Steve Carter, District 2 county commissioner, announced Monday he will hold a town hall meeting at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday at the Vian City Hall to discuss with residents of his district the one-half cent sales tax proposed to operate the county jail.

Carter said he hopes that State Rep. Glen “Bud” Smithson (D-Sallisaw) and Sequoyah County Sheriff Ron Lockhart will also attend to answer questions about the proposed sales tax, to be decided in a special election Oct. 13, and jail operations.

Carter said, “I am going to try to have four more town hall meetings, in Gore, Blackgum, Marble City and Sallisaw.”

In order to inform Sequoyah County voters about the request for the sales tax, Your TIMES is submitting the most-often asked questions the public asks county officials.

Following are the most recent answers to some of those questions.

—Who will pay for the election?

•County Clerk Vicki Sawney: The money will come from the county general fund.

•Dennis Fields, retired police officer and member of the Sequoyah County Criminal Justice Authority: The election costs will be paid for from the commissioner’s salary fund.

—From what account will the money come from when the county offices’ budgets have been cut 10 percent?

•County Clerk Vicki Sawney: Each office has budgeted accounts within the general fund (personal services or payroll, maintenance and operation, and travel).  Each officer has been given a choice as to what account to take 10 percent of their temporary appropriations and transfer to the sheriff’s maintenance and operation account for jail operation.  Most have chosen to take it from personal services because that is where more money is appropriated.  In the overall picture, the money is coming from the county general fund.

—How much will the election cost?

•County Clerk Vicki Sawney: The amount requested by the election board is $10,638.72.

•Dennis Fields: The total cost of the election is estimated at $15,000 by the Sequoyah County Election Board.

—Why has the proposed sales tax for the jail gone from one-sixth of a cent in the June election to one-half cent in the Oct. 13 election? Why has the amount changed?

•County Clerk Vicki Sawney:  The one-sixth of a cent was requested based on the Oklahoma Department of Corrections (DOC) telling us that we would be getting more minimum security prisoners.  In the interim, we have found out that we will not be getting any more prisoners because DOC has opened their own minimum security facilities and is also releasing prisoners on ankle monitors.  With one-half cent sales tax, Sequoyah County’s jail will support itself and not rely on other counties or the state DOC to pay the monthly bills.  Also, it’s just plain and simple planning ahead.  The jail is nearing 10 years old and repairs are going to get more costly.  With all the electronic equipment required in the jail as well as normal wear and tear on the structure itself, plumbing issues that occur with housing those who would rather be somewhere else, aging heat and air units, etc, one-half cent will give the county the money needed for the larger financial burden that comes with an aging jail facility.” 

•Sheriff Ron Lockhart: To break even on the jail costs it would take close to $800,000. With the sheriff being included, money can be used at the sheriff’s office for operations.

•Dennis Fields: When the election was called for originally, no one anticipated the sources of revenue the jail was depending on would evaporate. Some of the revenue sources are gone such as the Department of Corrections housing prisoners here and paying for their use of our jail. The county court clerk paid rent to use offices in the jail. She feels, and rightly so, that if she is giving up a percentage of her county funding to jail operations, she should not have to pay rent. The additional increase asked for will allow the jail administration to create a building fund for repairs and renovation of the facility on a long-term basis. The reason the old jail was replaced was it became obsolete and there was no funding to expand, renovate or modernize. The current facility is approximately 10 years old. Laws change regarding the housing and care of inmates. Though the state regularly changes laws, the changes seldom come with funding. These are called unfunded mandates and both state and federal authorities have input but leave the funding issues to the individual counties, i.e., the local taxpayer. As per the state attorney general, the county jail is a constitutional office and as such, it cannot be closed.

—If the sales tax is approved, and the sales tax is returned to the sheriff, can he spend it for things other than the jail, such as hiring more deputies, buy new vehicles, etc.? 

•County Clerk Vicki Sawney: No.  Any sales tax can only be used for the purpose intended at the time of the vote of the people.  If it passes, the sales tax will be remitted to the county by the Oklahoma Tax Commission and deposited into a criminal justice sales tax fund with the county treasurer.  It’s up to my office to issue purchase orders on that account.  The purchase order system was put in place primarily to make sure that county funds are spent appropriately.  If there were anything questionable I would ask the sheriff’s office to explain it and if not satisfied I would ask the commissioners to look at it before I would issue a warrant.

•Sheriff Ron Lockhart: The jail will need $800,000. As far as vehicles for the sheriff’s office, no money has been spent from county funds for vehicles. (Lockhart has purchased vehicles with grant money and with money collected from sheriff’s service fees.) The sheriff can use some of the funds to hire additional deputies and to offset expenses of these.

•Dennis Fields: The tax would be used to fund jail operations. That would include jailers, the care of inmates and buildings. The jail does use vehicles to transport prisoners.

—Why doesn’t the jail close some beds, say 60, so the overhead can

be lowered? 

•County Clerk Vicki Sawney: The county is required (according to a state attorney general’s opinion) to provide an adequate jail in the county or access to an adequate jail.  Transporting prisoners for housing as well as court dates and such and also the cost of housing would break the county in a month.  Also the jail is required to be staffed as it currently is whether there are 10 prisoners or 100.  The county is still bound to a settlement agreement to pay a very small portion of fines that were assessed on the old jail.  I believe the terms of that settlement agreement state that if the jail fails to meet minimum standards the county will have to pay the entirety of the fines.  I was not in office at the time, but I’ve been told the original fines totaled nearly $500,000 or more, and the county agreed to pay $15,000 and maintain standards.  I know what the settlement was because we were a year in arrears when I took office and I made two payments in March.  If we start cutting staff or not meeting nutrition or other requirements, we go right back to square one.  If we can get people to stop breaking the law, we could go back to a 60-bed facility, but for current times, it’s not adequate.

•Sheriff Ron Lockhart: By closing beds it wouldn’t save revenue because we still need the same amount of jailers. We would save on meals.

•Dennis Fields: Regardless of the number of inmates, the state requires five jail personnel to be on site at all times. Salary is the biggest part of operating expenses of the jail. So, if there are 20 inmates or 60 inmates, there will still have to be at least five jailers on duty 24 hours a day, seven days a week.