Tag: DLZ

Monroe County council grinds towards decision on new jail tax rate, could be as high as 0.2%

County councilor Marty Hawk (Aug. 16, 2024)
County council president Trent Deckard (Aug. 16, 2024)
Monroe County council work session (Aug. 16, 2024)

Depending on what the Monroe County county council does in the next six weeks, all residents of the county could see as much as a 0.19 point increase to the local income tax (LIT) rate that they currently pay.

The higher tax would be effective starting on Jan. 1, 2025.

The increase would come in the category of the correctional facilities LIT. It’s commonly known as a jail tax.

It can be enacted by the county council on all county residents, including Bloomington and Ellettsville residents.

The current rate of the county’s jail tax is 0.01 percent. So an increase of 0.19 points would bring the jail tax rate to its statutory maximum of 0.2 percent.

A 0.2 rate applied to a taxable income of $20,000 per year works out to $40 a year. Currently, someone with a taxable income of $20,000 a year pays $2 worth of jail tax.

The current local income tax rate for Monroe County residents, for all categories, totals 2.035 percent.

Based on a work session held on Friday morning, councilors are looking to decide the rate of the jail tax increase that will be advertised to the public at their next meeting on Aug. 27.  If a rate to be advertised is decided, that will allow a public hearing to be set for Sept. 16.

Assuming no intervening amendments to the rate, the council could vote on enactment anytime after Sept. 16. As long as the council acts before Nov. 1, that would make the new rate effective starting Jan. 1, 2025. Continue reading “Monroe County council grinds towards decision on new jail tax rate, could be as high as 0.2%” →

New jail notebook: 0.2% tax advised by Monroe County consultant would generate $8.5M a year

June 21, 2024 meeting of the Monroe County council’s long-term financial planning committee. From the left corner of the table next to the empty chair, going clockwise: councilors Cheryl Munson, Marty Hawk, Trent Deckard, Geoff McKim, and Peter Iversen; Mike Guerrettaz, and Greg Guerrettaz, with Financial Services Group.

This year, Monroe County should enact a corrections local income tax (LIT) at the full 0.2 percent rate that’s allowed by state law, according to Greg Guerrettaz with Financial Services Group (FSG).

Guerrettaz was speaking at a Friday morning meeting of the Monroe County council’s long-term finance planning committee. FSG is the county’s financial planning consultant.

The additional jail income tax would have an impact on all residents of the county. A household with a taxable income of $60,000 would pay $120 a year due to the jail tax. [Listen to this report] Continue reading “New jail notebook: 0.2% tax advised by Monroe County consultant would generate $8.5M a year” →

Report: Monroe County should build new jail with 450-500 beds, not renovate current one

Monroe County sheriff Ruben Marté. (April 30, 2024)
From left: Lee Jones, Julie Thomas, Penny Githens. (April 29, 2024)

Monroe County should build a new jail with 450 to 500 beds, according to a report prepared by RQAW Corporation, out of Fishers, Indiana.

The report recommends against renovating the existing facility at 7th Street and College Avenue, which has a total of 287 beds.

The estimated hard cost of a new facility, according to RQAW, is around $76 million, with additional costs like design and construction contingencies, and fixtures and furnishings, bringing the total cost to around $99 million. That’s not an estimate for a “co-located” justice center that would include space for all the courts, prosecutor, public defender, probation, and other support services.

The hard construction cost of a fully co-located new facility is pegged at around $142-152 million by DLZ,  which is the county’s consultant for master planning and designing a new jail facility. That’s based on $70-75 million for a justice center and $72-77 million for the jail and sheriff’s office. Continue reading “Report: Monroe County should build new jail with 450-500 beds, not renovate current one” →

Finance committee for new Monroe County jail set to take up topic of diversion

“What investments can the county council make for community services to reduce the number of community members entering the justice system?”

DLZ has reviewed four potential sites for building a new Monroe County jail, including the Hopewell neighborhood, the county-owned Thomson PUD, and two unspecified sites somewhere in the I-69 corridor

That’s the question at the center of the agenda  for Monday’s meeting of Monroe County’s justice fiscal advisory committee (JFAC).

The meeting makes up for the one that was blown off the schedule by the windstorm that struck the county a month ago.

When the county council created the JFAC in May, the council’s resolution set a September timeframe as the target for delivering a report to the full council.

The report is supposed to make recommendations on priorities for funding of mental health, substance abuse treatment, and a new correctional facility.

JFAC is also supposed to give guidance on investments to prevent individuals from entering the justice system, reducing recidivism, and promotion of equity. JFAC is also supposed to establish timelines for implementation.

The committee’s report is also supposed to identify funding sources within permissible uses of tax revenues. Continue reading “Finance committee for new Monroe County jail set to take up topic of diversion” →

County commissioners suspend meetings of full justice committee, issue challenge to judges to do work of their new subgroup in public

Bloomington city councilmember Jim Sims.
Administrator for the county commissioners, Angie Purdie.
Monroe County attorney Lee Baker.
From left: Monroe County commissioners Lee Jones, Penny Githens, Julie Thomas and county attorney Jeff Cockerill.

Monday’s meeting of Monroe County’s community justice response committee (CJRC) was the last one of the full committee—at least for a while.

County commissioners voted at their Wednesday work session to “suspend” future CJRC meetings, and instead to form subgroups to focus on specific issues, like judicial process, facilities and siting, and treatment.

It was a somewhat anticipated move, even if the timing had not been certain.

