Is using creative funding sources usual for counties in North Carolina?
That’s unusual for counties in North Carolina. The Mecklenburg County commissioners and the county managers, I think, have recognized that if we are inadequately staffed, it has a significant impact on a number of things. It means that a lot of the law enforcement work that goes on, that the police department has done, we are not able to respond to. A lot of initiatives have arrived here, which includes everything from traffic enforcement to cold-case work, that we cannot respond to. It also means directly that the jail population fills up. We built a pretrial jail that was expected in first installment to last through about 2005. It had 1,000 beds in it. We’ve already added 900 additional beds to that 1,000. And the sheriff tells me that the last pod has been opened, so that’s quickly reaching capacity. If we have to add—when we have to add another 900 beds to the pretrial jail, the expense to the county is going to be very substantial, not only to build it but also to occupy it and s
