By Liz Beavers

Tribune Managing Editoir

KEYSER — The escalating cost of housing prisoners in regional jails, the possibility of providing satellite sites for early voting, and a revamping of the way in which county commissions hear complaints from citizens about their tax assessments were just three of the issues discussed Thursday afternoon when the Mineral County Commission hosted a regional meeting of the County Commissioners' Association of West Virginia.
The region consists of county commissions from Mineral, Hampshire, Hardy, Grant, Pendleton, Pocahontas, and Randolph counties.
Legislators present included Sen. Walt Helmick, Sen. Clark Barnes, Sen. Bob Williams, Del. Allen Evans, Del. Bob Schadler and Del. Ruth Rowan.
Vivian Parsons, executive
director of the CCAWV, chaired the meeting and explained that the purpose was to discuss various issues to be presented to the legislators for their 2010 term.
Parsons noted that the legislative climate would be expectedly different as a result of the effects of the struggling economy.
“We know it's going to be a lean year for everybody this year ... it's pretty much going to be taking care of what we have and watching out for unfunded mandates.”
One of the biggest issues discussed Thursday was the escalating cost to the counties for having inmates at the state's regional jails, and what, if anything, can be done to help ease the burden.
Parsons noted that the issue has been “the heart of what we have been working on over the past several years.
“As a whole, our membership thinks the regional jail system is a good system, but the real issue for all of us is the number of incarcerations and the lack of funds to deal with it,” she said.
Parsons said there are two basic alternatives for the counties striving to reduce their monthly regional jail bills: “One: Reduce the number of people who are incarcerated, or Two: Find some other way to pay the bill.”
“Community Corrections is a big piece of the puzzle,” she said, noting that some counties are using home confinement programs, day report centers, and other forms of alternative sentencing to help reduce the number of inmates sent to the regional jails.
The success of these programs, however, lies with the judicial system and not the county commission.
“If you don't have a judicial system that believes in community corrections, it won't work,” she said,
“The hard part, for county commissions, is that we don't really have any management ability. We pretty much just get the bills and pay them,” she said.
Mineral County Commissioner Janice LaRue shared that the local day report center, under the direction of Tara Hockaday, has been very successful and is continuing to grow rapidly.
“It has moved several times, and she's ready to move again, because they're just running out of room,” she said.
Noting that the general public wants their elected officials to be “tough on crime,” Parsons said the only answer is to be “smart” on crime and use the various methods of alternative sentencing to keep costs down.
Sen. Barnes also noted that the incidence of crime is going to continue to increase until officials are willing “to throw some money into the rehabilitation side of it.”
In discussing the proposed legislation allowing for satellite sites for early voting, Parsons said some county elections clerks had suggested that the location be set up in different sites throughout the county during the early voting period.
According to Parsons, however, the proposal is being written to say the location would be fixed in one place during the entire voting period.
And by general consensus, the commissioners present said no to the proposal of having county boards of review and equalization be able to accept appeals on tax appraisals all year around.
The process is currently held only in February.