Monday, Oct. 29, 2007 | 7:07 a.m.
Certain subjects we write about tend to attract more phone calls from readers than others. Garbage service and massage parlors, for example, seem to stir up in readers an urge to call the newspaper and express themselves. That's just fine with us.
Another such subject is how to handle overcrowding in Clark County's jails.
Inevitably, such a story will result in phone calls from those who ask why the county doesn't follow the example of Maricopa County in Arizona, where Sheriff Joe Arpaio houses inmates in a place called Tent City.
Many people love this idea. Inmates living in tents! In the desert! That's punishment! And it's cheap!
Such is the tone of many calls.
Clark County has taken a completely different approach. It plans to lease a new detention facility from the Molasky Group.
The county initially will pay the developer $11.3 million a year, a cost that will increase 6 percent every two years for a total of $528 million over the 30-year term of the lease. Or, the county can buy the facility after 10 years at market value. In that case, the county would essentially be paying for the jail twice.
That solution is far different from the one former Sheriff Bill Young proposed about a year and a half ago. He wanted the county to build modular facilities - somewhat similar to Maricopa's Tent City - on county-owned land near the Water Reclamation District.
According to Young, who is now vice president of security for Station Casinos, it was "sheer politics."
His proposal came at a time when then-Commissioner Myrna Williams was facing a tough (and ultimately successful) primary challenge from then-Assemblywoman Chris Giunchigliani . Williams' district included the water reclamation site.
Giunchigliani was the first to take up the cause of residents who said the modular jail would be an eyesore. Williams had told Young she was on board with the idea, but changed her stance when Giunchigliani made an issue of it, Young said.
"It got mired in politics," Young said. "I still think it is a good idea."
Giunchigliani didn't return a call from the Sun.
Because the strongest criticism of the Molasky deal came from Giunchigliani, who publicly questioned how the project evolved from a modular structure to a bricks-and-mortar facility.
Just goes to show: For county commissioners, the cost of angry citizens near a new jail is difficult to measure.
Young said he doesn't blame Sheriff Doug Gillespie for pursuing the Molasky deal. Jail space has already reached dangerous levels.
"Mr. Molasky was smart to find an area where the neighbors wouldn't protest , and he had the political juice to pull that together with the commissioners," Young said.
Still, he added, " it's a very expensive proposition."
Because even if the new 1,000-bed facility opens by 2010, the county's jail system already will be over capacity. That means the question of how to handle overcrowding is not going away anytime soon.
The tent or modular model still might be a good one. But now that the county has found a plan that doesn't have neighbors protesting, it's not likely to stray far from it.
Commission Chairman Rory Reid said there's enough space on the Molasky site for future expansion. The county looked at the Water Reclamation District site and deemed it unfeasible, he said. He's not convinced tent or modular facilities are the way to go because they don't last as long and pose security problems, he said.
"It wouldn't have necessarily been cheaper," Reid said. "Then there were neighborhood concerns."
Young doesn't agree.
"Don't let anyone tell you that the sanitation district site isn't doable," he said. "It's by far the cheapest."
OK, forget jails and tents and sanitation sites. How about some drama in luxury living? Astute readers will recall the debate surrounding Fontainebleau Las Vegas, the massive resort project going up next door to a luxury condo complex called Turnberry Place.
Turnberry residents opposed the 22-story garage and convention center structure that Fontainebleau's developers are building less than 100 feet away. Many Turnberry residents would have their views obliterated by the broadside of the garage/convention center.
Because the man who developed Turnberry, Jeffrey Soffer, is now a partner in the Fontainebleau project. That fact has made Turnberry residents especially bitter.
Of course, views are not protected in Nevada, but residents say the county violated its own code and other procedural requirements when it approved the 230-foot height.
District Judge Michael Villani disagreed and sided with the county last week .
The fight might not be over, though. Attorney John Moran III, who represents the Turnberry residents, said his clients will appeal to the Nevada Supreme Court.
Finally, we want to thank Clark County for this enlightening line from a news release about the possible effects of California wildfires on air quality here: "Smoke is made up of a complex mixture of gases and fine particles produced when wood and other organic matter burn."
Hmm. Says a lot more about what the county thinks of the local media's IQ than it does about wildfires.
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