Santa Barbara County Grand Jury • 2016-2017 • Agency Response
Response to: SANTA BARBARA MAIN JAIL — An Outdated and Inefficient Facility

Das Williams First District Board of Supervisors Janet Wolf County Administration Building Second District*

Published: July 18, 2017 4 pages
Ver PDF original

Findings and Recommendations 4 findings

F1
The Santa Barbara County Sheriff's Department and the Santa Barbara County General Services Department have not developed a prioritized list for repair projects at the Main Jail. The Board disagrees partially with the finding. Two completed studies (Jorgensen and Marx-Okuba) have identified and prioritized repair and maintenance projects. In addition to those studies, Vanir Construction Management conducted an Americans with Disabilities Act ("ADA") assessment of the Main Jail, identifying and prioritizing such issues as facility accessibility and other ADA issues. Vanir's review remains ongoing and, as such, its report is not fully complete as of the date of this response.
Related Recommendations (1)
R1b
That the Santa Barbara County Board of Supervisors direct the Santa Barbara County General Services Department to provide cost estimates for these repair projects. The recommendation will be implemented. Preliminary estimates have already been obtained via the Jorgensen, Marx-Okuba, and Vanir studies that require further staff effort to clarify project description and costs. A final implementation plan with full estimates will be completed
F2
The Santa Barbara County Sheriff's Department and the Santa Barbara County General Services Department have not developed a prioritized list for replacement projects at the Main Jail. The Board disagrees partially with the finding. Two completed studies (Jorgensen and Marx-Okuba) have identified and prioritized repair and maintenance projects. In addition to those studies, Vanir Construction Management conducted an Americans with Disabilities Act ("ADA") assessment of the Main Jail, identifying and prioritizing such issues as facility accessibility and other ADA issues. Vanir's review remains ongoing and, as such, its report is not fully complete as of the date of this response.
Related Recommendations (1)
R2b
That the Santa Barbara County Board of Supervisors direct the Santa Barbara County General Services Department to provide cost estimates for these replacement projects. The recommendation will be implemented. Preliminary estimates have already been obtained via the Jorgensen, Mark-Okuba, and Vanir studies that require further staff effort to clarify project description and cost. A final implementation plan with full estimates will be completed
F3
The Santa Barbara County Sheriff's Department and the Santa Barbara County General Services Department have not developed a prioritized list for repurposing projects at the Main Jail. Attachment A The Board agrees with the finding.
Related Recommendations (1)
R3b
That the Santa Barbara County Board of Supervisors direct the Santa Barbara County General Services Department to provide cost estimates for these repurposing projects. The recommendation will be implemented. The Sheriff, working with expert consultants, will need to identify programs to be adjusted and space repurposed. Major construction may have to be deferred until the Northern Branch Jail is opened and can hold Mail Jail inmates during the construction. Funding for the construction costs of repurposing space has not been identified.
F4
Funding availability for Main Jail repair, replacement and repurposing will be problematic based on current budget forecasts. The Board agrees with the finding.
Related Recommendations (1)
R4
That the Santa Barbara County Board of Supervisors identify alternative funding resources for Main Jail repair, replacement and repurposing such as using a portion of the Strategic Reserve, new tax initiatives, General Obligation Bonds or creation of a specific reserve account or any combination of these. This recommendation will be implemented. Once an implementation plan with full estimates is known, the County will identify possible funding sources for high priority needs in the context of other capital and operating priorities. These may or may not include the funding sources listed by the Grand Jury, some of which require voter approval. The identification of funding sources for priority capital and maintenance projects, identified in the County's annual Capital Improvement Plan, is incorporated in the budget development process each year. These sources could include shifting of planned funding for maintenance projects, use of one time funds from unanticipated revenues/grants, uses of reserves, or the issuance of debt. In light of the County's current fiscal constraints, the ability to address the identified capital investment needed to repair, replace, or repurpose the SB Mail Jail must be balanced with the need to maintain critical public services. County of Santa Barbara BOARD OF SUPERVISORS Minute Order July 18, 2017 5 - Supervisor Williams, Supervisor Wolf, Supervisor Hartmann, Supervisor Adam, and Present: Supervisor Lavagnino COUNTY EXECUTIVE OFFICE, GENERAL SERVICES File Reference No. 17-00561 RE: HEARING - Consider recommendations regarding a response to the 2016-2017 Grand Jury Report: Santa Barbara Main Jail, as follows: (EST. TIME: 20 MIN.) a) Consider and adopt responses as the Board of Supervisors' response to the 2016-2017 Grand Jury report entitled "Santa Barbara Main Jail"; b) Approve and authorize the Chair to execute the letter and forward the letter and responses to the Presiding Judge of Santa Barbara County Superior Court; and Determine pursuant to the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) Guidelines 15378(b)(5) that the above actions are not a project subject to CEQA review, because it is a government administrative activity that does not result in direct or indirect physical changes to the environment. COUNTY EXECUTIVE OFFICER'S RECOMMENDATION: APPROVE Received and filed staff presentation and conducted public hearing. A motion was made by Supervisor Wolf, seconded by Supervisor Williams, that this matter be acted on as follows: a) Considered and adopted responses recommended by staff as amended:

* This report's PDF did not contain easily extractable text and required Optical Character Recognition (OCR) for analysis. There may be minor errors in the extracted findings and recommendations due to OCR limitations with scanned documents.