Major Decisions Loom for Jail, Governmental Center

Grand Traverse County commissioners are gearing up to make what Vice Chair TJ Andrews called “the most significant decision” of their board service: determining the location of the county’s new jail and the future of the Governmental Center. The latter decision will be made in conjunction with the City of Traverse City, with the goal of confirming a planned approach by the end of the year.

County commissioners heard Wednesday from GFC International, the firm leading public engagement for planning a new county jail/justice center, and Plante Moran Realpoint, the firm analyzing space needs for county and city departments. As previously reported in The Ticker, GFC interviewed representatives from health services, law enforcement, the courts, housing/homelessness organizations, reentry programs, youth/school/family systems, individuals with lived experience with the jail, and the public.

The consensus of those stakeholders is that today’s jail does not meet modern needs, particularly as it relates to increasing mental health and substance abuse issues. The justice system functions as disjointed parts rather than a cohesive whole, and the design of both the jail and courthouse creates significant operational difficulties, stakeholders said. GFC Founder Galit Cohen also said the jail’s condition leads to staff turnover, citing issues like lack of natural light and oxygen circulation and a linear layout that makes it difficult to monitor inmates. A pod-style layout is recommended for the new jail, she said.

In addition to GFC’s report summarizing community feedback, commissioners will soon receive a report from the National Institute of Corrections with hard data analyzing factors like jail population, county population, length of stay, and boarding rates at different times of year. Andrews said the goal will be to “marry” the two reports, plus work with a jail planner, to get to a preferred facility design.

Knowing what size jail the county needs is a key piece of the puzzle for Plante Moran Realpoint, which is helping the county and city decide what to do with its other departments and facilities. For example, if the jail remains in its current location on the Boardman Avenue campus, that has consequences for what can fit on the rest of that site, said Tori Manix of Plante Moran Realpoint.

The firm has toured over 330,000 square feet of county and city facilities across 13 buildings and conducted 53 department interviews to determine how buildings are being used by staff and the public today, what needs will exist in the future, and where investment should be focused. “We’re looking at all the puzzle pieces of these different facilities,” Manix said.

Initial feedback from staff focused on security and public access to parts of different buildings, the growth of online services, county operations that remain heavily office-based, and expanding departments. An estimated 80-85 percent of county departments will have staff growth over the next five years, Manix said, adding that many offices are “bursting at the seams.”

While county and city operations have some overlap, they are “not exactly identical,” Manix said. That can create challenges as the two municipalities determine the future of key shared facilities like the Governmental Center. Manix said her firm is exploring the title history of both the Governmental Center and the LaFranier campus to identify any encumbrances, a process that will include surveying and a legal review to determine exactly how those sites can be developed.

“We're going to come back with a decision-making framework,” Manix said, which will include recommendations on where specific county and city departments should be located, operations that should be adjacent or shared, and functions that could be separated. A wide range of options have been discussed for the Governmental Center property, from moving certain departments to the LaFranier campus to vacating or completely renovating the building to reenvisioning the site, potentially in a public-private partnership that could put commercial, housing, or park elements on the property.

County Administrator Nate Alger said it’s “striking” how the county’s population has shifted geographically from when the Governmental Center was built in the late 1970s to today. “The population is not in the city,” he said. “It’s surrounding the city and sprawls.” Deciding whether to move the county seat out of the city is one initial decision commissioners must make. Alger said he didn’t see much appetite for that, but once that decision is made, it will allow others to follow. Some departments must remain in the city if the city stays the county seat, while others could potentially move to LaFranier.

Commissioner Rob Hentschel expressed frustration over how much money the county has spent on jail studies over the decades, saying the county could have built the “Taj Mahal” of jails if it had put that money into the facility itself. “We’ve spent millions, I would imagine, on this topic of studying the jail,” he said, comparing it to the thwarted effort to build a Hartman-Hammond bypass. Chair Scott Sieffert said the difference is that the county is actually planning to build a new jail now and needs current information to ensure it’s the right design and not, for instance, overbuilt.

Manix said she believed county and city leaders could make an “informed decision” by the end of the year on next steps for the Governmental Center and jail. Commissioners discussed holding a study session in November on the topic. Alger said leaders need to “get into a decision-making tree at some point” to make high-level choices that “will direct the path” for those two buildings going forward. Money is already being heavily invested into the Governmental Center for repairs, and major work would be needed beyond that to modernize it, he noted.

Though facilities planning has been lengthy and costly, Andrews pointed out the importance of the process. “It’s probably the most significant decision we have made in our political careers, in terms of the amount of money we're going to spend and the consequences,” she said.