Kootenai County commissioners to reexamine Justice Building project

COEUR d’ALENE — In the face of growing costs, Kootenai County commissioners will reevaluate the scope of the ongoing Justice Building expansion project.

Commissioner Bruce Mattare suggested Tuesday that a planned fourth floor, which is meant to house the Kootenai County Prosecutor’s Office, could be scrapped in order to cut costs.

“We’ve never had a full discussion, a meaningful discussion, about what the total cost of this building would be,” Mattare said Tuesday, during the board’s weekly status update meeting.

The county broke ground last month on the 60,000-square-foot expansion, which will add three courtrooms and facilities for the Sheriff’s Office, district court employees, prosecutors and other county staff.

Last February, the project’s cost was estimated to be about $22 million. In June 2022, commissioners allocated $24 million in American Rescue Plan Act funds for the expansion, at the recommendation of the Kootenai County ARPA Task Force.

Since then, the project’s estimated cost has grown to more than $38 million.

“At this point, I cannot support this building any more unless the following conditions are met,” Mattare said Tuesday.

The conditions include data on how the county will pay for the completion of two unfinished dormitory pods at the Kootenai County jail, the Sheriff’s Office’s move into the Hayden building formerly occupied by Kootenai Electric Cooperative and the Justice Building expansion — in that order.

Mattare indicated the county does not have enough money in fund balance to complete all three projects and keep sufficient funds in reserve.

Both Commissioner Bill Brooks and Sheriff Bob Norris have pushed for ARPA funds to be spent on the jail pods rather than the Justice Building. The “shells” of the pods were built during the last jail expansion in 2018 but remain unfinished.

Federal guidelines forbid using ARPA funds to expand jail capacity in response to an increased crime rate or need for physical distancing, but Norris said he believes Kootenai County can do it.

“There are jails in Idaho that were in the same position that we are and they are using ARPA funds to complete the build out of their jails because of the necessity to be able to quarantine and separate inmates from one part of the jail to another,” Norris said Tuesday.

He pointed specifically to Bonneville County, where the sheriff’s office broke ground in June on a jail expansion that serves inmates with special medical and mental needs, including those who have developmental disabilities or who are suicidal.

East Idaho News reported that Bonneville County received $17.2 million in federal funding for the project, but it’s unclear whether those are ARPA funds. The Bonneville County Sheriff’s Office did not immediately return a phone call about the matter Tuesday.

When fully staffed, the Kootenai County jail’s functional capacity is around 380 people — about 80% of its total capacity — though Norris said a population of around 360 people would be more manageable.

The jail’s average population is 488 people, according to the Kootenai County Sheriff’s Office. Norris said the facility is so overcrowded that some inmates are sleeping in bunks on the floor.

“From a public safety and officer safety standpoint, the completion of the jail pods is absolutely crucial,” he said.

Completing the pods would add 108 beds and cost about $10 million, Norris said.

“If we do not expand the jail, there is no plan B to manage the number of inmates in our jail,” Mattare said Tuesday.

Commissioner Leslie Duncan, who has long championed the Justice Building expansion, noted that Kootenai County currently has more judges than courtrooms. This creates roadblocks for the legal system.

“To cancel the whole building is going to cost millions of dollars,” she said. “And guess what the building actually does? It increases our ability to get people out of the jail and through the system faster. We have to share courtrooms right now. This is five years overdue. This actually helps the jail overcrowding problem.”

Duncan said she’s confident the county can fund the Justice Building expansion and jail pods. But she suggested the sheriff’s office can wait for its move to the Hayden office.

“We have to have a jail,” she said. “We have to have courts. (The sheriff’s office doesn’t) have to move.”

Commissioners are expected to address the matter again Oct. 17.