A revelation divulged during County Administrator Jeff Cadwell’s opening remarks, at the March 21st public meeting on the issue of the proposed Law Enforcement/ Jail Project, pretty much tells you all you need to know.
Here’s Cadwell’s opening salvo …
“The three things that became apparent in the last couple of weeks is that, when we started this planning for this project back in the spring of 2017, those of us who knew what this project was about made several assumptions. One of them is that a Class III [jail] facility makes sense for our needs and there are a lot of reasons why that’s true; um . . . and there are reasons why people would be skeptical of that assumption.”
Might I suggest past history certainly warrants such skepticism?
And here’s Mr. Cadwell’s boldface admission …
“What we did not do is, we did not have that conversation or give that argument any voice.”
I know this will come as a shock to many of you, but I’m at a loss for words. I’m transfixed in a heightened visionary state and, for some reason, all I can picture are ostriches.
We shouldn’t be surprised, however, as quieting the voice– of what Mr. Cadwell has coined the “loud detractors” or “loud minority”–is habitual for our administrator. Reference his charge to commissioners during a June 20, 2017 Committee of the Whole budget discussion: “Anything that happens can’t be a result of outside pressure”; i.e., don’t hear the voice of the folks who’ve granted them the authority to serve us.
It’s become a predictable foray into the psycholinguistics we taxpayers encounter on seemingly a daily basis.
So here is Mr. Cadwell’s idea of a feasibility study, which, by definition, is an analysis, used in measuring the ability and likelihood to complete an expansion project successfully, including all relevant factors. Factors such as economic (material and labor costs as well as ongoing operational costs), how disruptive the project would be, the public opinion of the expansion, and laws that might affect the expansion.
Typically, project managers use feasibility studies to determine potential positive and negative outcomes of a project before investing a considerable amount of time and money–and I might add public trust; which, “much like an eraser [it’s been said] gets smaller after every mistake.”
Mr. Cadwell eschews such best practices in favor of … well, let him explain it to you:
“We started with an RFP [request for proposal] that said, ‘Give us a study that shows us a Class III facility and show us how that’s the most cost-effective way for us to operate the facilities that we are required to operate in Cook County.’ ”
I need to jump in here and point out–lest you be swayed by the perversion of the plain meaning of words– Cadwell’s use of the term “required.” The Minnesota Department of Corrections (DOC) leaves that decision up to us. We wouldn’t even need to provide a local facility if we elected not to. If we chose this option, we would be “required” to submit to the DOC a plan as to how we would meet our statutory obligation; selecting from a number of available options.
When the county administrator attempted to walk back previous claims related to costs–including a comment made during a February 25, 2019 KBJR6 interview–when he alleged, “taxpayers technically wouldn’t see an increase in their taxes for this project because of some retiring debt next year,” his March 21st reshuffle went like this …
“Um, I will say that we made those assumptions at a point in time when we were looking at relatively high inmate and high transport costs. The high water mark in the last six years was 2015 when we had $220 thousand worth of direct expenses. At that point in time, the operational costs between operating our 72 [hour holding facility] and transporting and operating a Class III [facility] and hiring four additional staff are relatively close to break even.” (Note: the four additional staff, alone, is projected to cost taxpayers $300,000). I’m not surprised Mr. Cadwell equates the $80,000 dollar difference–a 36 percent higher tab–as “close to break even.”
Anyone else dizzy from the perpetual spin?
During follow-up discussions, related to Thursday’s (March 21) public meeting, Cadwell let slip his transpicuous perception of public hearings, referring to them as “a level of entertainment, ah, of education or entertainment or whatever it is.”
If we are to take Mr. Cadwell at his word, it would appear he is diverted–dare I say amused– with the thought of citizens freely examining public characters, making comments or posing questions to officials who supposedly represent us on issues that significantly impact our lives.
Let’s just say, as some unknown seer once moralized, “If the words don’t add up, it’s usually because the truth wasn’t included in the equation.”
Former Cook County Commissioner Garry Gamble is writing this ongoing column about the various ways government works, as well as other topics. At times the column is editorial in nature.
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