FAIRMONT–On Monday, the Martin County Board of Commissioners held a special work session to discuss and review the projected financing plan for the proposed Martin County Regional Public Safety and Justice Center.

Right now, the total projected cost is $43 million. While it was originally $38 million, members of the justice committee recently found out that due to inflation, the project is up to the current projected cost.

To date the county has received $2 million in state bond funds for pre-design and design, which was given in 2020.

Bob Long of Larkin Hoffman, the lobbyist who has been working on behalf of the county for several years, first provided an update. He said it is three weeks away from the end of the session and a bonding bill has not yet been produced.

On the senate side, Longs said a general obligation bonding bill could not be passed. On the house side, two separate bonding bills and a cash bill were passed. Combined they are worth $1.9 billion.

“Both the house and senate capital investment committees are re-working their bills to bring forward,” Long said.

He said $2.3 billion was agreed upon between the Governor, house and senate. Long said he’s been working with both representative Bjorn Olson and Senator Rich Draheim on the bills and that this is Martin County’s second chance at getting included in the house bonding bill.

The county has requested $19.2 million in state bonding but Long had previously said that no projects that were recently awarded funds were over $13 million.

“We’re hoping for something in the $12 million range…. that’s best case scenario what we’re hoping for,” Long said.

He said this is due in part to the competition for projects as there are hundreds of bills requesting money.

Long also said that it’s been made very clear that none of the money received from the bonding bill will be used for a county jail facility. He said it will be restricted to public safety operations.

“We probably want to change our bill to remove reference to the words “jail facility” in the bill,” Long said.

Commissioner Jaime Bleess questioned whether the fact that the city of Fairmont is considering updating its fire hall will affect the proposed justice center project. He asked if it could be beneficial to have conversations with the city.

“When you talk about a public safety center, a lot of times a fire department and other jurisdictions or cities or counties is included in that. Would it be beneficial in securing funding to explore those options?” Bleess asked.

Long said the bill was written several years ago and has been planned for and that adding a fire hall has never been discussed. He said to add a new component in the bill now would be challenging.

Commissioner Kathy Smith, who is on the justice center committee, said that they do have a Memorandum of Understanding between the city of Fairmont and the county that it will lease space in the justice center and that they haven’t heard any different from the city.

Next, Bill Fahey, the county’s financial consultant with Northland Securities, went over the finance plan summary and the projected total budget.

He said that the project they’re looking at moving forward is $43 million, minus the $2 million the county was previously granted for planning purposes on the project. Long said that the cash appropriation they’re looking at from the legislature right now is just over $12 million and that they’re still holding out for the congressionally directed spending request grant of $2 million.

“Then we end up with a net amount of $26 million,” Fahey said.

He said this would result in a 3.63 percent tax interest rate and an annual levy of $1.6 million and an average annual interest rate of just over 4 percent.

Fahey also touched on some “what ifs” such as what if the county doesn’t receive as much as assumed and what if interest rates increase.

“What if we don’t receive any money from the state? Then the facility would go to a 90 day facility because then all we would have available is money to build a jail. That would be tough,” Fahey said.

Commissioner Richard Koons asked when the state said that the Martin County jail would become a 90 day facility. Fahey said it’s been said a number of times, though not formally.

“The next step is the Department of Corrections is going to come to us and say, ‘we’ve been watching what you’re doing at the Capitol. You didn’t get the money, you either have to build a jail to our standards or it’s going to slip to a 90 day facility,” Fahey said.

Commissioner Elliot Belgard added that they’ve seen the inspection reports and confirmed that they pretty much say that.

Following presentations from Long and Fahey, the board discussed what it would do if it did not receive any money in state funding.

“I think Bill laid it out for us pretty good that if we don’t get state dollars or $12 million we’ll have to look at the building and what we’re going to do,” Smith said.

She said that the building was designed in three segments and could be built in three segment. She also said that they haven’t done any cuts to the original design.

Jonathan Loose of Wold Architects, said that while it’s designed to be split into three sections, it’s been designed as one building. He said if they were to drop one area, additional design work would be needed, such as future connections for additions.

“Those future additions haven’t been planned for because they’ve been designed for one building,” Loose said.

Belgard said it’s obvious why the building has been designed to house both the courts and jail.

Commissioner Steve Flohrs, who is also on the justice center committee, said he understood that so much of the court work is being done visually and that not many people would physically be in the court portion of the facility.

County Attorney Taylor McGowan confirmed that much is done virtually, but added that there are benefits to being in person. He said that he and a judge recently toured newer justice centers, with newer technology, in Redwood Falls and Granite Falls.

“There’s a lot of benefits that come with that, but I think both myself and the judge realized that if it came down to it and we had to pick and choose, that courts should be the first thing to go,” McGowan said.

