3 years at $110,000 a year for jail transition director OK’d by Monroe County, with some grumbles

Just before the Thanksgiving holiday, a rough patch was hit on the road to a new jail for Monroe County.

A disagreement emerged between the sheriff and county commissioners over the funding of someone to direct the transition—from the current jail at 7th Street and College Avenue to a new facility. No location has been decided for a new jail.

Even if the rough patch did not get smoothed out, it’s now in the rear-view mirror.

On Wednesday, Monroe County commissioners approved a change to their ARPA (American Rescue Plan Act) plan to include $110,000 a year for three years to fund a contract for someone to serve as director of the jail transition. Of the amount, $10,000 is to cover liability insurance.

The day before, the Monroe County council voted unanimously to appropriate the $330,000. For the county council, the decision was not controversial to use APRA money to fund a contract position for someone who is not now working in the sheriff’s office.

County councilors generally were persuaded that while it might be ideal to have someone who is already working in the sheriff’s office to direct a transition, in Monroe County’s situation, there no available capacity.

Monroe County sheriff Ruben Marté does not want to tap either his chief deputy, Phil Parker, or his jail commander, Kyle Gibbons to direct the transition. Marté’s view is that either of them are capable, but do not have the extra time required to put into directing the transition.

But based on their understanding of best practices from the National Institute of Corrections (NIC) Planning of New Institutions (PONI) program, county commissioners wanted the director of the new jail transition to be someone who currently works in the sheriff’s office, and to start out working part-time at the task.

Those differing points of view collided before Thanksgiving break, at a meeting on Nov. 14 that was reportedly very contentious. It was attended by: Monroe County sheriff Ruben Marté; chief deputy Phil Parker; jail commander Kyle Gibbons; county council president Kate Wiltz; councilors Cheryl Munson, and Jennifer Crossley; county board of commissioners president Penny Githens, county attorney Molly Turner-King; and Mark Martin from the National Institute of Corrections.

At a meeting of the county council later that day, Parker aired out his concerns about the idea that either he or Gibbons could serve as jail transition director. County council president Kate Wilz pointed to a planned sequence of meetings after the Thanksgiving holiday as a timeframe for sorting out the issue. The council and the commissioners would be meeting on three successive days—Nov. 27 (joint meeting of councilors and commissioners), Nov. 28 (county council), and Nov. 29 (county commissioners).

At the joint meeting this Monday (Nov. 27), commissioner Julie Thomas reacted to the idea that the sheriff would contract with someone outside the organization to direct the transition: “I’m really kind of floored right now.”

Thomas continued, “My concern is that having sat through the PONI training and having had a discussion with [the county’s design/build jail consultant] DLZ… I don’t think the structure is correct.” Thomas continued, “When we were in the PONI training and what we’ve heard from other facilities, what we heard from DLZ is that typically it is somebody within the system who becomes the transition director.”

Thomas indicated she was OK with using ARPA money to support the transition initall, but noted the county council, as the county’s fiscal body, would need to come up with a way to fund the transition after the ARPA money is expended. She put it like this: “So it’s a stop gap. And I think everybody knows that. So I’m cool with that.”

But Thomas circled back to her main concern: “I am completely unaware of why an outside person would be used for this, when I’ve not seen that done elsewhere.”

By Wednesday, Thomas had not altered her view, but said she would not try to stand in the way of the sheriff’s intent to sign a contract with a jail transition director.

A court of appeals case from earlier this year concluded that the sheriff can sign jail-related contracts without approval by the county commissioners, as long as the contracts are related to the sheriff’s statutory take-care duty towards prisoners.

Thomas put it like this: “I absolutely don’t want to stand in the way of something that we really have no business in—because this is a sheriff’s contract, and the [county] council has to appropriate it.” She continued, “I just don’t want to stick my nose into this one.” Thomas added, “I did feel like the public should hear that this is not how we were explained that the transition would work.”

Thomas also called the decision a “tip of the iceberg moment.” By that she meant that supporting the jail transition would require more than simply contracting for one position to direct the work. Thomas put it like this: “The transition is more than one person. And it’s going to take a lot.”

About Wednesday’s action by commissioners to add $330,000 to the county’s ARPA plan to fund a transition director Thomas said, “We’re gonna throw one drop into that bucket. But that bucket is huge.”

According to county attorney Jeff Cockerill, there is one point that still needs to be clarified by Baker Tilley, which is the county’s consultant on ARPA accounting. The question is whether the ARPA money can be applied towards an agreement with a new contractor, in case the jail transition director with whom the initial contract is signed for some reason doesn’t work out.

It’s not expected that county commissioners will make a decision on a new jail location before the end of the year.

The construction of a new jail, at a location different from the current one at College Avenue and 7th Street, is the county government’s response to the work of two consultants,  delivered two and a half years ago. The reports from the consultants concluded that the current county jail facility, at 7th Street and College Avenue, is failing to provide constitutional levels of care.

Updated on Nov. 30, 2023 at 7:34 p.m. On Thursday evening, Monroe County sheriff Ruben Marté sent an email message to county commissioners and county council members, as well as media outlets, outlining his objections to the statements made by county commissioners about the job of jail transition director. 

An excerpt from Marté’s message reads: “The manual does not designate ‘where’ the Director comes from. If the Commissioners would simply listen, Chief Deputy Parker had already publicly stated in the Council meeting on November 14, 2023, “absent Commander Gibbons and Assistant Commander Demmings, that person simply does not exist on the current staff.” Just to be clear, We WILL NOT return to what was displayed in our public presentation regarding the condition of the jail on February 7, 2023.” 

The reference to the presentation early in the year is to the poor jail conditions that the sheriff documented  soon after he took office on Jan. 1, 2023, having been elected in 2022.