Blog note: this article refers to a 2014-15 grand jury report finding jail overcrowding and recommending construction of a new jail.
Measure Y confronts voters with a June 7 election pocketbook decision—whether to raise the sales tax by a quarter-cent to send an estimated $8 million annually flowing into county coffers.
The Napa County Board of Supervisors could technically spend the tax money as it wishes, as is true with any general tax that passes by majority vote. But supervisors say the two targets are building a new jail and expanding children’s programs.
Sara Cakebread, the Measure Y campaign manager, said a new jail and children’s programs might appear to be strange bedfellows. She sees prevention as being the link.
A new jail would give the county room to step up programs to help keep inmates from reoffending, Cakebread said. Additional children’s programs could prevent children from someday ending up in jail as adults.
“It’s going to mean a lot for our community and our kids,” Cakebread said.
But first, voters must decide they want to raise the countywide sales tax of eight cents on the dollar by another quarter-cent for a decade. Here is a Measure Y primer:
How does Napa County’s existing 8 percent sales tax – and the proposed 8.25 percent sales tax – compare to nearby communities?
The statewide sales tax is 7.5 percent. Napa County in addition has a half-cent sales tax for flood control that in 2018 will transition to a sales tax for road repairs, keeping the tax at at least 8 percent for another quarter-century.
In Solano County, Fairfield, Benicia and Vallejo have rates of 8.625 percent and Vacaville 7.875 percent. In Sonoma County, Sonoma and Santa Rosa have rates of 8.75 percent and Petaluma 8.25 percent. In Lake County, Clearlake and Lakeport have rates of 8 percent, according to the state Board of Equalization.
What’s wrong with the existing jail?
Napa County has a 264-bed jail in downtown Napa at 1125 Third St. It built the first phase in 1976 for $4 million and a second phase in 1989 for $8 million. Supervisors say this jail is too small and ill-designed for today’s inmate population needs, with the 2014-15 grand jury agreeing.
County Director of Corrections Lenard Vare said the jail was built in an era when it housed lower-level offenders. The style of its cells and its layout isn’t suited for today, with higher levels of inmates with mental health issues and more violent offenders.
Vare said this leads to kind of a musical chairs situation as jail officials try to keep certain gang members separate from each other and mental health patients in suitable quarters. A mental health patient might have to be housed alone in a cell designed for four inmates.
“I may have 264 beds available, but I might be crowded with 240 inmates,” Vare said.
The jail doesn’t have classroom space for English as a second language courses or narcotic anonymous sessions or other programs. Creating space in common areas means other inmates must be in their cells, creating resentments, Vare said.
“You’ve got to have dedicated classroom space where it doesn’t affect anyone,” Vare said. “That way you don’t deprive anyone of time outside of their cell.”
Nor does the downtown jail have enough yard space, especially given the gang and protective custody issues, Vare said. It’s a struggle to get everyone exercise time.
The 2014-15 Napa County grand jury said overcrowding at the downtown jail will continue to be a major problem. The state’s move to shift low-level felons from state prisons to county jails and damage from the 2014 earthquake magnify the problem.
“Within this context, the grand jury urges the Board of Supervisors to put the construction of the new jail on a fast track,” the grand jury report said.
What’s the county’s proposed solution?
The county wants to build a $103 million, 256-bed jail on county-owned land along Highway 221 near the Syar quarry. This would be phase one of what would eventually be a bigger jail, with the downtown jail shrinking to 55 beds to provide additional space.
Another option is to build a 366-bed new jail and demolish the downtown jail. But this bigger facility would cost $178 million and require a $137-million tax measure. The Board of Supervisors looked at polling data and decided voters wouldn’t support that high of a tax.
Supervisors last year looked at conceptual plans for a new jail along Highway 221. They saw where the day rooms, recreation yard, cells, control room, medical/mental health unit and other features could be located. The county bought the 27-acre site for $6.6 million in 2014.
To raise the $103 million for the 256-bed jail, the county would take $35 million from savings and the sale of surplus property, such as county owned land in the Oxbow district. Measure Y and its 10-year, quarter-cent sales tax would allow the county to finance the $68 million funding gap.
If the tax passes, how soon could the jail be built?
Napa County expects to hold a ground-breaking ceremony in 2018 or 2019.
“There’s a lot of work that has to be done before breaking ground – right now we just have conceptual drawings,” county Principal Management Analyst Helene Franchi said. “Then we would go out to bid, review bids and accept bids.”
Why link a new jail and children programs?
Supervisors originally mentioned only a new jail as a target for tax revenues. But children’s advocates tried to qualify the Napa County Child Welfare Act for the November ballot to mandate that the county spend a certain amount of its general fund on children’s programs. County Counsel Minh Tran filed court papers saying such an initiative would be illegal.
On March 8, the Board of Supervisors defused the situation by saying that money from Measure Y not needed for a new jail could go to children’s programs. The children’s advocates agreed to forgo seeking the Napa County Child Welfare Act ballot measure. This was the final, scheduled meeting supervisors had to place a measure on the ballot.
Supervisor Keith Caldwell at that March 8 meeting saw an advantage to this last-minute alliance.