He said the courts can function with the way things have gone virtually, but noted that it would be difficult for law enforcement to operate separately from the jail.

Bleess asked if there are any requirements to have court in person other than jury trials. McGowan said that right now jury trials, contested hearings and commits to prison are being done in person. He said they probably have about two of those a week.

“We’re still pretty dedicated to doing a lot of stuff remotely,” McGowan said.

However, he detailed scenarios in which Martin County’s current courthouse is not set up to separate a jury, a victim and witnesses due to lack of space.

“Those parties should be separated from each other. It’s kind of a logistical nightmare,” McGowan said.

The board also discussed the possibility of sharing beds for inmates with Faribault County’s jail.

Smith said she was afraid that if they contract with another jail, they still won’t be able to handle all mental health or addiction problems.

“I think that’s very important. That’s been part of this project since day one,” Smith said.

Fahey said that Faribault County can’t contract with Martin County for beds that they have empty today, because they may have inmates that come the next day and then Martin County’s will need to leave.

“They may be able to sign on to a limited contract, but we still need a facility here,” Fahey said.

He said that if they were to go to a 90 day facility, the cost of transporting prisoners would greatly increase. He said if they’re seeing costs of $425,000 per year now, it would jump to $715,000. and maybe even $1 million.

Bleess said from his conversations with Faribault County, they have beds available, but not staff to care for them.

“It seems like it would be a pain for officers to (transport) people over to Blue Earth, get them booked in and then if you need follow up, you have to constantly run over there,” McGowan said.

Belgard pointed out that they’re already doing that with juveniles.

Sheriff Jeff Markquart pointed out that if staff needs to transport someone from Trimont to the jail in Blue Earth, which is 40 miles one way, that’s time that they’re away from Martin County and the work that is required here.

“We can do that… but it will take more resources,” Markquart said.

Bleess added that that will be at a time when law enforcement everywhere is struggling to maintain staff at a minimum.

Smith said that the board needs to let Rep. Olson know that it’s committed if bonding dollars are granted. She said no motions could be made as it was just a work session, but that she was looking for the board’s commitment.

Bless asked what kind of amount they were looking at. Smith said $10 to $12 million.

Belgard said that if they’re granted funds, they always have the option of not taking it.

“I don’t want to say up front, ‘we’re just kidding, we don’t want that money,’ but… just because we get that money doesn’t mean we have to build the facility,” Belgard said.

Fahey added that the county would need to engage in a major contract with the state in order to receive the money.

County Coordinator Scott Higgins said, “the board has been after this since 2019. This is the (important) part of bonding money, to help reduce these costs. That’s what we’re asking today, is to continue with the effort,.”

The board members then shared their thoughts. Belgard said he’s been paying attention to the issue since before he got elected to the board 11 years ago. He said if they were to get $12 million instead of the $19 million that was originally requested, they go from there.

“From the get-go, there was no question that we were going to be frugal with the taxpayers’ dollars and we couldn’t afford to do this without help,” Belgard said.

Koons said he’s made no secret that he hasn’t been 100 percent behind getting a new jail. He also said that he wouldn’t stop any opportunity to get state money to make it work.

“I will say that I’m disappointed in our state government, not necessarily Bjorn or Draheim, but our state government and the fact that we have an $18 billion surplus and we’re paying lobbyists to replace a building that the DOC doesn’t… the state won’t help build the jail side of it,” Koons said.

He also said he believes they should move forward with pursuing funds, but that if the county doesn’t receive enough funds, his feelings may change.

Flohrs said he didn’t think they could quit now and that they need to continue to pursue the money.

While the newest commissioner, Bleess said that as a law enforcement officer who has worked in the building for 20 years, he feels like he has a good grasp of the situation.

He pointed out that in January, the state was looking to give them $18 ($19.2) million and now, about three months later, the number has reduced to just $10 to $12 million.

“In the grand scheme of things, that’s blinking and you go from $18 million to, what I’m hearing, $10 million,” Bleess said.

He that it’s a lot of information to take in and process in three months when the numbers are a moving target. He also added that in his district, which covers Fairmont, the city is also looking for money for a community center.

Finally, Smith shared that she elected in 2015 and that the justice center committee was formed in 2016. She said the first thing they did was a safety and security study which highlighted multiple problems.

“When you’re elected to be a commissioner, you need to be able to solve things for the county. If we were to say, ‘no, we can’t do this,’ we’re not solving problems and this problem is going to come up again in 5 years,” she said.

Smith also said the burden can’t fall on the taxpayers, which is why they’ve been pursuing state and federal dollars.

“I feel that $12.7 million isn’t out of the question. We also have to think about the $2 million in federal dollars that we’re in a good position to receive,” Smith said.

She said she believes they need to move ahead. Flohrs added that it would look good if the whole board was in agreement on continuing to pursue it.

“So let’s move forward,” Bleess said.