County could fire its 2nd jail architect: Jim Armstrong on hot seat for missing deadlines
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Armstrong, who has already collected $114,000 in fees from the county, has yet to deliver a complete set of approved plans for the jail expansion since his contract was approved last March – despite repeated promises to do so.
As a result, Armstrong was directed Thursday to deliver a complete set of plans, approved by the state fire marshal and the Tennessee Correctional Institute, by 4 p.m. March 17, the day of the next meeting of the county commission, or the committee would recommend his termination.
The termination will require a formal resolution, to be drawn up by county attorney Larry Stanley at the request of the Jail Oversight Committee, and will have to be voted on by the full commission.
During a lengthy session with Armstrong on Thursday, Jail Oversight Committee chairman Herschel Wells rattled off a long list of questions and concerns he had about the current set of plans provided by Armstrong, many of which could affect whether the jail will be certified.
“According to what I see, these plans do not meet TCI regulations,” Wells said.
One of the items was the dimensions of some of the cells, which have to meet certain size requirements to be certified for dual occupation, making the cells only fit for single occupant resulting in a jail with only a few more beds than the present facility.
Wells questioned several other potential problems including an evidence room with possible public access, which sheriff Jackie Matheny said could conceivably cause problems in court if a lawyer questioned it.
Questioning some other details in the plans, Wells asked Armstrong about bars not showing in some of the drawings.
“Can you show me the bars there in that other drawing?” he asked.
“No sir, that’s coming in the equipment package,” Armstrong said.
“Seems like everything’s coming,” Wells retorted.
Wells, who had been repeatedly promised a complete set of plans in time to put the jail out for bids by March 6, queried Armstrong about the state of the plans the committee had in hand.
“So really, these plans are not complete,” Wells asked.
“No, they’re not complete,” answered Armstrong.
“Well, how can the fire marshal approve them,” asked Commissioner Gary Prater, after Armstrong had intimated they were approved.
“Well, he’s approving intent,” Armstrong said.
At that point, Wells made a formal motion to ask for Armstrong’s termination if plans weren’t received by March 17. The motion passed unanimously.
If Armstrong is terminated, it essentially moves the jail situation back to square one. The ultimatum comes after the county commission previously fired jail architect Mark Rodgers after paying him $70,000.
Some commissioners couldn’t understand how things had come to this point and said Armstrong had done good work on other projects for the county.
“He did a really good job for us on the administration building remodeling job,” said Commissioner Carl Bouldin. “I don’t know what happened with this.”
Whether the county will be able to recoup any of the fees already collected by Armstrong is a big question on some commissioners’ minds, but Wells says Armstrong may well have incurred those costs with engineering fees, paperwork, publication and drafting costs.
However, Wells has put a halt on any further payments to Armstrong until the situation is resolved.