Davis County plans to issue the $24.8 million in bonds in two phases. The first would fund construction of the jail addition and cost taxpayers about $15.50 a year on a $167,000 home. The second, which could kick in as early as 2007, would pay for operation and maintenance and run homeowners an additional $35 a year.
- FARMINGTON - Davis County commissioners are going with Plan B to find funding for a 400-bed jail expansion: Ask the voters to approve a $24.8 million bond.
The three-member panel unanimously approved a resolution Tuesday to add Davis County Proposition 1 to the Nov. 2 ballot.
"This is what the people told us they wanted," Commission Chairman Dannie McConkie said after the meeting. "They told us they wanted us to step back and take another look at it and give them the chance to vote on it for themselves."
County officials contend the current 197-bed Farmington facility is packed with an inmate population hovering close to 400 on most days. How to ease the jail's overcrowding has been hanging over commissioners for nearly two years since they shocked residents by proposing a 138 percent property tax increase that would have been primarily used to expand the 10-year-old complex. They settled for a 24 percent tax hike and put off the jail issue.
If the latest bond proposal survives the fall election, it would increase property taxes by about $50 on a $167,000 home. Officials hope to soften the financial blow to taxpayers by issuing the new bond in two increments.
Taxpayers may not notice the first tax bite because they already pay an average of $15 a year on the current jail bond, set to expire in February 2006. The second phase will be more dramatic, tacking on an additional $35 a year as soon as 2007.
McConkie didn't speculate about the bond's chances of passing at the polls.
"We are confident only that we have followed the correct procedures in getting this thing before the people on the ballot," McConkie said.
"Corrections is a core function of county government, and this is something we have to do to protect our citizens," he added. "We hope common sense will prevail. Our residents need to take the time to review in careful detail all of the information we are dealing with. Once they do that, it's really the only conclusion as population continues to grow."
Mayors of the 15 cities in Davis County have endorsed the proposition, as did a citizens' panel, which spent 10 months studying the issue.
Bountiful resident Frank Cline, a teacher who has volunteered at the jail, attended Tuesday's commission meeting and derided the findings of the citizens panel and criticized the county's plan to house state and federal inmates at the jail.
"Seventy to 80 percent of the inmates there should be in the state prison," he told commissioners.
McConkie said the inmates were there "because they broke the law."
"Speak to the judges," he told Cline. "They are the one who are doing the sentencing."
Commissioners invited residents who have questions regarding the jail, its operations or how money from the bonds would be used to fund the expansion to attend three public meetings, Oct. 5, 6, and 7. Information on the public meetings as well as the complete report of the citizens panel can be found on the county Web site at http://www.co.davis.ut.us
lorib@sltrib.com
