Voters in Columbia/Boone County will cast ballots in November on Proposition L, which calls for adding three-eighths-of a cent to the county’s current one-eighth cent law enforcement sales tax to fund a new county jail.
Boone County Sheriff Dwayne Carey notes the word “jail” is not in L’s ballot language, saying there is specific language that must be used:
“This is for the initial phase of a 570-bed jail to address this crisis we’re in on overcrowding,” Sheriff Carey says.
Boone County has already spent more than $2.1 million this year housing inmates out-of-county. That does not include overtime for transportation.
Meantime, the former director of the Law Enforcement Training Institute (LETI) in Columbia is one of the critics of Proposition L, which would fund a new Boone County jail. John Worden has commented on L on 939 the Eagle’s Facebook page. Boone County Sheriff Dwayne Carey addresses Mr. Worden’s criticism:
“He was a big fan of Sheriff Dwayne Carey and the Boone County Sheriff’s office until he ran the LETI (Law Enforcement Training Institute) into the ground. He then came to my office and asked me if I would make him the director at the regional training center. Of course I’m usually not in the business of hiring people that have failed in their previous gig and so I declined”
Sheriff Carey will join host Fred Parry in-studio Saturday morning at 7 on 939 the Eagle’s “CEO Roundtable.”