County finalizes levy sales pitch

SANDPOINT — There is no getting around the cost.

That will be one of the messages Bonner County officials will be emphasizing as they try to drum up public support for a $6.6 million two-year override levy to build a new juvenile detention center.

The levy election is set for Tuesday, Aug. 4.

Commissioners and Bonner County Justice Services Director Debbie Stallcup gathered Tuesday to put the finishing touch on the sales pitch to voters.

“Either way, we’re going to have to pay to house juveniles,” Stallcup said.

State law requires commissioners to provide for the detention of youthful offenders. The county has an existing facility, a converted four-bedroom house, but it’s at capacity and cannot be expanded.

The existing facility can only hold 12 juveniles and there is no secure housing for violent or sexual offenders, and juveniles have to be frequently juggled around the house to keep male and female offenders separated.

Moreover, the facility cannot be supplanted by portable housing units and still meet Idaho Department of Juvenile Corrections security standards.

Although the prospect of an unavoidable cost is not likely to sit well with taxpayers, county officials are underscoring that the cost to landowners can be substantially mitigated if a new facility is built here.

Even using conservative estimates, the annual cost of transporting Bonner County’s offenders to and from the Region 1 juvenile lockup in Kootenai County would be staggering, according to Stallcup.

Stallcup said the county has averaged 417 juvenile bookings per year for the past several years, which would result in at least 834 round trips Kootenai County. The staff costs of transporting the juveniles would be $169,353 and the fuel costs would be $48,789, a sum which factors in the 58 cent per mile reimbursement from the state.

The annual detention cost at Region 1 is figured to be $741,726, based upon the county’s three-year average of 4,167 bed days a year. All told, the annual cost of transferring the juvenile inmate population to Kootenai County is pegged at $959,868, a figure which assumes a swift disposition in each individual juvenile case.

“This represents ideals, rather than realities,” Commissioner Lewis Rich said, referring to the likelihood of protracted juvenile proceedings and other factors such as doctor appointments.

Some in the community are asking the county to simply pass the costs onto the parents of offenders, which is already being done to a limited degree. The county charges parents an across-the-board fee of $25 a day and caps the fee at $500.

But judges ultimately decide how much of the fee a parent should be made to pay when their financial means are taken into account.

“They’re not going to set up a family to fail,” Commission Chairman Joe Young said.

County officials forecast that landowners who qualify for a homeowner’s exemption and have a home with a net assessed value of $150,000 would pay $46 a year for two years. The cost increases to $92 a year for homes valued at $200,000.

The new facility would have 32 beds, which would satisfy the county’s needs and allow it to rent space out to other counties and agencies. Stallcup said there is no doubt in her mind the facility would eventually become profitable.

Commission Cornel Rasor said bonding is a poor option because of the interest the county would have to fork over.

“If this passes, we’ll save the county $8 million in interest,” he said.

The county is planning a direct-mail campaign to educate voters and officials plan to give presentations to civic and business groups throughout the county in the run-up to the levy vote.