County commission rejects housing sexual predators at jail

The Pettis County Jail will not house sexual predators.

The Pettis County Commission rejected the proposal during its meeting Tuesday at the courthouse.
Pettis County Presiding Commissioner Rusty Kahrs said the commission was concerned about increased health care costs associated with the population for which the county would be responsible.

“The concerns we have with this contract are the unknown costs and the unintended consequences to our local economy and the unknown costs for medications and medical that we would have to provide. It’s just a bad business contract; it’s written to the advantage of the state,” Kahrs said.

He also said concerns about the plan’s impact on economic development efforts were a factor in the decision.
“We’ve made some significant progress attracting jobs and investment attracting jobs to Sedalia and Pettis County over the past few years,” Kahrs said. “We were encouraged to really weigh that very carefully by economic folks and city leaders. According to the experts, it would definitely have a negative impact.”

A letter submitted to the commission on Aug. 21 by Linda M. Christle, director of Economic Development Sedalia Pettis-County, said that prospective companies assess the demographics of an area when considering expansion. Sexual predators, who must register with a current address, would skew the demographics of the area, the letter states.

A letter submitted to the commission by Meg Liston, administrator of Sedalia Downtown Development Inc., on Aug. 12 said Sedalia is “entering a crucial period for attracting business to the downtown district.” According to the letter, housing sexual predators at the jail would have a negative impact on redevelopment efforts downtown.

Sheriff Kevin Bond informed the commission in July that he was working with the Department of Mental Health on a plan to hold sexual predators at the jail.

The jail would have earned $70 per day per offender for housing the 20 to 30 offenders, who are civil detainees, not inmates.
The contract could have generated $650,000 to $800,000 per year.

Kahrs pointed to letters from the Missouri Public Entity Risk Management Fund, which insures the county, recommending against the contract and from Advanced Correctional Healthcare, which provides health coverage for the jail, that said its contract with the jail would increase by more than $10,000 to cover the inmates.

Bond said Wednesday he was not surprised by the commission’s decision.
“The direction the commission has taken since the beginning when the proposal was submitted to them has leaned in that direction,” he said.

He said the increased health care costs would have been offset by the income from the state.
“That was an issue I took into consideration,” he said. “There was an amount of what the increase was going to be, and those were factored in to the cost of housing these inmates.”

He said concerns about the local economy were valid, but pointed to Kirksville, a Downtown Revitalization and Economic Assistance for Missouri Initiative, or DREAM, community, where the sheriff has a contract to house predators.
“Certainly the term sex offender ... those are charged words that raise public opinion, and there is no question there has been a lot of public opinion expressed during this process,” Bond said.

The City of Sedalia opposed the proposal. About 100 people attended a public hearing on the plan Aug. 5.

A letter submitted to the commission by Russell Childers, of Rac-Jac Properties Inc., said that approving the proposal would send “the wrong message to investors, community leaders and others for continuing growth.”