Mustang's elected officials have been left out of the loop in Canadian County's jail plans and too many questions have gone unanswered, Mayor Jeff Landrith told Positive Posse Tuesday.
Mustang City Manager Mike Rutledge has attended county jail committee meetings, and before him, former manager David Cockrell was the community's voice in the group. Landrith said county leaders need to involve more elected officials in writing jail plans.
“Sales tax is not the way to go,” he said.
Canadian County Commissioners have floated a $17.9 million jail proposal, and Yukon National Bank President Randy Wright said he agreed with Landrith that there are many holes in the county's package. However, he said he felt Mustang was adequately represented on the community jail committee, which he also serves on, because city managers understand financing and how to bring plans to fruition.
“Your questions are the same ones we have,” Wright said.
Some of those unanswered questions include unexplained changes in jail capacity, Wright said. At times in the last five years, the jail was certified to contain 100 prisoners, but that level has since been lowered to 72 inmates. Oklahoma fire marshal inspectors and the state jail inspector have threatened to close the facility if officials did not lower the jail population. Since that threat, 27 inmates have been sent to Grant and Dewey counties, where they are housed at a cost of $20 per day per prisoner.
Another concern is how the cost for the new facility shrank from a $24.8 million 264-bed jail plan rejected by 69 percent of voters in May 2008 to the existing $17.9 million 308-bed jail proposal. Wright said the footprint for the facility appears to be the same, but somehow officials say they can squeeze in another 44 beds into a facility while spending $6.9 million less.
District 2 County Commissioner David Anderson said last week the feat would be possible by using a direct supervision design, where cells would be arranged into four pods.
Wright said he is also concerned about the fluctuating estimate for the increased costs for running the new jail. He said he has heard estimates as high as $3.3 million per year, while Anderson told Positive Posse on March 2 the costs would be between $2 million and $2.2 million.
While officials have talked about the need for the new facility, Wright said no one has presented a concrete answer for how to fund it. While Anderson has said it would likely be funded through a sales or property tax, Wright said he has not seen a proposal for either. Anderson has estimated a possible property tax increase at $32 per year for the owner of a $100,000 home, and a sales tax increase at between 1/4-cent or 1/3-cent per dollar spent.
Wright said he would prefer to see a property tax cover construction of facilities and a sales tax to pay for operating expenses but added sales tax are an important funding source for cities.
Mustang is facing many capital needs, Landrith said, including an improved baseball park, road repairs and expansion of banquet facilities and library space at Town Center. If Canadian County approved a sales tax increase for the jail, it would boost Mustang's sales tax above 9-cents per dollar spent.