Under most circumstances, having a 98 percent success rate would be considered excellent, but, when it comes to state compliance standards for the Wright County Jail, 98 percent is a disappointing and frustrating score.
Sheriff Gary Miller brought the report before the board at its Tuesday, July 10, meeting and, while the county was in compliance with 218 of 222 mandatory and essential rules, the four area of non-compliance were the main topic of discussion and worry.
“It is a rather major concern,” Miller told the board. “We added 10 beds and, according to the report, we need seven or eight more officers to be in compliance. I don’t understand it.”
The report, which was conducted June 21, showed that the county had 33 full-time corrections officers and the state believes the county needs 40 employees to be in compliance.
All of the violations concerned staffing problems, despite the jail being in perfect compliance in previous reports.
If the jail remains out of compliance, it could potentially be shut down, which is one reason county officials are concerned about it. The board authorized calling a meeting to include Facility Inspector Timothy Thompson in hopes of getting some questions answered and cut through some of the current confusion.
“I don’t understand this,” Commissioner Pat Sawatzke said. “It’s the exact same jail that it was when I came on the board in 1991. Back then it was fully staffed at 28 people. We’ve added five more since then and now we’re told we’re understaffed. Pretty soon we’re going to need more staff than prisoners.”
In other items on the agenda, the board:
– Authorized the county attorney’s office and the county coordinator office to draft a resolution to officially make the recorder position in Wright County an appointed position as opposed to an elected position. The county received authorization for the change from the State Legislature and publishing a resolution in the county newspaper is the next step in the process, which followed a public hearing at the July 10 meeting. Unlike most resolutions that are approved by the county board, this one will require a four-fifths approval to pass, but the board is believed to be unanimously in favor of the change.
– Received an update on the county’s tobacco compliance checks. On the first pass through, 57 of 92 retailers sold cigarettes to minors and four failed subsequent checks.
As of July 10, 13 retailers had failed to pay their fine and four have asked for the right to appeal. The county board will act as the appeal authority, but Sawatzke said it will be difficult to prove a case for the retailers.
“The minor is with a sheriff’s department officer and public health nurse at the time of the compliance check,” Sawatzke said. “He or she enters the store without cigarettes and leaves the store with cigarettes. It seems pretty obvious to me that unless all three of them are lying about it, the store sold them cigarettes, so I think an appeal will be difficult to win.”
– By a 4-1 vote, approved earmarking $10,000 for the first year of funding a Highway 55 Corridor Coalition. Sawatzke cast the dissenting vote, saying that the county hasn’t found out if cities along the proposed Hwy. 55 improvement will participate in paying off the costs of the coalition study. He said it looks like the county will be picking up all of the costs and that there is no guarantee any city would want to pay anything if they already know the county is funding the project.
– Authorized signatures on a grant resolution allowing the county’s continued participation in the Safe and Sober Communities Campaign through the Department of Public Safety.
If the county’s proposal is accepted, it will receive $30,000. Last year, the county used its award to pay for overtime for officers during high-volume traffic times like holiday weekends as well as the purchase of a radar display trailer.
In addition to county participation, the cities of Annandale, Buffalo and Howard Lake were included in the grant application.
– Awarded a contract for CSAH 18 construction between St. Michael and CSAH 37 to Buffalo Bituminous, which was the low bidder of the two bids received. Buffalo Bituminous submitted a bid of $1.57 million, which was $230,000 more than the estimated cost of the project, but $135,000 less than the bid submitted by Bauerly Companies.
– Laid over bids received for the Lake Charlotte/Martha sewer system until a public hearing can be held to discuss the bids at 7 p.m. Monday, Aug. 6. Six bids were received with a low bid of $1.15 million from Utility Systems of America Inc, Eveleth.
The low bid was almost $200,000 under the estimate. A seventh bid came in five minutes late after the bidder inadvertently went to the Buffalo City Hall instead of the courthouse. In keeping with county policy, the bid was rejected and unopened.
– Referred to the personnel committee a request from the auditor/treasurer’s office to approve a new office assistant position in the license area of the office. The license bureau in the county is extremely overloaded because, unlike many other city or county license offices, the traffic in Wright County moves through quite smoothly, but the volume is more than the current staff can handle. However, approval wasn’t granted for the immediate request because the matter hasn’t gone through the budget process.
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