Can we just scrap the entire North County Jail project and start over again?
No? Crap. It’s an absolute mess. Absolutely.
I watched the Nov. 19 Santa Barbara County Board of Supervisors meeting with a mixture of boredom, shock, and head shaking confusion. Yes, that’s how I watch all of the supes meetings. But when the North County Jail is on the agenda, it seems to lend itself extra well to those feelings.
I’m guessing that’s the same feeling our elected officials felt while they were sitting through it. I heard a lot of sighs and deep intakes of breath as independent consultants spoke about projected costs, maintenance needs, and the deplorable conditions of the Main Jail.
At one point, 5th District Supervisor Steve Lavagnino asked consultants from Carter Goble Associates LLC (CGL) to rate the Main Jail in Santa Barbara on a scale from one to 10.
“Can I go lower than that?” CGL Managing Director Alan Richardson joked. But seriously: He said it’s old. Originating in the 1950s, ad hoc additions to it were constructed in the 1970s. “It’s served its purpose and its design is very inefficient for staffing; it needs some serious work.”
Basically, it needs the addition of 20 full-time equivalent custody deputies to operate as it should. That’s at least according to the CGL folks.
That awe-inspiring question from Lavagnino came after a report from Marx/Okubo—another independent consultanting firm—revealed a $15 million need in Main Jail maintenance over the next 10 years. And $10 million of that would need to be spent over the next three years.
Well. That’s three-fold what county staff projected was needed.
Crap.
And, as we later found out, that’s in addition to the projected $52 million, $66.6 million, or $68.5 million that would be needed for operating costs in fiscal year 2019-2020—those projections are respectively for these scenarios: Main Jail only, Main Jail plus a new North County Jail, Main Jail plus North County Jail plus new STAR complex.
Crap.
Really quickly: Construction of the North County Jail would be paid for with the help of an AB 900 grant. The STAR complex would be paid for through SB 1022 and help rehabilitate inmates in preparation for re-entry into the world, hopefully reducing recidivism in the process. The grants total up to around $100 million in state funding that would help the county upgrade its desperately decrepit jail system.
OK. Ready for more?
Lavagnino’s next question: Can we close the Main Jail if we build the North County facility?
“If this was your house, you would bulldoze this thing and build a new one,” he said, adding that it was a “money pit.”
Second District Supervisor Janet Wolf answered: “I could use the same scenario to say I need to demolish my home but I can’t afford it.”
Fourth District Supervisor Peter Adam said if the county had only thought of that five years ago when it started down the North County Jail road, then it would have been better. “It’s inefficient, but it’s not horrible. We’re just going to have to suck it up and just do it.”
Yuck. That’s unsatisfying. So the county basically has a very shortsighted view of the future.
Just to round out the bandwagon, 1st District Supervisor Salud Carbajal responded as well: “We never really crossed that bridge,” he said. “The whole process was so complicated it never really lent itself to being a more comprehensive and holistic approach.”
Again, that’s a pretty unsatisfactory response. Basically nobody did their due diligence at the beginning of the very long-winded road to give Santa Barbara County an adequate facility in which to house its criminals. And, as per usual, there are things missing from the discussion and the operating budget predictions. Supervisor Adam lamented the fact that Sheriff Bill Brown hasn’t yet outlined the cost of programming for the STAR facility. So let’s tack some more money onto the aforementioned $68 million projected operating cost for the Main Jail/North County Jail/STAR Complex combination and the $15 million in maintenance that needs to happen at the Main Jail.
“I wish we had asked the question up front about rebuilding and modernizing the Main Jail before going forward with this,” 3rd District Supervisor Doreen Farr said. “Now I fully understand why previous boards kept coming back to the same conclusion for the North County Jail.”
For decades, supervisors essentially ignored the need because of what it would cost to operate it. Farr added that it needs its own budget, separate from county funds.
In the end, supervisors decided to move forward with the AB 900 portion of the project and waylaid the SB 1022 funds that would have gone toward the STAR Complex. Recidivism be damned, I guess. If you’re going to spend $66 million a year, rounding up another $2 million per year is apparently way too much.
“We’re not looking forward enough, as past boards didn’t,” Lavagnino said. “These are the cheapest beds we’re probably ever going to get the chance to build.”
The Canary is glad she opted not to run for the Santa Barbara County Board of Supervisors. Send comments to canary@santamariasun.com.
This article appears in Nov 19-26, 2015.
