Commission reviews modification to Cascade County Detention Center contract with U.S. Border Patrol

A work‑session agenda item covered a modification to a detention‑center contract between Cascade County and the Department of Homeland Security/Customs and Border Protection (US Border Patrol). The chair read the modification increasing the contract ceiling and staff explained how the federal contracting terms differentiate a contract ceiling from the amount currently obligated for payment.

A county official explained: "The ceiling is the most money they can spend with us at a certain time... The government entity obligates only... you are only authorized to pay you $2,000,000 of that 10" (Commissioner, speaker 1), using a hypothetical to show the ceiling versus obligated amounts. In this case, the modification raised the ceiling to $181,815 while the obligated amount available for billing was described as $119,000. The item was identified as an add‑on modification that also seeks to formalize earlier unsigned documents and set a new effective period with options to extend.