County commissioners’ stance was a U-turn from their prior positions, where they unanimously made the return of federal prisoners a top priority.
Corpus Christi Caller-Times
NUECES COUNTY, Texas — Texas Negotiations for the return of money-making federal prisoners to Nueces County jail facilities will continue, but county commissioners will move $1.16 million in special revenue funding into the 2008-09 county budget to cover projected revenue shortages if the prisoners do not return.
Commissioners no longer intend to cut a number of line items such as a 3 percent across-the-board pay raise for county employees, including themselves, they said during a budget hearing Thursday morning.
Wednesday, Commissioners Peggy Bañales, Chuck Cazalas and Oscar Ortiz said they would not vote to spend $500,000 in pre-allocated certificates of obligation to renovate additional bed space at the McKinzie Jail Annex that Sheriff Jim Kaelin said is necessary to house the federal prisoners.
Their stance was a U-turn from their prior positions, where they unanimously made the return of federal prisoners, removed from the county jail in 2006 over poor conditions, a top priority.
Since the prisoners were removed, commissioners have approved millions of dollars in renovations at the 1,020-bed jail to bring it up to state and federal standards. The jail meets those standards but has been at capacity with state and local prisoners for months. Until Thursday, the annex plan was the only solution mentioned for housing the federal prisoners, once the county could come to a new agreement with U.S. marshals.
New budget plans
With the McKinzie Annex plan in limbo, commissioners now plan to budget $70,000 to pay visiting judges to help move the felony case load through the judicial system faster, to clear space for federal prisoners at the county jail. Money gleaned from those prisoners would be directed to a special revenue fund, which means the new county budget is not dependent on federal prisoner housing.
County budget writers had built $728,000 in anticipated revenue into the fiscal year 2008-09 budget for housing the federal prisoners at the county jail and annex, and an additional $1.3 million in anticipated money that county officials were expecting for passing through overflow federal prisoners to 1,800 beds in two private facilities owned by LCS Corrections in La Villa and Robstown.
As a fallback plan, county commissioners now will move the following to the 2008-09 budget:
* $700,000 from capital improvement funds, which typically are used for emergency expenditures that were not pre-budgeted
* $300,000 from a special administrative fund
* $160,000 the county got for passing prisoners though to the La Villa facility this year.
The new budget still counts on $657,000 in projected revenue for pass-through prisoners to the La Villa facility. Some county officials fear that if they fail to negotiate a contract to house federal prisoners at the jail, two private contracts will be derailed as well, Kaelin said Wednesday.
Should the shortfall occur, commissioners have not determined how they would recoup the $657,000.
After tumultuous discussions Wednesday, where Bañales, Cazalas and Ortiz questioned whether the county needs to house the federal prisoners at all, County Judge Loyd Neal, Auditor Peggy Hayes and Senior Commissioners Court adviser Steve Waterman decided Thursday to continue negotiating prisoner housing contracts for the jail and the two private facilities.
Dollars per prisoner
Neal hopes to approve a contract later this month that would increase the money the county receives for housing at least 50 prisoners by at least $6 per prisoner, per day, to $53 a head. The county also would get at least $2 a head for every prisoner passed through to LCS.
Cazalas said Thursday that he wants the federal government to pay the roughly $61 per prisoner the county has been seeking.
“Don’t come back here with $53,” Cazalas told Neal, signalling that he likely won’t vote to approve the lower rate.
But Bañales, Ortiz and Betty Jean Longoria indicated in discussions that if they don’t have to spend the $500,000 in certificates of obligation on further jail renovations, they want the federal prisoner housing revenue that has put $26.75 million into the county’s collective pocketbook since 1990.
“You know, $53 is better than minus $61,” Ortiz said to Cazalas.
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