Woodbury County officials have concluded two days in a mediation proceeding designed to resolve ongoing disagreements over the problems of opening a new county jail.
However, those county officials are sharing no specifics on how that mediation went, as Woodbury County Board of Supervisors Chairman Dan Bittinger said in a Wednesday county board meeting.
“We’ve already been asked, Supervisor (Mark) Nelson and I, about the mediation. All we can say is, per our legal counsel, is that we cannot make any comment at this time,” Bittinger said.
The long road over four years to build the Woodbury County Law Enforcement Center jail was full of delays, driving up the cost from $54 million to $69 million.
The mediation was held Monday and Tuesday in Des Moines, with the hopes of forestalling litigation. Ahead of the meeting, last week Nelson said the county would be clearly communicating a strong position on the damages by three entities responsible for what he called a “relatively ugly chapter.".
The county officials have said design and construction flaws by Hausmann Construction, Goldberg Group Architects, and Introba resulted in extra expenses of $3.5 million. The county also received $2.8 million in lessened jail revenues, because of the delayed opening of the jail on the northeast side of Sioux City.
Any offer made at mediation will have to be approved in a public meeting.
