Letters
Citizens should verify the facts, costs of jail

A letter published Aug. 28 ("'Emotional' costs delay jail") stated that "emotional empowerment" was costing all of us taxpayers money. We must understand that a citizen complying with a legitimate Texas law which gives them a say in how their tax dollars are spent is not "emotional empowerment" but a legal and responsible action by a group of registered voters to show that they wish to participate in their affairs of government.

It was implied that verifying signatures on a petition cost hundreds of dollars, when in fact verifying signatures on a petition is the job of the election administrator and should not incur additional expenses. An arbitrary cost of $8,000 to conduct an election on the jail funding might be true if it had to be held as a separate election, however there is an election scheduled in November. Adding an item to the ballot would make the $8,000 additional cost very difficult if not impossible to substantiate.

An emotional sense of urgency was issued that a jail be built as soon as possible, as the jail could have been built six years ago for $6 million. However, there was no mention that the jail proposed six years ago was for a 96-bed jail, not the size proposed at present. The county had purchased and still owns the land on which to build that jail.

Reference was made to the cost of the 12-plus acres of land purchased by the county for the jail and how the price escalated in the six months prior to the county purchasing it. This has certainly raised an area of concern as well as to how the purchase of the land was handled. We have been told in public hearings and quoted in the newspaper that this was all done in the open with no secrets, that it was discussed and explained in open meetings, when in truth all negotiations were done in closed meetings. And when the court conducted the "vote" to purchase the jail land, there was no mention as to what they were purchasing, where it was, what it was for, how much it cost, nor from whom they purchased it, further keeping this from the public until the deed was done. This is evidenced by the recording of the minutes of the Commissioners Court meeting when they voted to accept the assignment of land. It is undisputable that the vote to purchase this land was done in a manner where the citizens would not know what was being done until after the purchase was made.

Whether you are for or against the jail you must understand that any delay as to building a new jail will not vary a great deal in expense to the taxpayer for housing prisoners out of county if it is done now or later. One just needs to take a calculator and an amortization table to see how much $12.6 million plus 4.6 percent interest will be at the end of 20 years. That amount will be about $19.6 million, which means spending $325,000 per year to house prisoners out of county would take about 60 years to spend the $19.6 million cost of the proposed jail. Everyone should understand that, using cost figures furnished by the county, the cost to house these same prisoners in our own jail will quite nearly equal or slightly exceed the amount it would cost to house them out of county. The fact is that the $325,000 cost per year will not go away even if a jail is built but will only be shifted to a different column of the budget.

The jail issue is an emotional one, but it should not be decided on emotion and falsehoods but on verifiable facts and need. A new jail, if funded by the citizens, should be based on truthful statements, honest and open actions, and provable facts by our elected and appointed officials. As the previous letter writer suggested, I also urge you to "do the math" and be certain that what you are being told is accurate and truthful.

Charlie Wernette

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