At the Quorum Court meeting Thursday, Union County Sheriff Ricky Roberts presented concerns, noting that he has sent El Dorado bills for $13,500, and, for the months of January and February, they sent back $10,000.
In 2016, the county ultimately settled on the city’s offer of a $162,000 flat rate towards housing the city’s inmates for 2017.
The jail committee met in October to review the rates for 2018. At that time, El Dorado Police Chief Billy White requested to do away with the $162,000, “and just simply go as other agencies do with the $50 a person a day. That will reduce us from $162,000 to $120,000.”
With the flat rate of $162,000, that would break down to $13,500 the city would owe the county each month. With the flat rate that White proposed ($120,000), it would be $10,000 a month.
“It was my understanding with the jail committee meeting with the city, ($120,000) was the flat rate that we were going to pay,” White said in a phone interview. “And that’s what was budgeted”
Roberts said he was drafting a letter to all of the municipalities in the county explaining that the county jail is going to start charging a jail fee where the amount will be paid by day or by contract.
The state Supreme Court ruled in a case between Mississippi County and the city of Blytheville that “a city and a county have the freedom to enter into ‘an agreement on jail costs’ whereby the county houses the city’s prisoners on a ‘per inmate day’ basis or a flat monthly rate.”
Roberts said he would rather see a flat rate set “and be done with it.”
According to state codes, “in the absence of an agreement on jail costs between a county and all municipalities having law enforcement agencies in the county, the quorum court in a county in this state may by ordinance establish a daily fee to be charged municipalities for keeping prisoners of municipalities in the county jail.”
Union County Judge Mike Loftin said the city of El Dorado uses the jail most often.
“The smaller cities, probably a daily rate would work for them,” Loftin said. “But the city of El Dorado should really be under contract. It would probably save them money in the long run and save (Roberts) a lot of headache.”
Loftin said the city needs to pay the $13,500, plus the shortage for the last two months to get caught up.
JP Carolyn Jones suggested calling a jail committee meeting before next Friday.
“We’ll get back to the quorum court with a proposal,” she said.
In other news concerning the jail, the quorum approved an ordinance to replace an inoperable recorder.
“It records everything that goes on inside and outside the jail,” Roberts said. “We have something like 64 cameras throughout the building and only half of them are working. It helps us not only in our day-to-day security, but also helps us in lawsuits.”
The sheriff also requested an ordinance for around $78,500 for maintenance at the jail. Roberts said this will allow them to put new locks on the cells and add one more control system.
The control system will allow officers to be able to access the jail pods with just a push of a button.
“Last year we came to y’all and I told you there was going to be some needed upgrades on our facility,” Roberts said. “We know this is quite a bit of money, we understand that. It’s just part of the process of starting to say we’ve got to start putting money into this jail.”
Health Insurance
JP Cecil Polk announced the renewal of the courthouse employee’s health care insurance, which will go into affect April 1.
For a single rate, the health insurance provided costs an employee $44.50 per pay period. For a family, it’s $107.37 per pay period.
Polk said the national trend on health insurance of renewal rates is an average of 12 percent a year.
“The committee agreed to and voted on that we not pass that increase on to the employees, we leave it like it is as a benefit,” Polk said. “We talk about pay raises every year … this is a pay raise. We want to take care of our employees of Union County and we feel like this is a big asset.”
Rock Island Greenway
El Dorado Alderman Billy Blann presented a proposal concerning a bike and running trail from El Dorado to Ruston, Louisiana, along the Rock Island Rail line.
Blann said the total cost for a feasibility study from Crafton Tull would be $32,000. The city of Ruston has agreed to pay half of that, and individuals have agreed to pay $6,000 leaving only $10,000 needed for the study.
The quorum agreed, on an 8-to-2 vote, that if the city raised $5,000 for the study, they would approve the other $5,000. JP Benny Vestal and JP Ross Burton voted no to approve the $5,000.
Kaitlyn Rigdon can be reached at 870-862-6611 or [email protected].