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Resident questions county contracts, change orders and legal fees; county manager offers explanations
Summary
A Garwood resident raised detailed concerns about multiple resolutions — including inmate housing payments, retroactive labor agreements, change orders and legal-service contract increases — and County Manager Ed Oatman and county counsel responded with explanations of funding, retroactive payments, and shared services.
Bruce Patterson of Garwood used the public-comment period to press the commissioners for explanations on a string of agenda items, asking for specific dollar amounts and rationales.
Patterson named several resolutions and raised questions about the size and timing of payments: he asked why Reso 333 increases inmate housing payments by $655,000 and how that affected projected savings; why Reso 337, a collective bargaining agreement, was retroactive to 2023 and whether employees would receive a retroactive "check"; why Reso 341 included a $1,300,000 change order for rink construction while other contractors' change orders were handled differently; and why Reso 343 would transfer medical examiner services and nearly $10,000,000 to a regional office. He also questioned Reso 382 (a long lease of a county parking lot for $1 per year), workforce development indirect costs (Reso 390), and a 100% increase to a law firm contract (Reso 391).
"What's the new total contract amount and why is this money being given which impacts whatever savings were forecast in the past?" Patterson asked, adding later: "Please explain what legal services the taxpayers are getting for this 100% increase to their contract."
County Manager Ed Oatman responded during the meeting, citing person- and item-specific context. On the inmate housing increase he said the $655,000 increase reflected higher-than-expected prisoner counts but that "the projected savings was roughly $20,000,000 a year. So even with this increase, we are saving a little more than 19,000,000 a year by closing our jail." Regarding the collective bargaining item, Oatman said there was no "bonus check" but a retroactive true-up based on contract expiration dates and that the general increase was 3 percent; on the medical examiner, he cited difficulty in filling the role and said the county would share services with the state-managed regional examiners and do a year-end true-up based on caseloads.
County counsel also briefed the board on the Genova Burns contract language, noting the line-item funds replenish hourly billing for ongoing litigation and that a contingency-fee agreement would not cost the county unless collections were made.
The public commenter said he had a conflict and would watch the video later for additional responses. County staff offered to provide documents and line-item explanations on request.
