A petition drive aimed at stopping the county’s plan to issue up to $65 million in bonds for a proposed judicial center has been delivered to County Clerk James L. (Jimmy) Poss’ office, with 2,509 signatures on the petition to be reviewed.
The petition drive was formed after a county commission meeting where a vote was narrowly passed to approve the issuance of the bonds. The commission was deadlocked on the vote, 7–7, with County Mayor Matt Adcock breaking the tie.
At that same meeting, a 51-cent property tax increase for debt services was approved by the county commission for the 2024-25 budget. Again, the vote was deadlocked with Adcock breaking the tie. The tax increase was needed to secure the bonds, and the public was allowed 20 days to file a protest from the date of publication of the notice in the Smithville Review on Wednesday, June 26.
The petition only needed 1,361 verified voter signatures, 10-percent of voters, and garnered nearly double those needed. Poss delivered the petition to the DeKalb Election Office on Monday, where the required number signatures must be verified. Upon verification, the issue will be placed on the November ballot. If approved by voters, it would prohibit the county from issuing the specified bonds, but would not affect the property tax rate.
Lascassas Attorney Jon Slager, a DeKalb native, helped organize the petition drive and stated in a press release, “On behalf of the people that asked me to assist with this, thank you to everyone who worked so hard supporting this petition. The response by the people of this county has been overwhelming. Because of the hard work of so many, nearly double the number of signatures required have been obtained, and the deadline is still several days away. Ultimately, the DeKalb County Court Clerk will send all the petitions to the election commission next week and that is who will do an official count.”
He continued saying, “The people I got to speak with over the last few weeks had a genuine concern about the real costs of a sixty-five-million-dollar criminal justice center. Even at an interest rate of just four percent, that sixty-five million dollars would ballon to over one hundred and ten million dollars. Then where does the money come from for the additional costs of nearly doubling the corrections staff? Are the taxpayers also being asked to pay over three-hundred thousand dollars to Steve Bates for issuing these bonds? What about the threat of imminent domain and taking someone's property? The true costs of this project are staggering and will undoubtedly leave other necessary projects unfunded for decades without additional future tax increases.”
A volunteer with the petition drive, Dennis Stanley stated, “When is it ever wrong for the public to have a voice in government decisions. I saw the people’s voice in action. The days I helped with the drive the people who signed the petition were of various ages and socio-economic backgrounds. As expected, comments varied on what to do with local tax revenues from building a new school to better roads, but a criminal justice center did not appear to be high on their priority list.”
“In short, the people were obviously not happy with recent actions of the county commission as evidenced by the number of signatures on the petition,” Stanley concluded.
County Commissioner Beth Pafford, also volunteered in the drive, and said she wanted the public to know they had options. “My involvement in this was minimal, but I felt I had to let the people know that they can do something about this. I feel strongly we have other options that we have not explored thoroughly enough and this plan with this much money for 30 years is what people have a problem with.”
“If all of these petitions are cleared, people can vote to decide whether they want the county to move forward with taking out the $65 million bond that would be paid off over 30 years to support a new jail and justice center,” she concluded.
The county may have to take a “wait and see” approach to the jail/judicial center until after the November election.
