The Moore County Board of Commissioners voted Monday night to award a $27.2 million contract for the construction of a new public safety building and detention center in downtown Carthage, after months of sometimes rancorous public opposition and debate.
Monday night's meeting included over two hours of comments from citizens both in favor of and opposed to the new detention center. Longtime opponents from downtown Carthage, who have consistently raised concerns about the size and safety of the facility, were joined by critics of more recent vintage from Pinehurst and Southern Pines, who were focused on the cost of the facility and county's plan to borrow more than $41.4 million without voter approval to pay for it.
Those who spoke in favor of the project included former members and chairmen of the County Board of Commissioners, the Carthage Mayor and members of the town council, prominent members of the county's Republican Party, and Sheriff's department employees who actually work in the current detention center.
Morgan & Lea want jail downsized
After the public had its say, Commissioner Cindy Morgan made a motion to send the project back to the architects who designed it, to see if they could save the county up to $6 million by reducing the size of the new detention center.
Once the new 192-bed facility is built, Sheriff Lane Carter has said, his department will no longer utilize the existing jail until the new facility is full -- which could take eight to ten years. Morgan said the current jail should continue to be used, and the new facility should be scaled back accordingly.
Chairman Tim Lea seconded Morgan's motion and said it was "bad public policy" to build a 192-bed jail when only 124 additional beds are expected to be needed through 2030, adding that "$6 million could go a long way in meeting the educational needs of our children" in a time when the schools are facing steep cutbacks in state funding. He argued that a new courthouse and new detention center should be planned in tandem and that the Board should take the time to make sure it was making the best possible use of taxpayer dollars.
Morgan's motion failed three to two.
Picerno says now is the time to build
Commissioner Larry Caddell then offered a motion to accept the $27.2 million bid from D.H. Griffin, contingent upon a successful sale of the county's Limited Obligation Bonds.
Commissioner Picerno said he generally agreed that the idea of mothballing sixty-eight usable beds in the current jail for up to ten years is a bad idea, but he expressed some doubt they would be out of service for that long. When the county last expanded its jail in 1995, Picerno said, the projections were that the county would need 120 beds by 2010, "and we've had up to 168 inmates in that facility this year."
Noting that the cost of building a sufficient number of beds in 1995 would have been about one-quarter the cost of building them today, Picerno said he didn't want to under-build now and leave the county in the position of adding yet another expensive jail expansion in twenty years. He argued that both bond interest rates and construction costs are at historic lows because of the economic recession, making now the best time to move forward with the project.
Caddell's motion passed with the support of Melton and Picerno, awarding the $27.2 million construction contract.
Right2Vote tries to derail funding
Though the contract has been awarded, the public opposition may not be over. Pinehurst resident John Marcum, who has organized two gatherings of jail opponents under the moniker "Right2Vote," is trying to derail the county's plan to fund the project with Limited Obligation Bonds instead of General Obligation Bonds, which require voter approval.
The state's Local Government Commission must approve any new debt the county takes on, and Marcum made a presentation to the Commission's Executive Committee on September 7, asking that they deny approval for bonds the county will issue to pay for the jail and public safety complex. The Executive Committee took no action on Marcum's request and instead unanimously approved Moore County's bonds. But Marcum has appealed that decision to the full Commission.
"You don't have any money until the appeals process takes place," Marcum told the Commissioners on Monday night. "You don't have the money. It has not been approved."
[Late Tuesday afternoon, Assistant County Manager Ken Larking told The Times that Marcum's appeal would be heard by the full Commission on Thursday, September 23, at 9:00 am.]
Marcum was given a spot on the meeting agenda to present his concerns about the project and its financing, which ranged from the safety of the location to the design of the building and the method of financing. In addition to his presentations to the Local Government Commission, Marcum said he has gathered nearly 1,000 names on a petition in opposition to the project, though he did not indicate to whom that petition would be presented. Given the amount of money "misappropriated" in the construction project, Marcum said, his group was exploring "the full range of legal options."
One of Marcum's claims provoked a debate about bond interest rates with Commissioner Picerno. Marcum said Limited Obligation Bonds would cost the county two or three percentage points more than voter-approved General Obligation bonds. Over the twenty-year life of the debt, that could amount to $10 million to $15 million, he said.
Picerno countered that he had learned from the Board's bond counsel that the spread between Limited Obligation and General Obligation Bonds in a recent sale was only three-tenths of one percentage point — one tenth of the spread that Marcum claimed.
