Oklahoma County jail may get $42M to combat virus
Oklahoma County officials voted Thursday to give $42 million to the trust overseeing the overcrowded jail to fight COVID-19.
The votes on how to spend CARES Act funding came after jail trustee Sue Ann Arnall told the Budget Board "we're at a crisis situation right now."
"We're close to 2,000 inmates," she said. "We're stacking them up. It's extremely dangerous. We are so subject to lawsuits right now with this large number of people in the jail.
"And we can't even COVID test enough. We don't have the funding to COVID test to bring the defendants over here for court, so we stack up even more because their court cases keep getting extended, extended. The county is going to have to pay for this one way or another."
The actions by the Budget
Board are not the final say. The three county commissioners will meet Friday and again Wednesday to ratify or reject the funding allocations.
Opposing the actions was Commissioner Carrie Blumert, who left the Budget Board meeting in tears near the end.
"This is crazy," she said before exiting. "We're throwing money around. There are 40 something million dollars, and we're just pressing buttons. And we haven't sat through and thought through any of this. ... This is so disrespectful to our citizens. I am so ashamed that this is what's happening right now."
Afterward, she said she had hoped the funds could be used to alleviate the suffering of more Oklahoma County residents facing evictions, bankruptcies and homelessness "because of our government's inadequate response to COVID-19."
"I have received hundreds of calls from individuals, nonprofits and local businesses asking for help," she said.
Commissioner Kevin Calvey said during the meeting that it is irresponsible to take on new tasks "before we take care of our own house."
"This is putting our own house in order," he said.
He said the state is the one to help businesses and others impacted by the pandemic not the county.
"How do you pick which businesses are going to get it and which don't? How do you pick a lot of these things? We are not equipped to do this sort of thing," Calvey said.
Since July 1, at least 149 inmates have been infected by a COVID-19 outbreak, officials said Wednesday. The total was expected to increase as more test results come in.
Detention officers also have been infected or are in quarantine at home because of the outbreak. At times, only eight detention officers have been present for shifts, The Oklahoman was told. Oklahoma City police officers stationed at the jail have relocated for safety reasons to offices across the street.
The votes Thursday were to allocate $36 million to the jail's general operating account, $3 million to "hero" pay and $3 million to capital expenditures to improve plumbing and air conditioning.
Raising concerns at length was Treasurer Butch Freeman.
He encouraged county officials to wait for legal guidance from District Attorney David Prater before moving forward on the $36 million allocation. He warned the county would be "on the hook" if federal auditors determined that allocation was not justified or even legal.
"There are so many questions with this," Freeman said. "I'm sacred to death of doing this, folks. I'm sacred to death."
Congress in March approved a $2 trillion relief bill known as the CARES Act, which included funding to help individuals, businesses, health care providers and governments. The county's share was more than $47.2 million.
The Budget Board voted Aug. 6 to use $1.5 million on an eviction mitigation program. County commissioners gave final approval to that allocation Wednesday in a 2-1 vote.
That $ 1.5 million will go to one of the county's public trusts, which will then send the money to the Community CARES Partners group, which is administering eviction mitigation services using money from the state and the Oklahoma City city government.