Despite talks about closing the regional jail’s juvenile facility, Hood River County leaders moved Monday to maintain their portion of overall funding to Northern Oregon Regional Corrections Facility for the next budget cycle.
The county reached consensus April 16 to ask for a cap on the county’s subsidy to NORCOR at roughly $1.5 million, the same as last year. Those dollars go toward running the jail, including adult and juvenile detention.
Commissioners said the matter won’t impact the immediate budget crisis, as the county seeks to fill a more than million-dollar budget gap in its finances.
Commissioner Les Perkins said, “At this point I would feel more comfortable setting a cap on funding for NORCOR and not direct the (jail) board to make any decisions on juvenile. I feel like it’s going to work itself out through the budget process.”
The jail in The Dalles serves member counties Hood River, Wasco, Sherman and Gilliam. Those government entities pay a subsidy to help fund NORCOR’s operations, totaling around $3.8 million a year.
Operating funds mainly come from subsidy revenue paid by the four counties, and contracts for services from other sources.
The jail’s budget message says county subsidy rates are split at 50 percent Wasco, 40 percent Hood River, 5 percent Sherman and 5 percent Gilliam County. This agreement is set to be reviewed before the 2018/2019 fiscal year budget adoption.The juvenile facility has posed financial difficulties for counties that help pay for its operations.
It also drew controversy over inmate conditions via a scathing report by Disability Rights Oregon in December.
An independent audit found that the DRO report misinterpreted some information, but did call attention to needed changes, The Dalles Chronicle reported April 12. The juvenile facility will be better because of the DRO’s report, the audit by Texas-based Mel Brown and Associates (MBA) concluded.
Hood River County asked for a no-juvenile analysis from the jail; the study found some costs in the immediate future followed by savings within the coming years.
Commissioner Bob Benton, the Hood River County representative on the NORCOR board, said closing the juvenile facility would create uncertainty and costs in the short-term.
“I think the issue of maintaining (the subsidy) the same is that we’re trying to put together a budget right now; if we request that juvenile be closed, it’s an unknown number that will cost the county that we’d need to put into our budget,” Benton said.
It could be six figures or more, he said, and by keeping funding static, “I think by working with those existing numbers we don’t have to fund that unknown or make a placeholder in this year’s budget for that.”
Benton explained that with rising costs public entities like NORCOR must pay, keeping the rate the same would essentially be a reduction.
Commissioner Rich McBride said he spoke with the jail administrator, Bryan Brandenburg, about budget numbers. According to McBride, Brandenburg said he hasn’t asked for an increase in several years, essentially leading to a flatline.
“He’s well aware that juvenile is costing us a lot of money,” McBride said. There are complications to the matter, as raising daily rates to recoup costs could cause the number of inmates to dwindle, he noted. Commissioner Karen Joplin agreed with the approach of not directing NORCOR to take a course of action on its funding. She stated, “I don’t have any interest in telling the NORCOR board what to do internally with their dollars.”
County Chair Ron Rivers said, “I think that’s what we should do and show the support — and see what we do after that two-year period.”
Benton said, “I imagine that will be a discussion that will come up again. I just feel that … once we solve our own issue we can circle back to address that in the future.”
At a busy meeting Monday night, the Hood River County Board of Commissioners heard a number of presentations, including an update on a county ID card proposal, originally presented by Columbia Gorge Ecumenical Ministries last fall.
Proponents told the board the program would be administered through The Next Door Inc., and would not require county funding. The group has drafted an ordinance to move the program forward, as well as developed an agreement for the third party to implement and administer the program on the county’s behalf.
The photo identification card system, which would be the first of its kind in the Northwest, would create a local program for residents who don’t otherwise have a government-issued card.
Short-term rentals also took center stage, at a hearing concerning the county’s upcoming legislative amendments to its overarching zoning ordinance. The zoning update came at the request of the Columbia River Gorge Commission.
After hearing testimony from about a dozen speakers, mostly in favor of more stringent residency requirements on STRs, the board decided to break up its deliberations into several pieces. To meet Gorge Commission requirements, they moved toward accepting most changes in the zoning update, but decided to hold off on the STR matter until June.
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