“I think the partnership we’ve developed just the last few days – I was a little apprehensive on Friday – I think the partnership in investing in our children and going full circle fits in very nicely,” he said.
Children’s advocates expect the county to create the Napa County Fund for Children with a portion of the Measure Y money. The type of children’s programs that could be funded include early child learning and preschool programs, mentoring and educational enrichment programs, affordable child care and child abuse prevention.
If a new jail is the Board of Supervisor’s priority, how much money would be left over for children’s programs?
Cakebread is hoping at least a half-million dollars annually. She said the $8 million-a-year Measure Y revenue estimate could prove conservative. But she added that no one knows for certain.
“I truly believe they will give us everything they can give us,” Cakebread said.
Franchi said the county doesn’t know how much money might be available for children’s programs. One reason is the county won’t seek out a bond until after a tax passes and doesn’t know what the annual debt payments on the jail would be, with interests rates a variable.
The Board of Supervisors has agreed that revenue above-and-beyond what’s needed for the jail would go to children, she said. If a tax passes, county officials would work with the children’s advocates to identify programs.
Meanwhile, the county is still seeking $20 million in state money for a new jail, county Housing and Intergovernmental Affairs Director Larry Florin said. It failed to secure this amount in 2015.
Gov. Jerry Brown has proposed $250 million in state-wide funding for jails in the 2016-17 state budget, Florin said. In a best-case scenario, Napa County would have $20 million earmarked for a local jail because of earthquake damage to the existing jail and the overall jail condition.
Otherwise, the county might have to compete with other counties for jail funds.
Cakebread said that, if the county is successful in securing the state money, the amount of Measure Y money available for children would dramatically increase.
What assurance is there that the county will direct more money to children’s programs?
As a general tax, Measure Y offers no guarantees that money will flow to children’s programs. The Board of Supervisors has made a commitment, but can’t beyond all doubt obligate the future general fund money.
Cakebread is willing to trust the county enough to put her time, energy and enthusiasm into the Measure Y campaign, with a caveat.
“They will have to face the wrath of children’s advocates if they don’t do what they say,” Cakebread said with a laugh, then added, “That’s a significant threat.”
Why isn’t the county seeking a special tax to guarantee that revenues must be spent on a new jail and children’s programs?
A special tax ensures that money can be spent only on a specific purpose. It must pass by a two-thirds vote. Counties and cities often take this approach to try to win over voters who are skeptical the money might be spent on something else.
In contrast, a general tax brings money to a jurisdiction’s general funds, with no guarantees on how it will be spent. But this type of tax need pass by only a majority vote.
Caldwell and Cakebread said a running a specific tax measure for both jails and children’s programs can’t be done, since the measure has two rather than one funding target. A tax with two distinct spending targets must be a general tax.
In addition, Napa County by seeking a general tax is following the advice of TBWB Strategies, a consultant it had look at a jail-only tax measure. TBWB recommended the county seek a general tax because polling data indicated the two-thirds vote needed for a special tax would be difficult to achieve.
Isn’t the county already set to build some type of small jail along Highway 221?
The state in 2013 awarded the county $13.5 million to help build a $16.8 million, 72-bed, minimum custody reentry facility to prepare inmates for release. Construction could begin in 2017. But this won’t be a full-fledged jail.
Vare described it as a place for low-level, non-violent offenders. That might be someone who has been arrested repeatedly for shoplifting and drug offenses. The goal is to break this pattern.
“That is the population that needs the service, but is low enough on the risk factor that we can put them into a kind of halfway program,” Vare said.
District Attorney Gary Lieberstein called the dormitory-style reentry facility “kind of a halfway between jail and the community.”
The reentry facility will provide programs and help people find jobs, with corrections and probation working side-by-side, Vare said. Having such a facility will allow the county to build the new jail with 256 beds and keep a downtown jail for additional space, rather than build a 400-bed jail, he said.
What about earthquake damage to downtown jail?
The August 2014 South Napa earthquake rocked the downtown jail, causing enough damage that 25 percent of the space for inmates could no longer be used. The county struck an agreement to house up to 75 inmates in Solano County jails, then in 2015 increased this to up to 125 inmates at a maximum payment of $4 million annually, with the county hoping to get reimbursed by insurance and the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
Napa County completed third floor jail earthquake repairs in April, though more repairs are needed for the rest of the jail/Hall of Justice building, Franchi said. Costs are still unknown. Money will come from insurance and FEMA.
Meanwhile, 30 inmates remain at Solano County as Napa County does a jail project unrelated to the earthquake. This involves adding more individual cells to the basement portion that had been constructed in dormitory style. The cost is $6.7 million.
This work to the old jail would be needed even if the sales tax measure passes and a new jail is built, Franchi said. The county would still use the old jail to provide additional space.
What’s the county’s backup plan to build a new jail if the tax fails to pass?
“Were going to have to figure that out,” Franchi said. “We need a new jail. It means we would have to come up with the $68 million in some other way.”
Both she and Caldwell listed cutting services as one possible way to get the debt service money. Franchi said that’s not meant to sound like a threat, but is just a fact of life.
May 6, 2016
Napa Valley Register
By Barry Eberling
No comments:
Post a Comment