Commissioners reject jail security bid, approve roster interface; sheriff seeks opioid‑funded sergeant position as boarding costs climb

Cole County commissioners on Dec. 10 voted to reject the lone bid for the county jail’s security electronics replacement after the single proposal returned at roughly $2.09 million—well above the project budget. The sheriff told commissioners the county’s security system had been down earlier that day and recommended rejecting the bid and returning to plan next year.

At the same meeting commissioners approved a separate scope of work from Huber & Associates to implement a CivicPlus interface that will publish the jail roster on the county website; staff said the Huber scope carries no additional vendor funds and is intended only to define services for the transition from Tyler to a new records system.

Why it matters: The security‑electronics project affects operations at the jail (locks, doors and elevators). Commissioners also heard from the sheriff about sustained costs to house county inmates in other counties, increased federal inmate placements at the jail, and a sheriff’s personnel request tied to opioid settlement funds.

Security electronics bid rejection and Huber interface - The county conducted a bid opening for the jail security electronics replacement project; only one bid was received. The lone bidder’s base price (without alternates) was approximately $1,762,900 and the total with alternates was over $2,000,000. The sheriff’s office and county staff recommended rejecting the bid and re‑scoping the project; the commission voted to reject the submission (motion recorded; vote in favor). The sheriff said the security electronics outage earlier in the day underscored the need to correct the problem but that the bid pricing exceeded budget expectations. - Commissioners then voted to accept Huber & Associates’ description of services to implement the CivicPlus interface for the jail roster (motion approved). County staff said the scope clarifies work to transfer roster display from the incumbent vendor as the jail migrates records systems.

Jail boarding, federal prisoners and opioid funds - Sheriff Wheeler briefed commissioners on jail population dynamics, noting that the county continues to house a number of inmates in neighboring counties and that those boarding costs have been a significant expense. The sheriff reported boarding expense totals in recent months that pushed the annual boarding payments above $300,000 in 2024 and urged commissioners to increase the line in next year’s budget; commissioners signaled support for revisiting that allocation. - The sheriff told the commission the jail currently houses dozens of federal inmates under a federal contract that pays a per‑diem (the sheriff mentioned a common per‑diem rate of about $90 per day). He reported that federal placements can fluctuate and that the county had taken roughly $900,000–$1,000,000 in federal prisoner revenue to date in 2024; commissioners discussed the revenue projection for 2025 given recent case movement. - The sheriff asked the commission to consider funding a sergeant position in the community services/classification area, and said one of the positions might be funded from the county’s opioid settlement funds. Commissioners discussed the practical effect of committing settlement funds to a recurring staff position and noted that opioid payments are likely to continue for years but are not permanent general revenue. No final dedicated funding decision beyond the budget review was made on Dec. 10.

Quotes - “I would ask that you reject that bid at this time and then we’ll try to we’ll figure something out at a later date,” Sheriff Wheeler said in discussion of the lone security electronics bid. - “This is simply just a scope of work… there’s no funds attached to this. This is just simply so they can have a scope of work,” the sheriff said describing the Huber & Associates scope for the CivicPlus jail roster integration.

Ending: Commissioners rejected the high security electronics bid and approved the Huber scope for roster publishing, and the sheriff will return to the commission on staffing and boarding‑cost strategy as the 2025 budget process continues.