Monroe County judges, sheriff decline jail-site working group role, first meeting canceled

When the Monroe county council, the Bloomington city council, and mayor Kerry Thomson agreed last week to form a working subgroup to recommend a location for a new county jail, the group already had a difficult task ahead of them.

The group, officially named the Collaborative Justice Project Working Group, had been given one month to come up with a recommendation for a new jail site. But the group’s first scheduled meeting, set for Thursday evening (June 18) did not take place, when only four of the eight-member working group could be present for the meeting.

That fell one short of the majority required for a quorum.

City council member Sydney Zulich, county councilor Liz Feitl, chief public defender Michael Hunt and deputy prosecutor April Wilson were in attendance. However, a few minutes past the scheduled starting time at 6 p.m., county attorney Molly Turner-King announced that the meeting would not be taking place because of a failure to make quorum.

“Since there’s no quorum, the meeting is going to be canceled, and then notice will go out next week for a scheduled date. We’re going to coordinate with the mayor’s office to see if she’s available,” she said. “Tentatively, it will be Wednesday the 24th but we’re waiting for confirmation if a fifth individual will be available that day.” The mayor or her designee counts as one of the eight members of the group who were absent.

“We sincerely apologize for wasting everyone’s time,” Zulich added.

The day before, the board of judges declined the invitation to participate in the working group. Judge Mary Ellen Diekhoff emailed the council administrator Kim Shell, saying that decisions regarding the jail are executive and fiscal in nature, and because of that, the judges don’t have a decision making role. “The Monroe Circuit Court is not constitutionally empowered to make those decisions,” Diekhoff wrote.

The decision by the judges not to send a representative to the working group echoed the sentiments in a letter to county councilors and county commissioners signed by all nine judges four months ago, in February.

The letter stated, “At this stage of the process, the Board of Judges will respectfully step back from participation in meetings of the County Commissioners and Council until such time as new information is required of the Court. The Monroe Circuit Court is not constitutionally empowered to assist in decision-making on this matter, considering that ongoing decisions to address the fate of the Zietlow Justice Building are fiscal and executive in nature.”

The Monroe County sheriff’s office, which was also invited to send a designee, confirmed earlier in the day that it would not be in attendance. That news came from chief deputy Phil Parker who emailed the council administrator declining the invitation. Responding to a text message from The B Square, Parker seemed to confirm that the sheriff’s office was declining the invitation to participate in the group’s work, not just informing the county council that no representative could attend that day.

Parker wrote: “Over the past three and a half years, the Sheriff’s Office has consistently communicated the operational needs and site requirements necessary to move this project forward. These requirements include a property capable to begin immediate construction and able to accommodate a one story design. Despite our repeated input, a different course was pursued. There is little more we can contribute until a final property decision is made. Once a site is selected, we are prepared to move forward immediately.”

The fourth member not in attendance on Thursday was a county board of commissioners designee. After the gathered officials left the table, Zulich told The B Square that even though commissioner Jody Madeira was present in the room, she could not officially be considered part of the quorum because the board had not appointed her or anyone else to the working group yet. The next full meeting of the commissioners, when they could agree to appoint a member, falls on July 2.

Given that the board of judges and the sheriff’s office have indicated they won’t be participating in the group, it’s an open question as to whether the membership should still be considered eight, for purposes of calculating whether a quorum is present.

The proposal to build a new county jail has been the focus of much back and forth between the county council and the board of commissioners in recent months. It has become an even more pressing project for the county after a 17-year-old settlement agreement with the ACLU over unconstitutional conditions at the jail was not renewed this year. The dismissal of the lawsuit means that the county will likely face new litigation over current conditions.

Before the settlement expired on May 29, the question of a new jail site at the North Park location was brought to the county council twice within the last eight months. The North Park site was rejected on both occasions.

To meet the deadline for its assignment, the working group will now have just three weeks to meet, starting next week, to settle on a recommendation for the new county jail site. The agenda for the first meeting included a review of the sites that had been previously considered, either formally or informally.