Cuyahoga County Council is putting off a decision about building a new jail in Garfield Heights. At its meeting Tuesday, a majority of members voted against the proposed purchase of a Garfield Heights site to build the jail.
In June, Cuyahoga County Executive Chris Ronayne proposed building a $750 million facility, including offices for the sheriff’s department, public parking and enough space for more than 2,000 beds, on 72 acres of commercial land south of Downtown Cleveland.
Council President Pernel Jones, Jr. said it was a hard decision to vote against the purchase, and he had concerns about the entire jail project.
“I made the public and private request that we have public engagement so that I might hear the concerns of the residents,” Jones said. “That did not happen.”
During a Committee of the Whole meeting earlier in the day Tuesday, Councilmember Sunny Simon replaced Ronayne’s proposal with another proposition that would have let the county delay the final land purchase until funding for jail construction is secured.
“I think what the risk really is to taxpayers is to buy property that we can’t build on,” Simon said.
Some of the members who voted against buying the property during the council meeting cited the changes introduced by Simon earlier. Those members tried to bring back the original ordinance, but that proposal would have to be reintroduced to council for a new vote or a council will have to vote to reverse the changes introduced by Simon.
Ultimately, the council rejected the land purchase and members also voted unanimously against a 40-year sales tax extension to fund construction.
Ronayne, like his predecessor, Armond Budish, proposed extending a 0.25% sales tax created in 2007 to fund the construction of the Medical Mart to fund the construction of a new jail and, potentially, a courthouse.
During the campaign, Ronayne said any sales tax extension should be put up for a vote.
Several council members agree.
“I think we can get that message out, and do it the right way, and ask the taxpayers to support it,” said District 6 Councilmember Jack Schron. “In any case, it’s not going to change my decision, whether it’s today or back in committee of the whole, because I think it’s too important to not present to the voters.”
During the meeting, Ronayne’s interim Chief of Staff Brendan Doyle stressed the urgency of building a new jail during brief comments to the council.
“We’ve heard (from) our public works department regarding, if we do not move forward, the millions and millions of dollars we will be spending to try to fix our current facility, which is outdated,” Doyle said. “We don’t believe that it’s fair or appropriate that our taxpayers continue to fund that facility.”
It will likely be at least another month before any progress is made. Council is on recess for the rest of the month and meets again on September 12 when discussion of the sales tax and land purchase will continue.
