Jail developer hopeful proposal could be revisited
By Shea Johnson
Staff Writer
September 12. 2015 12:01AM
ADELANTO — When Los Angeles County Supervisors opted earlier this month not to entertain a proposal to house some of their overflow inmate population in a jail to be built in Adelanto, the jail's developer said the plan was dead.
But there is some indication that Buck Johns maintains a sliver of optimism that a potential deal could be revived or at least revisited, eying a possible political play to keep the proposed facility alive.
The Daily Press has obtained a Sept. 3 email from Johns to his business partner Doc Crants in which Johns considers state Sen. Bob Huff's bid next year for L.A. County Supervisor as a possible boost to the project.Johns says in the email that Huff, R-San Dimas, plans to make a campaign issue out of L.A. County's $2 billion plan to replace the Men's Central Jail, framing it as wasteful spending.
Huff, the Senate's former minority leader, said Thursday he hasn't had any talks with Johns, who also works with his wife. He added that he agreed with L.A. County Sheriff Jim McDonnell's assessment that a 3,885-bed men's jail replacement was too small and that cost-effectiveness, in general, would be one driver of his platform.
Speaking about the failed Adelanto jail proposal, Huff acknowledged he would be a proponent of the plan only if it were to "make sense," although he said he hadn't reviewed the proposed deal's nuts and bolts.
The push-back Johns expects on the $2 billion plan would certainly not hurt the Adelanto jail proposal since it had been pitched as its only alternative. The Adelanto proposal called for L.A. County to house more than 3,200 inmates on 125 acres of land on the northeast corner of Violet and Emerald roads.
Former LA. County District Attorney Steve Cooley made the pitch to L.A. County Supervisors on Sept. 1 on behalf of Johns and Crants, who lead LCS Holdings and hired Cooley as a consultant. Cooley said Thursday he was afforded less than five minutes to attempt to woo the Supervisors, who "didn't want to hear any alternatives."
"It's very unfortunate," Cooley said. "I think the plan they adopted was a disservice to L.A. County's criminal justice system and public safety in addressing their well-documented incarceration needs going forward."
In Johns' email to Crants, he suggests engineering Cooley's endorsement of Huff in order to bolster Huff's campaign and further the project's dim hopes, but Cooley said he has had no such talks with Johns or Crants and has already endorsed Kathryn Barger for Supervisor. Barger is current Supervisor Mike Antonivich's chief deputy.
Antonivich, meanwhile, was one of three supervisors to approve the $2 billion jail replacement plan and is seeking a seat in the state Senate. In his email, Johns ponders how Cooley's endorsement of Huff, "if (Cooley) is sufficiently 'inspired,' " would "cause grief" for Antonivich and Barger, and examines the thought of Cooley also backing Antonivich's challenger for state Senate.
"There is also the possibility, Huff would craft mail pieces relative to the 'waste of taxpayer funds,' " Johns writes. "The 'waste of money' that could and should be spent on 'diversion/mental health' can cause such a clammer that the board ... with (Supervisor) Hilda (Solis) and whoever replaces (Supervisor) Don (Knabe) ... would 'demand' a facility be located in Adelanto and to kill the second massively wasteful tower."
A message left for Johns on Thursday was not immediately returned.
Crants said he was unaware of any efforts to use Huff as a means to push the project forward.
"It doesn't have any ring of reality to me," he said. "I think the Board of Supervisors have decided what they're going to do and that's what they're going to do."
Crants also said the notion wouldn't make any sense anyway considering that Huff, if elected, wouldn't take office until late 2016, well after money for L.A.'s approved jail plan had been spent and there was no longer a chance for the alternative proposal in Adelanto.
Crants and Johns will present an overview of the pitch made to L.A. County Supervisors to the Adelanto City Council on Sept. 23. Crants also insisted they weren't done trying to push a project site in Adelanto as a jail for other government agencies.
"We intend to canvass the other candidates," he said.
Shea Johnson may be reached at 760-955-5368 or SJohnson@VVDailyPress.com. Follow him on Twitter at @DP_Shea.
Comments
Post a Comment