Ballots for jail levy renewal due by May 20

Columbia County residents have until 8 p.m. on Tuesday, May 20 to vote on Measure 5-304 regarding the renewal of the Columbia County Jail levy. Lobbying for a “yes” vote on the measure, Columbia County Sheriff Brian Pixley said, “What it comes down to - the nuts and bolts - is my budget is $9.5 million for the jail. Out of that, we get $1 million from the County General Funds. This year, we’re slated to get about $3.9 through the US Marshals, and then we get about $3.9 million from the levy. Without the levy renewal, I’m going to have a $3.9 million gap in my budget that I’m not going to fill.”

Pixley noted a lot of the opposition he is seeing online is that “people are saying our taxes are already too high” and noted they’re not “grasping the concept.” Pixley’s concern is that without the levy, Columbia County Jail would turn into a book and release facility.

“Realistically, we are looking at potentially closing our jail and renting beds out with another county,” Pixley said. “That’s the crux of this because I’ve already asked the County to increase my General Fund budget from $1 million up to $4.5 [million], and they told me I’m lucky I’m getting a million. That’s another sore point for me; the fact that there’s only a $1 million contribution from the General Fund for our jail.”

As explained by Pixley, a book-and-release jail takes someone who is arrested or brought to the jail to be housed, processes them in, and immediately processes them out. “They do their fingerprints [and] take their picture, so the criminal charges are tied with their criminal history and we release them,” said Pixley. “If the jail closes, we won’t house any inmates here. We will take the money that we have, which is our $1 million, and split that up between a staff to transport and do book and releases, renting beds and other facilities. Our local population right now fluctuates between about 60 and 70 inmates any given day. We would drop that down to about 10 or 15.”

Measure 5-304 was first approved in 2014 and then renewed by the voters in 2017 and 2020. With the possibility of the levy not passing, Pixley feels this is “dire straits” not only for him, but for Columbia County, too. “I don’t think people are quite grasping that,” he said. “They’re either gonna pay on the front end or the back end, because my guess is if our jail closes and we’re no longer housing, my guess is homeowners’ rates, renters insurance rates, and business insurance rates will rise... For years, we struggled with having enough staff to operate because we don’t pay a lot. We’re kind of in a bad spot because we are surrounded by the large metro areas who all pay much better than we do, so we’ve always kind of struggled being fully staffed... We’ve gone from not being able to hire enough people to now we have people who are just waiting to work here, but we just don’t have the positions for them.”

If the jail were to close, inmates who aren’t booked and released would have to be sent elsewhere in the state. With other nearby Oregon counties Multnomah and Washington already releasing their own local inmates, such an inmate transfer could be to the more eastern parts of the state. Speaking on Multnomah and Washington, Pixley added, “Those are two of the biggest counties in the state of Oregon and they don’t have the staffing to keep their jails fully open, so they’re releasing people - I would venture to guess - everyday. We’re not situated to have that contract with any counties that are close... Part of the hindrance for us here in Columbia County is we are a pretty rural county, and people who live outside the cities don’t want police contact.”

Considering the fact that inflation has caused elements like medical contracts to go from $650,000 to $1.5 million between 2021 and 2023, food-services contracts to increase, and collective bargaining agreements (CBA) increasing salaries, Pixley, said, “We are doing what we can to keep our heads above water.” For more info on Measure 5-304, visit saveourjail.com or visit Don’t Bail on the Jail on Facebook.