County Attorney Presents Proposed Ordinance: Magistrates Prepare For Vote On Early Stages of Regional Jail

Approved Ordinance Would Commit County To Pre-Construction Stage Only

Darren Doyle, story:
At today's Edmonson County Fiscal Court meeting, which was held virtually, Edmonson County Attorney Greg Vincent laid out the ordinance that he helped create in conjunction with the Ohio and Butler County attorneys that would allow Edmonson County to either move forward or decline participation in the first stage of a new regional jail among the counties.

Vincent said the ordinance would first allow the appointment of a board which would have three representatives from Ohio County, and two each from Butler and Edmonson. This board would manage the pre-construction process, that would include investigating the best location for a jail, retain services for an architectural firm, conduct environmental studies for the area, and other state and federal requirements for receiving grant funding.

After the available funding from grants is known, then the board would return to each fiscal court and the counties would then determine whether or not they would be committed to the construction of the jail. Once a county becomes committed to participating in the regional partnership, they would have to remain committed unless the board agreed to release them from their commitment; however, prior to the construction commitment, any county can withdraw at any time.

However, Vincent also said that even if Edmonson County agreed to move forward with participation of appointing a board, which would have nothing to do with whether or not the county later agreed to be a regional partner in the actual construction, a large sum of money would have to be spent by the county for just this stage alone.

"It's at the point when the board comes back to the fiscal courts and says 'we've found a spot, we've done all the studies, we've gone to the state, we've gone to the feds, here's the money that they're putting up for us, here's the money that the counties will need,' that's your last point," Vincent said. "Because that's when the counties have to decide whether they're going to float bonds to pay for the construction of this thing. No county can bind another county until this point. Once a county starts borrowing money to do building, you're committed."

Vincent said in the event a regional jail is built, each county's financial commitment for the construction and first year of operation would be 50% from Ohio County and 25% each from Butler and Edmonson. After the first year, the percentage of a county's inmates would then determine what each county's financial commitment would be. 

"At the end of the first year, there would be a review of how many inmates each county had out of the total, and it would be broken down on a percentage basis," Vincent said. "If we only had 10% of the total inmates for the year, for the next three years, we'd only pay for 10% of the total jail fees. If we had more, we'd pay more."

Vincent also wanted to point out what would not be in this ordinance for the first stage.

"Before you vote on this, you need to consider there will be a significant outlaying of money that this county will have to make even in the startup procedure," he said.

He noted that architects are not cheap and other legal representation would likely be needed in order to avoid conflicts of interest. There would also be environmental and soil studies and he said he anticipated somewhere around a total of $200K in expenses for just the first stages alone. At that number, Edmonson County's commitment would be $50,000. He also added that the number was only his estimation and that it obviously could be higher or lower, but nevertheless, a financial commitment would have to be made by the county if magistrates voted to move into the first stage.

As Vincent continued describing the proposed ordinance presented to magistrates, he asked them to study it extensively before a vote on the first reading at the next fiscal court meeting.

Vincent also said the proposed ordinance is a product of weeks worth of work among him, other county's officials, and Judge Executive Wil Cannon in addition to a host of research, emails, calls, and other in-person meetings.

"Is it the most perfect agreement possible?" Vincent rhetorically asked. "No, but I think it's one that we can live with until we decide that we can't."

Judge Cannon agreed that the proposed ordinance was a good agreement and also asked magistrates to study it in full so that a vote could be taken at the next meeting.