FARMINGTON — A long-awaited report on a proposed $24 million jail expansion backs the project.

Committee Chairman Paul Barker told Davis County commissioners Tuesday the committee unanimously agreed that under current conditions the public safety of Davis County citizens is being jeopardized and the safety of jail staff is at risk because of the jail's overcrowding.

"Furthermore, the county faces significant liability with potential inmate or staff lawsuits a distinct possibility," Barker said.

County commissioners will study the report this week and it will be on next week's commission agenda for action.

The county has been discussing an addition to the current jail for a couple of years and it was a hot topic during the 2003 county budget hearing with dozens of people speaking against it.

The commission, however, is concerned that with the overcrowding of the jail, the federal government will step in and mandate the county build a new jail that could cost more than if the county controls the project.

"We believe that a jail expansion will take place in the foreseeable future and would prefer that it not take place on terms dictated by a federal consent decree, but rather by local input," Barker said.

The committee, formed last August, met nine times in 10 months and Barker said members were not coerced or pressured to arrive at its conclusion by any county officials or Sheriff Bud Cox, Barker said. The committee consisted of a judge, attorneys, citizens-at-large, educators, business representatives, clergy, a mayor, a chief of police, a city council representative, a building contractor, and present and former law officers.

The charge to the committee was to assess whether the Davis County Jail needs to be expanded and, if so, the extent of the need and to what degree the proposed expansion would meet the current and future corrections needs of the county.

"We, as a committee, are taxpaying citizens who have taken this responsibility soberly and are not lightly inclined to see taxes increased," Barker said. He was joined at the commission meeting by committee members Lee Secrist, a retired Los Angeles County Sheriff's officer who worked at the L.A. County Jail; Scott Quiney, a real estate agent; and Chad Vanderlinden, a research analyst for the Utah Taxpayers Association.

If the matter is put before taxpayers on the November ballot, it will have to be prepared no later than Sept. 13, commission Chairman Dannie McConkie said.

The bond would be a general obligation bond and cost the owner of an average house appraised at $167,000 about $15.43 per year. The bond that built the existing jail will expire in three years, so if voters approve the new bond, they will continue paying about the same amount, not an additional amount.

After the expanded jail is opened, after about 18 months of construction, the operation and maintenance expenses will cost about $5 million per year, which will require a tax increase, increases in other revenues or reductions in expenditures. If it is paid for by a tax increase, it would cost the average homeowner about $35 per year.

The committee's report states the county's population has increased from 187,000 in 1990 to 251,713 in 2003, a 35 percent increase. The current jail population fluctuates between 490 and 510 inmates and reached capacity at the end of 2000. The projected need in five years is for 740 beds and in 10 years, 924 beds.

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