Despite no quorum at the jail subcommittee’s first meeting Thursday, a city official said a recommendation for a new jail site can still be delivered on time.
The Collaborative Justice Project Working Subcommittee was created during a special joint session last week. It must recommend a new jail site by next month.
"I do firmly believe that we can still make a successful recommendation to the county government,” said city council member Sydney Zulich. “...It will be a shame that we don't have those perspectives.”
Zulich, county councilor Liz Feitl, chief public defender Michael Hunt and deputy prosecutor April Wilson attended the meeting.
“We sincerely apologize for wasting everyone’s time,” Zulich said at the meeting.
County attorney Molly Turner-King said the meeting was canceled due to a failure to make quorum.
Half of the eight members — the Board of Judges, Sheriff’s Office, Mayor’s Office and Board of Commissioners — either declined to participate or have not been appointed.
Chief Deputy Sheriff Phil Parker emailed council administrator Kim Shell hours before the meeting to confirm the sheriff’s office would not be present. According to the B Square Bulletin, Parker wrote that the sheriff’s office already has communicated operational needs and requirements for a new jail site.
“Despite our repeated input, a different course was pursued,” Parker wrote to the B Square Bulletin. “There is little more we can contribute until a final property decision is made.”
Judge Mary Ellen Diekhoff declined the invitation for the board of judges to participate because decisions surrounding the jail are “fiscal and executive in nature.”
The board expressed the same sentiment through an earlier letter in February, when all nine judges indicated that they would step back from participating and wrote that the court is not “constitutionally empowered” to assist in decisions about the jail at this stage.
Turner-King said during the meeting the subcommittee is scheduled to meet June 24, if at least five members are available.
