MADISON, Wis. — Dane County Executive Joe Parisi and Sheriff Kalvin Barrett got together again Monday afternoon to urge the county board to approve one of two options to fund their proposal to consolidate the Dane County Jail.
While final design work on the jail project isn’t done yet, Parisi and Barrett say the project would again be delayed if the board doesn’t secure funding by spring, because the bidding process can’t begin until the funding is approved. Due to inflation contributing to rising construction costs in the last year, county officials say it would take about $13.5 million to keep the project going.
“… The City-County Building jail is a tragedy or a lawsuit away from being shut down by the courts,” Parisi said. “We all have a responsibility to provide safe and adequate housing for people who are incarcerated and for the people who work there.”
A new resolution introduced to the County Board would move a total of $13.5 million in borrowing already authorized and not used on other county capital projects to the jail project. Since that borrowing was already approved, Parisi and Barrett say that means it would mean no additional borrowing on the county’s part.
Alternatively, two other resolutions set to be introduced would put the issue in front of voters as part of a binding referendum, asking residents to approve an additional $13.5 million in borrowing. If the board chooses to go the referendum route, they would need to approve the measure at its scheduled meeting on January 19 in order for it to be included on the April spring election ballot.
If they choose instead to reallocate the previously-approved borrowing, they would need to approve that measure before the project is put out for bids. However, reallocating the funds would require a two-thirds vote of the full County Board in order to be adopted, and Parisi has indicated in the past that he may not have the votes to clear that hurdle in previous jail project funding votes.
“The Sheriff and I stood together six months ago and asked the County Board to allow the public a say on this important project, but we were told this decision was the Board’s responsibility,” Parisi said in a statement released by his office on Monday. “So we’re here again to ask that the Board make a decision and choose one of the two reasonable paths forward on this compromise.”
Parisi and Barrett first floated the idea of a public referendum to fund the project in June. Back then, the estimate of what would be needed was closer to $10 million, but that figure has since gone up due to rising costs in the last six months. At the time, Parisi noted that additional months spent debating the project meant millions in additional costs.
Barrett has previously called conditions in the county jail “inhumane” and “not safe.”
Parisi’s office says as of now, the county is planning on putting the project out to bids in the spring, which would put them in a position to make a decision on a contract by the fall of 2023.
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