Johnson County Justice Center Still Has Some Life Left, But Supervisors Still Have Doubts

After years of meetings, plans, and compromises, the fate of the proposed $48 million dollar Johnson County Justice Center may be decided at a justice center committee meeting with the Johnson County Board of Supervisors next Wednesday evening.

This after high level of frustration on the board brought even next week's meeting being held into question.

The proposed justice center is intended to replace the inadequately sized county jail and aging county courthouse facilities. After a previous referendum to replace the jail failed years ago, the county committee had finally developed enough momentum to seriously discuss asking Johnson County voters to bond for a new facility this November. The referendum, if initiated, would require 60 percent of the vote to pass.

Supervisor Rod Sullivan said Thursday that even though there are still some clear disagreements on the board, it wouldn't be fair to cancel the committee meeting on the justice center without discussing the issue further.

"If nothing else I feel like we owe it to the people who have put in a lot of time and effort volunteering to let them know where we stand," Sullivan said.

Sullivan said this meeting will help determine the shape of the project, which the county has already invested heavily in to get this far. Besides the time involved, the county has already invested $100,000 to develop plans for the justice center.

He said that with this false start it is less likely, although not impossible, that the county will hold the countywide referendum to bond for the justice center this November, as was originally planned.

This is assuming the justice center comes up for a vote at all.

"The answer is, does it have to be this November? No." Sullivan said. "I don't want to rule that out, but it definitely has hit a snag."

Sullivan said he hadn't spoken with any members of the justice center committee prior to his decision. He did say he had spoken with Johnson County Sheriff Lonny Pulkrabek, a longtime advocate of the jail's replacement.

Sullivan described Pulkrabek as being "extraordinarily frustrated" at the latest developments.

Enter the snag

During a contentious meeting Wednesday night, the Board of Supervisors sniped back and forth at one another, with one supervisor, Terrence Neuzil, suggesting the amount should be lowered to $39 million by not only using $5 million from the county capital project budget (a move supported by some of the other supervisors) but also by cutting millions of dollars out of a future county operating budget in order to put a "down payment" on the justice center.

At this, some of the other supervisors accused Neuzil of playing politics in an election year, with supervisors Pat Harney, Sullivan and Neuzil up for reelection this November. Supervisor Janelle Rettig suggested that Neuzil was a coward for promising cuts in the budget next year that would be the responsiblity of a potentially almost entirely new board to fulfill.

Rettig challenged Neuzil to suggest the cuts he would make to the budget, but Neuzil was unable to provide any at Wednesday's meeting. Still, due to the size and importance of the bond, the supervisors insisted that a consensus must be reached by all five supervisors before moving on to the next step.

The resulting stalemate grew heated enough that there was some question whether the justice center would be dropped entirely.

Supervisors mixed on whether a final agreement is possible

Rettig said Thursday that she is the one of the member of the board who wanted the project to focus more on the courthouse, rather than replacing the courthouse and the jail at the same time. She said this is because she believes a less ambitious referendum would stand a greater chance of passing. In this way, she said she would have been happy to hear from Neuzil about ways to make the project less expensive.

Where she disagreed with Neuzil, she said, was the idea of trying to pay for a $48 million facility with $39 million.

"He just wants to pay for the rest of it with some future dollars that he can't guarantee will happen," Rettig said. "I think that's dishonest."

Rettig said that pass or fail, what she wants is for the voters of Johnson County to have a say in the direction of the justice center at the lowest price tag the county can honestly give them.  Still, she said unless Neuzil gets on board it will be impossible to go forward, and she was dubious that will happen.

Supervisor Sally Stutsman said despite appearances from a frustrating meeting, she is still optimistic progress can be made.

"I'm still hopeful that we can come to some sort of agreement and consensus about the project and continue to move it forward," Stutsman said. "The bottom line is these problems with the jail and court house are not going to resolve themselves."

Supervisor Pat Harney agreed.

"We've gotten this far, and I think we just need to work things out," he said.

Whatever the results, all four supervisors contacted by Iowa City Patch on Thursday agreed that this very public disagreement has hurt the public image both of the justice center project and of the board of supervisors.

"Frankly, I think the whole thing makes the board look foolish and I think that is unfortunate," Sullivan said.

The meeting is scheduled to occur at 4:30 p.m. next Wednesday at the Johnson County Health and Human Services building.

Supervisor Terrence Neuzil and Sheriff Lonny Pulkrabek were contacted by Iowa City Patch, but did not respond by the writing of this article.