Picerno and Marcum also locked horns over the appropriateness of using Limited Obligation Bonds to pay for the facility rather than asking the voters to approve General Obligation bonds. Marcum contended the county had never authorized more than $10 million in borrowing without voter approval and said limited obligation bonds were "back door financing" aimed at avoiding a vote of the people.
Picerno countered that all six of the most recent jail construction projects in the state had relied on limited obligation bonds -- all approved by the Local Government Commission.
Jailers describe unsafe conditions in current facility
While critics of the jail and public safety building have been a regular feature of Commissioners meetings for months, it has been rare to hear public comment in support of the project. Monday night's meeting proved an exception to that pattern.
Perhaps the most dramatic testimony in favor of the new facility came in an unplanned statement by Daniel Samuelson, who said he worked as an officer in the existing Moore County Detention Center. "The jail is unsafe," he said, not because of the risk of inmates escaping. "It's unsafe for me, because I work there." He recounted coming home from work and telling his wife about having to fight with an inmate, because the current jail does not allow for appropriate separation of jail personnel and inmates.
"We've waited on it long enough," Samuelson said. "I've waited on it long enough . . . It's not something that my wife and my children should have to worry about, anymore."
Eddie Johnson, the Sheriff's Jail Administrator, said the county has spent "thousand and thousands of dollars" on the locking mechanisms and keys for the oldest part of the current jail, which requires near-constant maintenance. The county has only eight single inmate cells at present that it can use to segregate violent offenders, and so is currently housing seven or eight in a state facility in Raleigh, he said, costing the county $6,500 last month alone.
"I have had officers dragged into cells and beaten, because we didn't have adequate security," Johnson said. "I beg of you, we have waited long enough. Give my employees a break. Give them a nice building, safe and secure, to work in."
Support from former Commissioners, Carthage Mayor
Former Board of Commissioners Chairman Colin McKenzie defended the design process for the facility and said there had been ample opportunity for public input all along the way. "It appears to me some folks just want to obstruct progress," McKenzie said, asking "If the citizens of Moore County should vote down the commissioners' proposal, what then is the plan? More delay?"
Other current and former public officials speaking in support of the plan to build the jail in Carthage included former Board of Commissioners Chairman David Cummings, former County Commissioner Archie Kelly, Carthage Mayor Tom Stewart, Carthage Mayor Pro Tem Jean Riley, and former Moore County GOP Chairman John Owen.
George Little, Chairman of the Board of Trustees of Sandhills Community College, said he had managed every education bond issue in the county since 1986, as well as a successful $3.1 billion statewide bond issues.
"I know something about bond issues," Little said. "You don't want to do bond issues for jail facilities or courthouses." He argued that the central issues on the mind of voters in Moore County and nationwide is "jobs, jobs, jobs, jobs, jobs," and the jail project would create jobs in Moore County and have a positive impact on the local economy.
"This project is a win-win for Moore County and its economy," he added.
Opposition vows to fight on
Those comments in support of the new jail were countered by plenty of withering criticism of the facility's location, design, cost, and financing.
Ralph Redmond of Pinehurst complained that he couldn't even get an accurate count of the number of beds proposed for the new jail. He objected to the idea of "mothballing" beds in the existing jail until the new facility fills up.
Gordon Ray of Pinehurst said the new debt incurred to build the facility meant a tax increase is inevitable.
Doug Middaugh of Pinehurst said the county had not adequately investigated how Sampson County was able to build a state-approved detention center at half the per bed cost. Noting that $10 million of the $40 in limited obligation bonds will fund Moore County Public Utilities projects, he said the commissioners had not made clear what impact that borrowing will have on water and sewer rates.
Maris Riley, an active duty member of the armed forces, said he was due to return to the battlefield, where he would be sleeping in a tent in the desert. "People's comfort in their jail cell is not my concern," he said, adding "I think you are going to ruin the town."
Riley's wife, Elizabeth Riley, vowed to continue to fight the jail project: "I have to fight until I can't breathe. I'm going to fight until there is no more to fight about, 'til I lay my body down in front of a bulldozer, and you lock me up, and you get to put me in your lovely jail, and I get to sleep on the floor. That's how far I am willing to go."
"And it's not for just my four lovely beautiful children. It's for all the children at that ball field, all the children who go to that library, all the children who go to Carthage Elementary. All the families who walk up and down these streets."
