In 2016, setting aside funding for a new county jail facility was discussed as a “top priority” for the Flathead County commissioners. Built in 1985 to hold 63 inmates, by 2005, the Flathead County Detention Center regularly housed more than 100 people. When the Old Courthouse was remodeled and the County Attorney’s Office moved there in 2017, the jail was expanded with a cost of several million dollars to hold 136 inmates. This expansion was a worthy investment and is adequate for our current capacity needs. In 2018, the commissioners hired consultants to conduct a feasibility and constructability study for a new jail, which resulted in four different plans for a new jail and an estimated price tag of $53-$73 million. Between 2018 and today, the jail building fund was raided – to the tune of $7 million – to loan dollars to the Flathead County Economic Development Authority to save the Rail Park from financial peril. The payback on that “loan” is 20 years; thus, in 2038, the jail fund will be made whole (plus 4% interest). The plan then was to fund the jail with $13 million of set aside taxpayer dollars and then ask the taxpayers to fund a $38 million bond to pay for the rest of the jail construction.
After years of discussion, paying high-priced consultants to provide a feasibility study that resulted in four different options for the jail and a multi-million dollar expansion that has yet to result in another overcrowding problem, the commissioners remain confused on how to approach “the jail issue.” In its zeal to defend itself from complaints of chronically underfunding law enforcement, the commissioners in their collective wisdom have chosen to spend more dollars on consultants to tell them what to do (again). The commissioners are now paying a consultant $160,000 to perform a “comprehensive assessment of its adult detention center to determine its current and future needs.”
Consultants love local government, especially those led by politicians who specialize in reinventing the wheel and favor discussion and “study” over action. Pacifying constituent cries to adequately fund law enforcement by hiring more consultants to tell us what we already know is offensive to law enforcement and Flathead County residents. The decision to – at the height of inflation – commission a new consultant to tell us what we already know is a waste of money. The current jail has sufficient capacity for our needs in the near term. What it suffers from is an inability to recruit staff. The $160,000 is far better spent developing hiring and retention incentives for much-needed jail staff and sheriff’s deputies. While future planning is critically important, we have the plan from the last consultant. It is sitting on a shelf collecting dust.
Tammi Fisher is an attorney and former mayor of Kalispell.