A second amendment sponsored by Willet, which the committee rejected, would have added another $12 million to remodel the sixth and seventh floors of the City-County Building jail facility into new sheriff’s offices as soon as possible after the jail consolidation project is complete.

Other committee members agreed that the City-County Building jail floors will need to be remodeled but disagreed with Willet’s timing. That portion of the jail has been most criticized for its solitary confinement cells and deteriorating infrastructure.

“I would like to tear out sixth and seventh floors, but I don’t want to put another $12 million in the budget to do it right now,” Supervisor Dorothy Krause, District 27, said.

Under the multi-phase jail renovation proposal, the county’s three jail locations would consolidate at an expanded Public Safety Building. The plan would also close the work-release Ferris Center and decommission the sixth and seventh floors of the downtown City-County Building.

“I just want to do the minimum that I feel we have to do to make the inmates and the staff safe,” Supervisor Paul Rusk, District 12, said. “I want to basically continue to force the overall criminal justice system to make even more reforms.”