficiently fund the jail and Carter Hall should be done. This exercise of facing a dilemma each year over the jail is getting old. And it’s happening annually because each year the jail trust’s request for funding takes a significant cut at budget time.
Each year the county finds itself having to bail the jail out. It may be that county employees have to take some kind of pay cut or see staff reductions in order that the jail receives adequate funding and this annual exercise of the trust having to come back and beg for additional money ceases.
We are confident the county commissioners will figure out how to address this issue. It’s so important because public safety is and should be a priority for citizens.
