PAC declines to assist with juvenile lockup financing

SANDPOINT — The Panhandle Area Council is passing on a request by Bonner County to assist with financing for the construction of a new juvenile detention facility.

The council’s executive director, Jim Deffenbaugh, said PAC’s board of directors did not want to drum up $1.6 million in financing from investors for a project Bonner County voters did not want to pay for.

Deffenbaugh said in an e-mail to The Daily Bee that since voters turned down the project, “PAC would appear to only circumvent their vote in violation of state law.”

The board ruled on the funding request during a meeting in Hayden on Wednesday.

Repeated messages left with county commissioners on Friday and Saturday went not returned. Bonner County Justice Services Director Debbie Stallcup deferred her comments to those of the county commission.

It’s the third setback the county has encountered on its journey to replace its substandard facility, which the Idaho Department of Juvenile Corrections declines to certify because of structural and design deficiencies.

Commissioners sought judicial confirmation on a lease/purchase agreement for a new facility in 2008, but a 1st District judge ruled the agreement would have been contrary to a state constitutional prohibition against carryover indebtedness without voter approval.

The county asked for voters to approve a tax hike to pay for a new facility in 2009, but the ballot measure was overwhelmingly defeated.

The county then pulled together about $3 million in available funding for the $4.6 million juvenile detention project and approached PAC for the remaining funding.

The county developed its existing juvenile lockup from a residence in order to keep youthful offenders in the community and to avoid the costs associated with holding them at the Panhandle region facility in Kootenai County.

County officials estimate that total reliance on the Region 1 facility would cost as much as $1 million annually once transportation costs are factored in — a sum far greater that what the county currently spends to detain juveniles.

If Bonner County canceled its contract with Region 1, however, the other four counties which utilize the facility would face an additional cost burden because of the lost revenue.

Deffenbaugh said the financial impact to the other four northern counties was not the major concern of PAC.

“Although most counties expressed concern for the reduced spread of funding, I think the lost referendum was the major concern,” he said.