Tuesday, November 3, 2009
Rainer succeeds in kicking the can down the road on jail overcrowding while pretending to actually be in favor of a solution.
He's not. It has to do with some kind of a "gentleman's agreement" he and the rest of the late Terrible Troika had with the three mayors not to spend any SPLOST money on jail expansion in Woodbine. Apparently, it was "off the record."So much for open government! So far as I'm concerned,if it was not discussed and voted on in open session and recorded in the minutes, it does not matter. It was a stupid and arguably illegal thing to do in the first place. Sorry,I got ahead of myself. What Rainer did was went through a little lip service to"the problem" then delayed what was scheduled to be a choice of one of several options very professionally presented during the work session. Clearly, this was a disingenuous stalling action on Rainer's part. Between the work session and the regular meeting, Burford Clarke (lifetime Mayor of Woodbine) came up to the dais to congratulate Rainer on successfully delaying it. This even after Sheriff Gregory told them that he was served with his 3rd overcrowding inmate lawsuit just today. All five commissioners ended up voting to wait, at Rainer's suggestion, until they can find out if some consulting firm or other will be able to complete yet another study of conditions at the jail within the next 60 days. However, they promise that if that firm cannot, they will take a final decision on a jail expansion option at their next regular meeting. I'll believe that when I see it.
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5 comments:
Jay the promise not to expand the current jail was recorded in th eminutes and is a legitimate concern. SPLOST was voted on and sold with this stipulation. I agree, we have to do something, but illeagally spending money may not be the wisest thing.
Do you recall when - and why? As I understand it, we have $3 million in jail earmarked SPLOsT money. It was originally marked for renovations, but they were able to repair the pipes for a fraction of the original estimate by a new technology. The clear best solution is to do exactly what the sheriff has recommended for $1.4 million of that money. Or would we rather spend that on legal fees adn housing the prisoners in another jail when a judge orders us to in the very near future?
It was January of 2007. Steve Berry and David Rainer both made mention of this agreement at the last meeting. All the mayors have written letters reminding the CCBoC of their promise. This is not something I have made up.
Okay, but what was the sense in it then, much less now?
It sure is convienent that these lawsuits start coming as soon as Tommy starts quoting in the paper everday that we could be sued. It is also funny how he has us make sure there are plenty of newspapers for the inmates to read. There are severe issues at the jail that could be handled and corrected by simple acts of leadership. The main issue is the filth, and we are not allowed to have the inmates clean it up. We are told to let it pile up so we can get a new bunkhouse for the inmates. This is all a political football that is going to keep going back and forth until we are in the same boat we were in the last 20 years. The Sheriff hates the CCBC, and vice versa.
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