Part 1 of the three-part story on the Cloud County Law Enforcement Center and its jail recounted the facility's origins: the elected officials who organized it, the ballot measure that voters approved, the construction workers who built it, and those who worked within its walls.
This week’s edition covers the Law Enforcement Center and jail throughout the 2010s, including the Kansas Bureau of Investigation (KBI) arrest of jail employees and planning and construction issues that led to a multi-million-dollar remedial renovation in the early 2020s.
In the first few years of operation, the jail was functioning as planned. The Kansas Department of Corrections (KDOC) and surrounding communities sent prisoners to fill the large facility. The community witnessed the initial proof of concept seemingly materialize.
According to Cloud County Clerk Shella Thoman, the jail made more than $5 million through its contracts with KDOC from 2014 to about 2020. The exact amount totaled $5,601,335, which was placed into a separate fund from the rest of the law enforcement center’s budget.
“It was doing what it was supposed to do,” Thoman said.
During the May 14, 2018, Cloud County Commission meeting, Cloud County Sheriff Brian Marks reported that the jail was housing 92 inmates in total, with 70 out-of-county inmates.
But the law enforcement center’s scourges - especially with the jail - were quietly taking over. Deficiencies in planning, construction, and installation were causing problems that were now beginning to manifest themselves. Mold was literally rotting the facility from within.
According to Cloud County Sheriff Ken Davis, he personally experienced these issues while working there before remedial repairs were made.
“The HVAC system was too small,” Davis said. “There was condensation rotting the ceiling tiles, and they were falling to the floor, and it was causing mold in the walls… it was just horrible.”
Then, a KBI investigation into alleged fraud at the jail resulted in the arrest of jail employees on multiple charges.
The first outward sign of trouble began as a “TEMPORARILY CLOSED” sign appeared on the law enforcement center's front door.
In an article published on the Concordia Blade-Empire website on Dec. 10, 2019, Cloud County Attorney Rob Walsh confirmed the KBI’s investigations and only a small amount of information about the case.
“This is not a safety issue with the prisoners,” Walsh said in the 2019 article.
Through multiple investigations, the KBI found evidence of mishandled funds and destroyed documents, leading to the arrests of four employees.
According to an article published on the Blade-Empire website on Aug. 2, 2021, the KBI arrested the jail administrator, Amber Lindberg, for alleged theft, misuse of public funds, official misconduct, making false information, conspiracy to commit theft, conspiracy to commit official misconduct, conspiracy to commit misuse of public funds and conspiracy to commit destroying a written instrument.
Another employee, Nicholas Clanin, a law enforcement center lieutenant, was charged with theft, misuse of public funds, official misconduct and destroying a written instrument.
The KBI also filed theft charges against two other individuals.
Cloud County Commission records detail the termination of the law enforcement center employees in early 2020.
KBI officials gathered evidence that showed in court documents that money had been siphoned from the law enforcement center’s general budget. The public court documents do not disclose how much money was involved in this case.
Thoman said that the funds were from a separate fund and mostly from additional purchase requests and document tampering, and not part of the funds received by housing out-of-county inmates at the jail.
Court documents detail that Clanin later pleaded guilty to multiple felonies.
Lindberg’s case has no further public record available. Charges against the two other individuals arrested by the KBI were later dropped.
As litigation closed for the mishandled funds, Cloud County Commissioners began uncovering the initial construction flaws of the law enforcement center and its jail, the severity of the problems within the facility, and the enormous cost to remedy them.
Campbell and Johnson engineers inspected the law enforcement center facilities in 2020. During these inspections, engineers found HVAC system deficiencies and multiple construction errors, including the jail’s roof, walls and ductwork systems.
According to the July 19, 2021, Cloud County Commissioners’ Proceedings, it’s documented that the county contracted with Budreau Construction for the following: roof repairs, roof drainage repairs, replacing ductwork, and installing a new HVAC system. The original bid for these repairs totaled $944,064.
Once contractors began the remedial repairs on the facility they found additional issues, ultimately leading to eight change orders that ballooned the repairs cost to $3.2 million throughout 2022 and 2023.
NEXT WEEK: Part 3 - the jail experiences inmate and staffing issues that shift the paradigm of its operations and its ability to remain open.
