County firefighters attended the meeting to object to a proposal to take $40,000 from the fire departments’ cash account to pay an insurance bill. But the commissioners had been told by the district attorney’s office that the money was dedicated to the fire departments, and could not be used for other purposes. (See above story.)
District 1 Commissioner Bruce Tabor, who apologized to the firefighters for the proposal to take money from their account, then asked the firefighters to help the county keep the county jail and county courthouse open by supporting the half-cent sales tax for the county jail, a proposal county voters will decide in a special election on Oct. 13.
Tabor said later, “I had a captive audience I couldn’t pass up.”
Tabor told the firefighters, “We are in serious, dire need of help to pass this sales tax.”
He reminded the firefighters how the volunteer fire departments had to rely on membership, donations, fundraisers, grants and money from the state legislature to operate before a quarter-cent tax was approved for fire departments by the voters in 2006.
“We’re in even worse shape,” Tabor said about the county’s financial distress over operating the county jail.
“We’ve already taken 10 percent from every office to operate jail, and we may have to close the courthouse two to three days a week to keep it (the jail) open.”
Tabor said the 114-bed jail had 125 inmates as of Monday.
To questions from the firefighters, Tabor explained that the cost of running the jail has risen from about $60,000 a month when it opened to about $112,000 at the present time. He said the reason was inflation, and the rising costs of all things needed to operate the jail, from foods to medical costs.
Tabor pointed out that the county commissioners, and authorities in other counties, had at one time counted on housing Oklahoma Department of Corrections (DOC) prisoners for extra money on which to operate. But the DOC has moved prisoners to state facilities or are releasing minimum security prisoners, which is leaving the county jail without sufficient funds.,
“We now have 37 inmates from Tulsa County, at $27 a day. We don’t need a state prison here or a Tulsa County prison…but that’s the only way we can get any money coming in.”
Tabor said even the Tulsa County prisoners don’t bring in enough money to keep the jail open, and if the half-cent sales tax proposition doesn’t pass on Oct. 13, one of the alternatives will be to close the county courthouse two to three days a week to cut costs and keep jail doors open.
District 2 Commissioner Steve Carter has been visiting with residents in local communities urging support of the sales tax for the jail. He will be speaking to residents in the Blackgum community at 6:30 p.m. Thursday at the Blackgum Community Center.
“I’m just giving people the facts,” Carter said. “We’re not telling you how to vote. But we want you to know what your are voting for…or against.”
Carter, Tabor and Sheriff Ron Lockhart said that if the sales tax is not approved, the costs of operating the jail will end up on every property owners’ ad valorem taxes.
“We’ll be having lawsuits and fines and other problems, which means we will have to set up a sinking fund, and that goes back to property owners,” Tabor said.
“We get more demand for services…but it takes money to operate. We have to work on a balanced budget.”
“I guess you’d call it begging, and I’ll do it,” Tabor said.
To a question about who will run the jail, Tabor said, “We don’t mind who runs it as long as it’s run right.”
The Sequoyah County Criminal Justice Authority took over operation of the jail when it was opened 10 years ago, but turned operations over to the sheriff earlier this year. The commissioners explained that by doing so, it allowed the county to use county money to operate the jail. The authority was only allowed to use a one-sixth of a cent sales tax already in place for the jail, rent money from the court system, which uses a portion of the building, and the few fees paid by prisoners.
The commissioners pointed out that the county only gets 0.91 percent of all the sales tax money collected in the county, which varies from urban to rural areas and from city to town. The county also gets a half-cent sales tax for county roads, but that money is dedicated only to the county roads, and cannot be used for the jail.
