Sheriff reports inmate housing costs and ongoing bills, flags out-of-county placements

Sheriff Mason briefed the Public Safety & Judiciary committee on March 6 about operations, billing items, and out-of-county inmate placements.

Mason reported 340 complaints for the month, 59 citations, 15 transports and an average of three people on electronic monitoring. Dispatch recorded 555 calls for service across police, EMS and fire.

On inmate housing, Mason said the county still has inmates held at Iowa County and expects bills for those placements; committee members asked about the Iowa County rate, and Mason said it is about $60 per inmate per day, with medical or other costs billed in addition.

Members asked about a $43,000 communications-related bill in the packet; staff and the sheriff said that may tie to a radio project or fund 150 (borrowing for the project) and that Motorola Solutions appears on the packet as a maintenance contract for Arcad RMS systems. The committee noted that it no longer needs to approve bills but keeps them on the public packet for transparency and questions.

No motions or votes related to inmate housing or contracts were taken at the meeting; committee members asked staff to keep tracking bills coming from other counties for inmate housing and project-related maintenance charges.