Sain Investigating the CJC

Hardeman County Mayor Jimmy Sain asked the Hardeman County Commission during their meeting on June 21 if they knew who owned the Hardeman County Criminal Justice Center.
Turns out, nobody knew. And according to Sain, it has cost the county plenty.
 “Industrial boards do no have to bid out work,” he explained. “The county has to follow a public bidding procedure. Someone wanted Bell Construction to build our facility, so they ran it through the industrial board. This was all done to circumvent the purchasing laws of Hardeman County. The contractor did not have to bid on it.”
And the financing, according to Sain, was a problem as well.
“If we would have done it, we could have used a general obligation bond,” he said. “It has a lower interest rate, since it uses the county tax rate as collateral.”
But with the industrial board building the facility, Sain explained, they had to get a revenue bond. The industrial board had to have revenue to guarantee the bond. So the county agreed to lease the building from the industrial board, which gave them money to borrow against.
And Sain said, there’s the problem of the balloon payment.
“Not only did we get a higher rate with the revenue bond, but we financed 30 years on a balloon. Right now the payment is $1,020,000 per year, but it will end up somewhere around $1,220,000 per year before it is paid.”
“I don’t know if there is criminal activity,” he said. “But it’s disheartening to see what has gone on.”
After Sain’s explanation, he asked the commission to approve a refinance of the building that would be used to pay off the industrial board, get the building back in the county’s name, and save an estimated $1,000,000 over the life of the loan. The commissioners complied.
Sain said he hoped to have his investigation completed and presented in writing at the next commissioners meeting, which is scheduled for August 16.