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WHATCOM COUNTY COUNCIL
Special Committee of the Whole
March 31, 2015
CALL TO ORDER
Council Chair Carl Weimer called the meeting to order at 6:15 p.m. in the
Council Chambers, 311 Grand Avenue, Bellingham, Washington.
ROLL CALL
Present: Barbara Brenner, Ken Mann, Satpal Sidhu, Carl Weimer, Rud
Browne and Barry Buchanan.
Absent: Pete Kremen.
SPECIAL PRESENTATION
1. COUNTY EXECUTIVE JACK LOUWS TO PRESENT PROGRESS AND
DEVELOPMENTS OF THE NEW JAIL PROJECT (AB2015 -047)
Jack Louws, County Executive, submitted and read from his presentation (on
file).
Brenner asked for clarification on the Ferndale estimated annual cost. Louws
stated he will submit corrected numbers.
Browne asked what alternative jail space options Thurston and Kitsap Counties
have that make their jail populations low. He asked why Whatcom County wouldn't
have the same options. Louws stated the City of Olympia, which is in Thurston
County, has its own jail.
Browne asked if that's an alternative County facility rather than an alternative
type of facility. Louws stated the Cities in those counties have options to put their
misdemeanants in space other than in the County jails.
Browne stated it's not a different type of treatment space. Louws stated it's
just a different jail.
Mann asked if the Yakima County jail costs include the jail beds they were
trying to sell and the King County prisoners they are housing. Louws stated the
Yakima jail is purposefully oversized to sell beds for other jurisdictions.
Special Committee of the Whole - 6:15 p.m., 3/31/2015, Page 1
1 Weimer asked if they've looked at the actual bonding capacity and if there is
2 capacity to develop alternative jail services. Louws stated the bond payments are the
3 problem. They would need dedicated funds for bond payments. If the County sells
4 the Irongate facility, it should use the money for a triage facility. The County can
5 develop a triage facility concurrent with the construction of this new jail facility.
6
7 Buchanan stated the hospital indicated it would be interested in partnering with
8 the County on a triage facility. He asked if the County has discussed it with the
9 hospital.
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11 Anne Deacon, Health Department, stated some discussions are preliminary.
12 The hospital may have land to donate or buildings to lease. That is the extent of the
13 discussions so far.
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15 Buchanan asked if there is a plan to pull those triage facility options into this
16 jail proposal. Louws stated there isn't such a plan in the current timeframe. However,
17 he is committed to doing the right thing for a triage facility, which would have to be
18 approved by various agencies. The proposal for the two - tenths of one percent sales
19 tax doesn't include another $10 million for the triage facility project. A triage facility
20 would have to be done with funding other than the sales tax. Get this jail facility
21 underway, and then figure out how to develop a triage facility.
22
23 Brenner asked if they are double- counting the statistics for Thurston and Kitsap
24 Counties, if they have other jail beds available. Louws stated their numbers per
25 thousand are low, because they have other options within the community. If they
26 added all the other options together, the statistic would show they have more beds
27 per thousand that this chart shows. Brenner stated she would like to know how much
28 jail space they have, including their options.
29
30 Mann stated he appreciates the work that staff have done. The County needs a
31 new facility. The size sounds right. However, they also need programs and staff to
32 reduce incarceration and recidivism rates. Putting neonle in iail is PxnPnsivP. ThP
33 Council has been asking for those programs throughout the process, but they aren't in
34 the proposal. He's reluctant to go forward with a program this big when it doesn't
35 include a central element the Council has been asking for. Louws stated the first
36 program he put forward to the Cities included those programs. The Cities indicated
37 they have financial struggles. Trying to broker a deal that works for everyone
38 required a modified proposal. The capacity of the two - tenths sales tax is down,
39 because it gives the County the money to build the facility and a cushion of cash
40 necessary to operate a new jail facility. They aren't able to do everything they would
41 like with the two - tenths sales tax. Whatcom County and the Cities can develop viable
42 programs, and the City police officers will have viable alternatives. They should ask
43 the City of Bellingham to partner with the County on those programs. He's happy to
44 have suggestions for funding $10 million for a triage facility.
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47 OTHER BUSINESS
48
49 There was no other business.
50
Special Committee of the Whole - 6:15 p.m., 3/31/2015, Page 2
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ADJOURN
The meeting adjourned at 7:07 p.m.
The Council approved these minutes on July 21, 2015.
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Jill Nixon, Minutes Transcription
WHATCOM COUNTY COUNCIL
WHATCOM COUNTY, WASHINGTON
Carl Weimer, Council Chair
Special Committee of the Whole - 6:15 p.m., 3/31/2015, Page 3