Jessica Cejnar Andrews / Friday, July 12 @ 3:38 p.m.
Del Norte Gets Another $2 Million For Jail Project; Assistant CAO Gives First Quarterly Update of County's Strategic Plan
This rendering from August 2023 shows what a rehabilitated Del Norte County Jail might look like | Image courtesy of Del Norte County
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Del Norte County has secured another roughly $2 million for improvements at the jail, allowing the county to start designing the project, Assistant CAO Randy Hooper told supervisors Tuesday.
Hooper delivered this news to the Board as part of a first quarterly update of the strategic plan it adopted in April.
The strategic plan took effect July 1 with action items spread over a three-year period, but staff got a jump on several action items during the final quarter of fiscal year 2023-24. The jail was one of those items, according to Hooper.
This follows the $3 million in federal appropriations dollars that came in fiscal year 2022 courtesy of the late U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein.
“As we have been discussing for a little bit of time now, the jail was fortunate to receive funding through a federal earmark of a little over $3 million. It’s $3 million the county didn’t previously have,” Hooper said. “The difficulty with this situation is the need exceeds what was provided.”
The items county staff took action on before the strategic plan took effect include recruiting for a new human resources director — a first for Del Norte County. The county is also revising its capital improvement planning process to allow for more input from public works and building maintenance. It’s also taking steps to conduct a compensation study and an analysis of California increase in minimum wage.
Hooper’s presentation came after the Board of Supervisors allocated $300,000 in Measure R dollars for parking lot improvements at the Veterans Memorial Hall, Del Norte County Sheriff’s Office and at the courthouse.
The assistant CAO said finding gap funding for that project was one of the preliminary action items on the strategic plan.
Meanwhile for the jail project, the $2 million in gap funding means that Del Norte County now has $5 million to address the highest priority needs at the facility. According to Hooper, with help from the Board of State and Community Corrections, the county estimated that the project would cost between $9 million and $10 million.
Those needs include upgrading a wing of the jail that was built in the 1960s, reorganizing Pods A-C into an industry-standard dormitory layout. That layout will feature new bunks, toilets, flooring, tables and lighting fixtures as well as the addition of a program room and improvements to the mental health treatment area of the jail.
According to Hooper’s staff report, the additional $2 million is coming to the county courtesy of the BSCC’s Community Corrections Partnership and CalAIM’s Providing Access and Transforming Health Initiatives programs.
The remaining roughly $4 million would come from county dollars designated for capital improvements or through financing. Hooper said County Administrative Officer Neal Lopez and Auditor Clint Schaad are in discussions with the Capital Infrastructure and Development Bank, or iBank, about the remaining funding necessary for the jail project.
“We are now at a point in the conversations with the federal agency who we’re working with, who provided the federal earmark, the USDA, on executing a contract for design services with our architects,” Hooper said.
In his report, Hooper said county is developing a professional services contract with its architect, Nichols, Melburg & Rossetto Architects for the final design of the jail project.
Other items on the strategic plan include the county’s compensation study and structure analysis as well as its reorganization of the human resources department fell under the county staffing and capacity focus area of the strategic plan.
Three consultants have responded to the RFP to conduct the compensation study and structure analysis, Hooper said. Staff will bring those proposals to the Board of Supervisors in the next meeting or two, he said.
As for the HR director position, Hooper said the county has enlisted the help of an executive recruitment professional, which is a first.
“That may be part of the reason why we’ve had difficulty in recruiting for some of these higher level positions,” he said.
Norma Williams, president of the Del Norte County Employees Association, said she was interested in seeing whether the proposals for the compensation study would come close to the $157,000 the county paid to the Collective Good for a compensation study about three years ago.
“That actually told you what we’ve known since 2016 and that is we are all grossly underpaid,” she said.
Williams mentioned California Proposition 32, which proposes an $18 hourly minimum wage and will be on the ballot on Nov. 5, as well as the state’s April 1, 2024 increase in minimum wage for fast food workers.
“Yes it may have been for one particular sector of jobs here in California, but when you’re looking at raising wages in that particular area, county employees look at that too,” she said.
Del Norte County’s development of its strategic plan included deploying the online portal ClearPlans. This public portal created by ClearGov allows residents to track the plan’s progress, Hooper said.
District 5 Supervisor Dean Wilson also pointed out that the county has accelerated its strategic plan timeline when it comes to economic development following the dissolution of the Tri-Agency Economic Development Authority.
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