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Council schedules special meetings as commission advances ballot question for new detention center
Summary
A county commission voted to advance a capital-projects ballot question to fund a proposed new detention center; council set a July 15 special meeting and a July 20 briefing to review the voter question and outreach plan.
Chesterfield County’s Capital Project Sales Tax Commission told the council it has voted to move forward with a ballot question to fund construction of a new detention center and will continue public education ahead of a July special meeting.
"We did vote to approve to go forward with the project," Commission Chair John Long told the council, describing three meetings that vetted the detention center’s condition and funding options. After a tour he said the commission found staff and inmate conditions unacceptable and asked bond counsel to refine the voter question.
Chair Anderson set a special called meeting for July 15 at 09:00 and a combined council briefing on July 20 so members and staff can review the exact ballot language prepared by bond counsel. Council members stressed the need to explain to voters how the county would pay for the project: "It's not whether we're gonna build a jail. It's how the public chooses they want to pay for it," one council member said.
Council discussion repeatedly returned to facility conditions and population numbers. Council members noted current counts of roughly 165 people in custody and that, according to a magistrate cited in council remarks, about 72–73 of that group were detained on violent-felony charges—details council members cited to frame urgency for the project.
The commission and council described the next steps as public education about the question and legal review by bond counsel; no final design or contract award was discussed at the meeting.
