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Tulsa County commissioners said Thursday they are about at the end of their rope with the city over a dispute concerning the Tulsa County Jail, and indicated the city has tried to use the location of a new family justice center as leverage in the negotiations.

“We had a really good (site) we were ready to move forward on, but oddly enough it seems the jail negotiations got in the way,” Commission Chairman Karen Keith said during a morning management conference.

Earlier in the meeting, Commissioner John Smaligo called the city’s position on the jail negotiations “absolutely outrageous.”

Tulsa City Manager Jim Twombly said legal complications, not the jail negotiations, derailed the family justice center.

“As far as I know, nobody (with the city) has said that to the county,” Twombly said when asked whether the land for the justice center had been offered in exchange for a favorable jail agreement.

The county and city have been at odds for some time about the amount the city pays to keep keep people arrested on municipal charges at the Tulsa Jail. The city now pays the county about $700,000 a year to house the prisoners, while county says the actual cost is at least $3 million.