On Monday, the Hinds County Board of Supervisors held a contentious special meeting, discussing jail expansion, use of empty space at the Henley-Young Youth Detention Center, and the LeFleur Lakes ("Two Lakes") Project.
After receiving reports from Sheriff Malcolm McMillin, Police Chief Shirlene Anderson, and Youth Court Director Harold Cooper, supervisors could not agree on a plan for housing additional inmates. Despite this, the board voted 3-2 to reallocate $175,000 from a 2005 bond, which had been earmarked for the Airport Parkway Project, toward the funding of a jail expansion. Vice President Peggy Hobson Calhoun challenged the legality of the motion, introduced by Supervisor Charles Barbour, because supervisors had not allocated the money for this purpose.
"Is all of this switching and swapping legal?" Calhoun asked.
Barbour did not state his reasons for taking money away from Airport Parkway specifically, though he said that this allocation would be refunded later. The proposed parkway, which would link downtown with Jackson/Evers International Airport, has faced opposition from supporters of the LeFleur Lakes Project because it would cut through that project's proposed artificial island.
Earlier in the meeting, Con Maloney, Hinds County representative to the Rankin-Hinds Pearl River Flood and Drainage Control District, presented a price tag for that project, originally estimated at under $200 million, "in the $1 billion range; maybe even higher."
"There is a lot of politics involved here. As all of us know, the dynamic has changed in Washington. We no longer have the same clout as we once did," he said.
When asked about a proposal to construct three bridges instead of one across the flood plain, Maloney said that changing plans now would be too costly. "Is everything going to come to a screeching halt?" he asked. "Is (one bridge) the ideal plan? Not necessarily, but I'll take it," he said.
He also added: "The Corps of Engineers want a Lamborghini or Rolls Royce, but we feel we could accept a Cadillac and get the same input for what we're doing."
Meanwhile, Supervisor Doug Anderson continued to push for housing inmates in the Mississippi Valley Title Insurance Building, which purchase falls under a 2007 $30 million bond issuance he brought to the board in December. The $14 million parking garage Anderson privately negotiated with Central Parking comprises the largest portion of the bond issuance, which also includes the construction of a penal farm and road improvements.
"(Anderson) had no interest in a new penal farm or jail expansion until the opportunity arose to purchase the Mississippi Title Building and the adjacent lot, and the proposed parking garage that would go on it. They are very much tied together," Sheriff McMillin told the Jackson Free Press. "Apparently, in his mind, the issue of public safety ranks far behind the issue of parking."
Anderson and Calhoun, whose rift escalated into Anderson locking Calhoun out of a Jan. 3 board meeting with Central Parking executives, dissented. Anderson's distaste for Calhoun, who he accused of being jealous in a Jan. 22 interview with the JFP, was palpable. Before the vote, Calhoun questioned the legality of Anderson calling the meeting and presiding over it as if he were president. "We may have violated the law," said Calhoun, who claimed President Ronnie Chappell told her that he had not called the meeting.
Anderson denied calling the meeting, and asked Chappell to state for the record that he, Chappell, had called the meeting. After hesitating, Chappell nodded.
Sheriff McMillin echoed Calhoun's complaints earlier in the meeting, when he stated: "(Anderson) thinks he's the president." While shaking the supervisors' hands, McMillin apparently shook Anderson's with such force that the supervisor winced with pain.
"Regardless of what the sheriff says, or anybody says, the city's the one who's going to approve the figures," Anderson said.
Citing efforts by George Flaggs, D-Vicksburg, and other lawmakers to reform youth incarceration, Anderson voiced his objection to housing adult inmates in youth detention centers. "Why are we housing convicted felons in the same cells as kids?" he asked.
Police Chief Anderson voiced support for Anderson's proposal to move adult misdemeanor offenders to the Mississippi Title Building.
"We'll take the Mississippi Title Building," said Chief Anderson, who suggested the Jackson Police Department could "meet (the Board of Supervisors) 50-50" in paying for it.
However, Calhoun noted that the building has no area for recreation. McMillin, who also supports Flaggs' efforts, noted in an interview that separating youth and adult offenders can be accomplished without incorporating the purchase of the Mississippi Title Building. He also echoed Henley-Young Youth Detention Center representative Claude McGinnis' concerns about involving criminal justice experts in closed-session boardroom discussions.
"I don't understand why they don't understand that (an open meetings policy) is to their advantage," he said.
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