Meetings Steering Committee(Folders 1-2)

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build in video capability to reduce their Sheriff's need to transport youth in custody to and from our center for court. Amazingly, Yamhill County has also expressed some renewed interest (primarily due to the difficulty in co-locating their proposed juvenile facility with their adult jail, which was their initial plan. They are still attempting to work out how to comply with Federal requirements, but would consider our project if they are unable to resolve those issues. Although I am not holding my breath, I was able to get the issue of State support for both construction and operation of County detention facilities on the agenda for discussion by the Governor's Task Force on Juvenile Justice, headed by the Attorney General. We also discussed that issue with him in the t~ansition work group meeting on Saturday. Lack of detention is a state-wide problem and nearly all of the counties need assistance in this area. Our design work is pretty much done for now, pending a decision of purchasing the five acres to the West of us from the State. Our goal is to be ready to move directly into the final design phase (construction drawings for the bidding process) as soon as funding is approved. Timin As I shared with you a few weeks ago, we will need to move very quickly if we plan to use the May 1995 election date for a bond measure. The informational campaign will take several months and we need to gear up before that, so the timing of the Steering Committee's recommendations and your decision that will follow are critical. Operational Costs While there is no disputing the need for additional detention resources for Marion and its "partner" counties, acquiring new, expanded facilities does not solve all of the problems. The yearly cost to operate the size of facility the citizens on our subcommittee urged us to propose (128 beds) would increase by nearly S4 million per year. Most of the increase would be absorbed by us, based on our usage. Even if we only build or only operate ourselves the 96 beds we had earlier projected, the additional operating cost will be substantial and we, like the jail, are dependent almost entirely on the general fund. As you know, an additional jail pod is also being proposed and Billy Wasson and I have ruminated over how to address the operating cost dilemma. One possibility might be to present to the voters an operating levy along with a bond measure for new County facilities. This would let the voters fund both at tt~e same time, understanding the cost of doing both.