A funding increase was approved for the Douglas County Juvenile Justice Center after a lengthy, contentious debate by county commissioners that left the fate of the project uncertain.

The Douglas County Board of Commissioners voted 5-1 last Tuesday to approve an additional $10 million from the county’s general fund for the project. Commissioner Jim Cavanaugh, who cast the lone dissenting vote, accused the county of “laundering” money received from the federal government for relief to support the project, including a new juvenile detention facility.

Cavanaugh accused “lame duck” Chair Clare Duda of using money from the CARES Act to pay for the project. Duda stressed that the county isn’t “putting CARES Act dollars into this building,” but is instead using reserve funds – money that would have otherwise gone to pay for county expenses covered by the federal Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act. The county received about $166 million in federal CARES Act dollars. At the end of September, commissioners voted to allocate $26.5 million to its general fund to reimburse the county for public health and safety payroll expenses accumulated in March, April and May. Other governments receiving CARES Act funds similarly used them to cover costs associated with providing government services.

In November, the county board voted to allocate any remaining unspent CARES Act funds – expected to be about $10 million – to the general fund at the end of the year. Those unspent dollars might otherwise need to be returned to the federal government, and the county says those dollars reimburse health and safety payroll expenses for the later months of the year.

The second transfer will bring the total amount of CARES Act funds sent to the county general fund to about $36 million. But critics highlight that it’s a similar amount of money to what’s now needed to pay for delay costs and new improvements to the Juvenile Justice Center project. 

“If anybody, commissioners included, doesn’t think this belongs in our general fund, they should have made that argument a couple of months ago when we put it in there and not come along now and say, ‘Oh, I didn’t know what I was doing,’” Duda said of the relief funding.

Duda said that the county is simply using its reserve to pay for necessary expenses to finish the now-$129 million Juvenile Justice Center project.

About $7 million of the additional spending will go toward cost increases due to inflation “caused by the significant delay in construction, which is largely the result of the unsuccessful lawsuit filed in an attempt to stop the project.” The other $3 million is for facility upgrades made necessary by the coronavirus to protect the public from a future viral outbreak.

“This $10 million is for the entire project, the vast majority of which is the new justice center courthouse,” Duda said in a statement Wednesday seeking to clarify the funding.

The addition to the 108-year-old county courthouse has faced significant obstacles, prompting Duda to describe it as a “project from hell” at a recent news conference. It’s been stalled for a couple of years, facing a lawsuit and procedural challenges from opponents.

Commissioner Mike Boyle, while voting to approve the $10 million expense, said he agreed with Cavanaugh that the matter should be brought up again at the first board meeting in January – after two newly elected commissioners have been seated.

“I’m going to vote ‘yes’ so that I can bring it back,” Boyle said. “And the new members and the members who are still here will make a decision about whether or not we proceed.”

Board member Marc Kraft – referred to by Cavanaugh as Duda’s “lame duck associate” – did not seek reelection, and his seat was won by Maureen Boyle. Meanwhile, Duda was defeated in the Republican primary by Mike Friend, who went on to win in the general election in November.

Board member P.J. Morgan abstained from voting last Tuesday. Without Duda and Kraft, it’s unclear whether the project will still have support from a majority of the board members.

Instead of being used for “a failing project that is largely unnecessary,” Cavanaugh said the money should go to the people who need it – providing relief during the coronavirus pandemic.

“What’s going on here, at the height of the pandemic, is he’s going to take $10 million dollars away from the people who need it,” Cavanaugh said. “People who need rent, people who need utilities, people who need food, small businesses that need support.”

Cavanaugh said the county needs to help residents.

“We need to take the money that Washington sent here to help people and deliver it,” he said. “The first of the year when we come back, we will revisit this issue and correct what I think has been concocted behind closed doors here today as a basic theft of relief funds.”

Duda was exasperated at the continued description of the funds that have been transferred to the general funds as CARES Act money, describing Cavanaugh as “a master of misdirection who only talks about the ‘kiddie jail’ and ‘the gulag’ and about CARES Act funding.”

Duda remained adamant that “these aren’t CARES Act funds.”

“I tried to clarify that at the beginning,” Duda said. “I tried to show why they’re not. They’re not. But it sure makes good sound bites to pretend they are, so let’s not let the truth interfere with a good story.”

After the acrimonious debate wound down, the board opened the floor to public comments. Several people spoke in opposition, both in person and via Zoom, citing concerns about the proposed $10 million expenditure as well as the construction of a new juvenile detention facility in general.

One Omaha resident, Erin Schneider, said she was attending her first government meeting of any kind in person. She said that she was taken aback by the invective she saw being used by elected officials.

“This is quite possibly one of the most unprofessional displays of governance I have ever been witness to,” Schneider said, before sharing her doubts about using county funds in this way.

The meeting on Dec. 15 was the last county board meeting of 2020 – barring an unexpected emergency meeting – and the next meeting, with two new members, is scheduled for Jan. 12.