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Looking for answers: Bemidji area could host mentally ill inmate facility, sheriff says

Bemidji Pioneer (MN) - 12/17/2014

Dec. 17--BEMIDJI -- Bemidji could host a potential pilot program for processing mentally ill criminal offenders, Beltrami County Sheriff Phil Hodapp said Tuesday.

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Hodapp reported to the Beltrami County Board of Commissioners on his activities as a member of the Offenders with Mental Illness Work Group, commissioned by the Minnesota Legislature to determine how to address offenders' needs.

Hodapp said he thought the group was focusing too much on problems in Twin Cities rather than Greater Minnesota.

"We realized the discussions were metro-centric in nature," Hodapp said.

To help broaden the spotlight to outstate Minnesota, Hodapp invited Sen. Barb Goodwin, DFL-Columbia Heights, to Bemidji to tour the jail, as well as mental and physical health facilities.

The visit highlighted the lack of adequate means in the county to handle mentally ill offenders, Hodapp said.

"We're 150 miles away from any psychiatric care facility here," he said. "We don't have any place where we can take people, where they (can't be turned) away."

Minnesota is looking at a mental hospital in Florida as a model, he said. The Florida facility has reduced recidivism and public safety expenses, Hodapp said.

"Instead of bringing them to jail, they bring them to this place," he said. "Instead of plugging them into the criminal justice system, they plug them into a health care system where they treat them for what their problems are."

Hodapp said he and other local service providers told Goodwin they would be willing to pilot a similar project in the Bemidji area, and the offer was "warmly received" in St. Paul.

"We could be at least considered as a potential location," he said. "I think that's something we should pursue."

Hodapp was named as a defendant in a lawsuit filed earlier this year by Theran Stai, a mentally ill man who was allegedly beaten while incarcerated in Beltrami County Jail. The lawsuit alleges Stai was then released improperly so that the county could avoid paying Stai's medical bills.

JAIL RENOVATION BIDS COME IN

The board approved Kraus Anderson Construction's bid price of about $4 million for renovations to the Beltrami County Jail.

Mike Clark of DLR Group, the firm that handled the bid process, said bids were above estimates because the market has turned back to favor construction firms.

"It keeps growing," Commissioner Jack Frost said of the cost of the renovations.

"Now that the bids have come in, it should stop growing," Clark replied.

The overall budget for the project the board approved was just under $5 million, with contingency funding factored in.

2015 TAX LEVY AND BUDGET APPROVED

The board voted to approve the final version of the 2015 tax levy, an increase of 7.67 percent, or about $1.34 million, over the 2014 levy. It also approved an expenditures budget of $65,033,141 for 2015, roughly $3.5 million less than the budget for 2014. The expenditure budget includes income from Beltrami County taxes as well as federal and state money.

Lucachick was unhappy with the levy, saying county staff had not given the board adequate options for cutting expenses.

"To me, it was a budget presentation, it wasn't a budget compromise," he said. "I still have not felt, even a little bit, an offering to lower that 7.67 percent."

Commissioner Joe Vene said the levy increase for 2015 helped make up for years of no increase to the levy.

"The chickens came home to roost after a period of years where we flatlined our levy," Vene said.

Lucachick was the only commissioner to vote against the levy increase.

In other business, the Board:

--Wrote off a loan of about $80,000 owed to the county by Kelliher Wood Products through the Revolving Loan Fund. KWP is the midst of bankruptcy proceedings and the loan is considered uncollectible.

--Increased commissioner salaries to $27,569.11 annually. Commissioners may choose to not accept salary increases to their own individual pay.

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(c)2014 The Bemidji Pioneer (Bemidji, Minn.)

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