News of the committee’s suspended work filtered quickly through the community. At Wednesday night’s Bloomington city council meeting, councilmember Jim Sims said during his report time, “What I’d really like to hear is an explanation—I’d like to know why, and then why now.”

Tensions on the committee have recently escalated. Most recently, sheriff Ruben Marté has objected to the way commissioners portrayed publicly the process by which DLZ was selected as the architect for the new jail. Continue reading “County commissioners suspend meetings of full justice committee, issue challenge to judges to do work of their new subgroup in public” →

Movement, but no progress yet, on site selection for new Monroe County jail

Monroe County commissioner Julie Thomas (April 17, 2023)
Monroe County councilor (April 17, 2023)
Monroe circuit court court judge Darcie Fawcett (April 17, 2023)
Monroe County sheriff Ruben Marté (April 17, 2023)
DLZ’s Scott Carnegie (April 17, 2023)
Monroe County commissioner Lee Jones (April 17, 2023)
From left: Monroe County councilors Jennifer Crossley and Kate Wiltz.
Kay Weinberg with Care not Cages (April 17, 2023)
CJRC meeting on (April 17, 2023)
CJRC meeting on (April 17, 2023)

A significant bit of news out of Monday’s meeting of the community justice response committee (CJRC) was an announcement from the public mic by Bloomington’s public engagement director Kaisa Goodman.

Goodman told the committee that a tour of some county-owned land south of Catalent had been arranged for later in the week.

Touring the property, which some see as a viable site for a new jail, will be Goodman, Bloomington’s corporation counsel Beth Cate, Bloomington planning director Scott Robinson, county attorney Jeff Cockerill, jail commander Kyle Gibbons, county councilor Kate Wiltz, and possibly one other county council member.

The location of a new jail has been a wide open question since December 2022, when Bloomington’s city council unanimously rejected a rezone request  for some land in the southwestern tip of the city, where county commissioners had proposed building the new jail.

The site south of Catalent, also known as the Thomson PUD, has been frequently mentioned as a possible alternative—it’s not downtown but is closer to services and is better served by public transit. County commissioners are cool to the idea, because they have reserved the acreage for the pharmaceutical company’s possible southward expansion, among other reasons.

Despite the scheduled tour, it’s an overstatement to say that any momentum is building towards the choice of that site or any site as a new jail location. Continue reading “Movement, but no progress yet, on site selection for new Monroe County jail” →

Confrontation over transparency of jail architect selection shows continued rocky relations between Monroe County commissioners, sheriff’s office

Chief deputy sheriff Phil Parker
Administrator for the county commissioners Angie Purdie
County commissioner Julie Thomas
Monroe County attorney Jeff Cockerill
County commissioner Penny Githens

At a work session held on Wednesday, Monroe County commissioners and chief sheriff’s deputy Phil Parker did not mince words when they took up the topic of transparency in connection with the selection of DLZ as the design-build firm for a new county jail.

Making a recommendation for DLZ, as the best of three respondents to an RFQ (request for proposals), had been a six-member committee: Richard Crider, Monroe County’s fleet and building manager; David Gardner, ASI Facilities Services contractor; Lee Baker, county attorney; Kyle Gibbons, jail commander; Matt Demmings, assistant jail commander; and Angie Purdie, administrator for the commissioners.

The recommendation for DLZ was presented at a county commissioners March 8 work session. On March 22, the commissioners voted to enter into a contract with DLZ.

On Wednesday, Parker told commissioners that based on statements that have been made at recent public meetings by Crider on behalf of the RFQ review committee, and by the commissioners, about their understanding of the selection of DLZ, the public would conclude that the RFQ review committee had been in perfect alignment on every aspect of the process, and its selection of DLZ.

Parker said the committee’s work had been portrayed as if “everybody on the committee was in lockstep, there was no dysfunction on the committee about that process, that everybody was in agreement, the vote was unanimous.”

About that portrayal, Parker said, “That’s simply not true.”

Continue reading “Confrontation over transparency of jail architect selection shows continued rocky relations between Monroe County commissioners, sheriff’s office” →

DLZ gets initial nod from Monroe County for new jail design, vote 2 weeks away

Monroe County facilities director Richard Crider addresses county commissioners on March 8, 2023.
Monroe County commissioners from left: Lee Jones, Penny Githens, and Julie Thomas.

The final decision has not been made, but DLZ is likely to be the firm that Monroe County uses to master plan and design a new jail facility.

At a Wednesday morning work session, Monroe County commissioners received a brief report from a committee that they created to review three responses to a request for qualifications (RFQ), to master plan and design  a new jail.

DLZ was the company recommended by the committee. The other two responses came from Elavatus and RQRAW.

Monroe County director of facilities Richard Crider delivered the committee’s recommendation to the commissioners. About the three companies who responded, Crider said, “They are all very capable and proficient in what they do. And I believe we all felt like any one of them could provide a facility that meets our needs.”

But it was DLZ that got the committee’s nod: “One firm stood out above the rest and that was DLZ.” Crider added, “DLZ was the unanimous decision of the committee.”

Joining Crider on the RFQ review committee were: David Gardner, ASI Facilities Services contractor; Lee Baker, county attorney; Kyle Gibbons, jail commander; Matt Demmings, assistant jail commander; and Angie Purdie, administrator for the commissioners.

The commissioners do not have a regular meeting scheduled for next week, on March 15. The vote on the choice of DLZ is set for two weeks from now, on March 22. Continue reading “DLZ gets initial nod from Monroe County for new jail design, vote 2 weeks away” →