New 'pay as you go' proposal

Whitman County commissioners still hold out hope for Martin Hall Juvenile Detention Center, even with Spokane County bowing out of the joint project six weeks ago.

Commissioner Pat O’Neill, who has represented the county in the Martin Hall consortium, reported a new agreement had been worked out by the group last Thursday at Medical Lake. He told the board Monday morning that representatives from all nine counties have agreed to keep Martin Hall open for one more year under a new “pay as you go” format.

The new proposal follows Spokane’s decision Oct. 25. to not support the proposed 2013 budget. That clouded the outlook for the future operation of the detention facility. O’Neill at that time said Spokane’s decision to opt out was expected to put the facility “in mothballs.”

O’Neill reported Monday the counties now plan to pay only for the beds they use at a rate of $155 a day. Since 1996, each county paid for a fixed number of bed-days per year.

However, O’Neill said, if operating reserves fall from the current $675,000 to $350,000 and remains at that level for two consecutive months, the consortium would give a 90-day notice to begin mothballing the Medical Lake facility.

He added Spokane County agreed to pay its share of a bond obligation even though that county is not partnering with the other eight counties. Each county issued bonds to pay a share of the Martin Hall renovations at Lakeland Village when the consortium was first established in 1995.

Spokane County, however, will not contribute to the center’s closing if that happens, O’Neill said.

Spokane operates its own juvenile facility, and uses Martin to house juvenile offenders when they run out of space there.

O’Neill said the Nez Perce tribe has a 10-bed juvenile hall in Lewiston, costing the tribe almost $500,000 annually to operate. The charge per day is $190.

“By June or August, they’re not going to make it, and they will come to us,” he predicted. He also said the Coeur d’Alene tribe’s cost at its juvenile hall is $185 per day.

“We could get more outside users,” he said.

“It has a bright future,” Commissioner Greg Partch said. “Martin Hall is the best thing for Whitman County.”

Whitman had been slated to pay for 912.5 beds at a cost of $141,437 under the previous budget plan.

The new policy calls for a rate of $155 per day, the same factor used under the prior plan which assigned counties a set slice of the annual operating budget regardless of the actual number of bed days used.

O’Neill said he remains very concerned about Whitman County juveniles being housed with juveniles from bigger cities.

“If our kids go to another detention facility, most of them are in bigger cities, and the kids in there are tied to gangs. I don’t want to intermix our kids from the country with inner city kids.”

O’Neill asked the board to approve an understanding that includes the 2013 budget with the pay-as-you-go policy.

“You’ve worked hard on it and did a good job for Whitman County,” Partch said.

Commissioners plan to seek a legal review of the new Martin plan and discuss the new agreement Monday.