Two counties going to court

Lincoln County is taking Sagadahoc County to court in a cost sharing dispute.

The two counties, under the Lincoln Sagadahoc Jail Authority, operate the Two Bridges Regional Jail in Wiscasset. Lincoln County is asking for a ruling on upholding the cost sharing agreement that was established when the jail was built.

Lincoln County Commissioners are asking Lincoln County Superior Court for a judgment that upholds the agreement, which was set aside by the new jail consolidation law which went into effect this year.

The state set county budget caps limiting what can be raised from property taxes. Lincoln is set at 59 percent of the operating budget and Sagadahoc at 41 percent of the operating budget, regardless of the number of inmates from each county. Prior to the consolidation law that went into effect July 1, Lincoln and Sagadahoc Counties followed the law that established the jail authority in 2003. The law required the two counties to enter into an operating and governance agreement, as well as contracts between the Authority and the counties regarding cost-sharing and the placement of prisoners.

The cost sharing agreement requires that each county pay based on the annual prisoner projection. It was determined that Lincoln would pay 57 percent, and Sagadahoc would pay 43 percent. However, at the end of each budget year, each county would be given a statement indicating the actual percentage of inmates from each county for that year.

The cost sharing agreement requires a county to make an additional payment if its actual use of the jail is more than the projected amount for that county.

According to the complaint issued by Lincoln County, for the fiscal year ending in June of 2009, Sagadahoc County had 51 percent of the inmates, and Lincoln County had 49 percent for that year.

Sagadahoc Commissioners informed Lincoln County Commissioners, that based on a legal opinion they had received, the jail consolidation law supersedes the Two Bridges Regional Jail founding documents, including the cost sharing agreement.

This resulted in Lincoln County paying 57 percent of the operation’s budget with only 49 percent of the inmates, and Sagadahoc paying 43 percent with 51 percent of the inmates.

Under the jail consolidation law, and the cap limits, there is no way Lincoln County, or Sagadahoc County can recoup any money that is overpaid.

Lincoln County Commissioners maintain that the jail consolidation law can not relinquish the cost sharing agreement that was part of the legislation to develop the multicounty jail, and an agreement between the two counties and the jail authority.

Lincoln County Commissioners voted in their July meeting to pay the Authority at the same monthly rate as it had paid in 2008-2009, $222,640, and not pay the rate established by the authority for 2009-2010, amounting to $233,480, about $11,000 more each month than the year before.

Sagadahoc County paid $167,956 for July, August, September and October, the amount they were paying last year. However, because of the decrease in their total assessment, from just over $2 million to $1.9 million for 2009-2010, they will pay $159,594 for the next eight months.

The authority’s budget, which was approved by the Maine Board of Corrections, does not comply with the requirements of the cost-sharing agreement because it assesses a greater share of costs to Lincoln County than to Sagadahoc without any regard to the number of prisoners from each county.