The Douglas County Commission have said that they will not give citizens the right to vote on jail expansion because they do not have to. Instead, they plan to use a sales tax that the voters approved in 1994.

But to do so would be illegal. Here's why (in less than 2 minutes):

First, the County does not have $30 million in cash on hand to build more jail cells. So they need to take out a loan and pay it off over time. 

Second, when local governments decide to put their constituents in debt, state law requires they do one of two things first:

1. Have an election, OR
2. Give voters a window of time to circulate a petition - which if successful - would trigger an election on the question (in this case, to expand the jail)

This second option - a citizen petition - is a very low bar in terms of basic democracy and citizen rights. But the County has expressed that they have no intention of doing either of these two things.

They claim a ballot question approved in 1994 in Douglas County was written in such a way that they can issue loans on anything they want forevermore without any citizen involvement. All they have to do is use the sales tax money in question. However, attorneys hired by Justice Matters, Jim Kaup and Bill Skepnek, have exhaustively studied this issue. They have concluded that the County must give us one of these two options. They submitted our arguments on February 15, 2020 to the Douglas County Attorney, John Bullock. And they asked the County to comply with the law.

We expect the County to eventually grant its citizens the basic right to circulate a petition, preferably without any legal action. So we will need to collect 2,500 signatures to trigger an election. Our attorneys have already begun drafting legal petition language.

Third, we learned from Iowa City that voters are often ahead of their officials on criminal justice reform. In this college town, the voters repeatedly turn down jail expansions. Eventually, the system put fewer people in jail, while improving public safety! So, a petition and another vote is our best hope for a criminal justice system reform and increased alternatives to incarceration in Douglas County. 

Finally, there's one more thing worth considering: the priorities of our community. While we work feverishly to promote criminal justice reform over a $30 million (+ interest and $6-8 million/year to operate) jail expansion, our churches scramble to make-up for a homeless shelter that wasn't funded to meet the need. Does this resemble our values?