Majority of County Commission Sanction $325 Million Dollar Building Project For Juvenile Justice Center And Jail Despite the Skyrocketing County Debt While Concerns From Constituents About Overbuilding and Location Remain
Last night after a long and at times, tense meeting of the Williamson County Commission, 16 of the 24 County Commissioners voted to approve the $330 million dollar price tag.
Commissioners Ricky Jones, Judy Herbert, Jennifer Mason, Gregg Lawrence, Paul Webb, Chas Morton, Meghan Guffee, Sean Aiello, Betsy Hester, Greg Sanford, David O’Neil, Tom Tunnicliffe, Matt Williams, Interim Commissioner Cheryl Brown, Brian Beathard, and Steve Smith all voted in favor of the project.
Only Commissioners, Mary Smith, Barb Sturgeon, Brian Clifford, Lisa Hayes, Pete Stresser, Drew Torres, and Christopher Richards voted against the project. 13 commissioners are needed for a majority in any vote.
Commissioner Jeff Graves abstained.
The vote for the resolution for the project was held at around 11 pm on Monday night. Commissioner Mary Smith made a motion at around 9pm to have the all the resolutions pertaining to the JJJ project moved to the top of the agenda, so those from the public who attended the meeting would not have to wait into the wee hours of the night to witness a vote.
Both Commissioners Steve Smith and Tom Tunnecliffe objected to the motion, forcing anyone who wished to witness the vote or listen to any discussion to stay until very late.
Incidentally, both Smith and Tunnecliffe were the same two that objected to a motion to move issues of public interest to the top pf the agenda when the County Commission was voting on whether to pay Williamson Inc on the breached and expired contract they had been operating under with the County.
You can read the details of that story here.
The most predominant issue discussed at last night’s meeting was the overall cost of the project. In development for a period of several years, the cost has gone from what was said at this week’s meeting to be around $91 million dollars a handful of years ago, has ballooned to over $325 million.