By Traci Chapman/Staff writer

A committee aimed at finding solutions to the county’s jail headaches had its inaugural meeting last week.

The committee, appointed by County Commissioners Phil Carson, Don Young and Grant Hedrick, was formed after a proposed $24.8 million facility was soundly rejected by voters in May. The group held its first meeting in Yukon to “get ideas, compile information and find a way to sell the right facility to the residents,” committee chairman Jim Crosby said.

Crosby, Yukon’s city manager, was joined at the meeting by Judge Edward Cunningham, Debbie Harrison, Piedmont Police Chief Jerry Koester, Yukon National Bank President Randy Wright and Sheriff Lewis Hawkins. Dan Wedman, suggested for appointment to the committee by Hedrick, did not attend the meeting.

Crosby said his priority is to build a jail “for the future – we’ve got to have a jail that’s there for growth.” Some critics of the failed jail proposal said they were concerned by statements made by Hawkins that he could “fill the new jail up basically as soon as it’s open.”

City managers in Yukon, El Reno and Mustang also disagreed with the commissioners’ plan to fund the jail with an increase in sales tax. If the proposal had passed, it would have raised sales tax in all three cities to 9.2 percent.

The issue of how to fund construction of the facility – as well as the increased operating costs associated with a larger jail – came to the forefront during Thursday’s meeting in a brief debate between Crosby and Young, who also attended the meeting.

“Oklahoma City should share the costs of the facility, and that would be the result with ad valorem taxes,” Crosby said. “An increase like that in sales tax will hurt the cities a lot and could jeopardize our ability to attract business. I said before if it’s funded with ad valorem, I’ll go door to door to sell it to the residents, and I meant it. I cannot support increased sales tax.”

“People won’t go for more property tax,” Young countered. “It just won’t work.”
Cunningham said disagreements between committee members and other officials on the details are a good thing at this stage of the process.

“We all don’t need to agree on everything, that’s why we’re here, because of our different perspectives. What’s important is that we communicate and listen with open minds to come to a consensus we can take to the people.”

The first step, members said, was to determine the true need of the jail – the size of the facility, whether it should be a complete “lockdown” cell layout, dormitories or some combination of the two, and whether the layout proposed by Hawkins and architect Billy Knowles should be incorporated or if the committee wants to start from square one.

Members agreed to meet weekly, at least in the initial phase of the committee’s work, and listed priorities they thought they should accomplish. The group was scheduled to meet Wednesday in El Reno to tour the existing jail. At that time, they will also review Knowles’ plans. Meetings in the following weeks are planned for Piedmont and Mustang.

Members will meet or speak with other county representatives for their input, as well as state jail inspector Don Garrison, sheriffs from nearby counties and Knowles. Koester suggested talking to representatives from Logan County, which saw the failure of a jail measure but which was able to “convince their residents it was needed,” ultimately garnering the support for a new facility.

“I think it’s important to look at where someone has gotten this to work,” Koester said. “They might be able to give us valuable insight.”

The committee was unanimous on one point – time is of the essence.

“I think this is an emergency-type situation,” Crosby said. “I don’t think anybody here doesn’t think we don’t need a new jail – we just need to work to find a way to get that done.”

Cunningham agreed, referring to a May jail inspection report listing several inadequacies with the facility, from water leaks to overcrowding.

“I don’t know how much longer we’re going to be able to keep this jail before we get shut down,” he said. “If we don’t do something – and pretty quickly – we’re going to be looking at being forced to export our prisoners somewhere else. When that happens, Canadian County money will be going out of the county, and none of us want that.”