By Jon Watje

In the letter, Landrith talked about the proposed county jail and the jail steering committee.

“I think it is a poor choice to form a jail committee and attempt to place a city manager in charge of such a committee,” Landrith said in the letter. “Personally, I think the jail committee should be comprised of local and county elected officials and the public to discuss the options.”

Yukon City Manager James Crosby was the chairman of the committee before he resigned from the position a few weeks ago.

Jail steering committee member Randy Wright was on hand at the meeting and told Landrith he disagreed.

“I think it is good to have city managers on the committee because of their knowledge in financing,” Wright said.

Wright also questioned why Landrith never attended a jail steering committee in the past, even when one was conducted in Mustang.

“I was never invited,” Landrith said.

Landrith stated in his letter last week that he believes there should be more unity and openness when it comes to the meetings.

“These meetings should be held in the evening when more people can attend, not in the back room of a city office,” he said. “No action should be taken until we have seated a new commissioner. There needs to be a full staff of commissioners on this issue. I am not blasting the commissioners on this, I just think we all need to come together to get this done.”

Wright said he felt it has been second nature to blame the committee for lack of progress.

“We have been asking the commissioners what they want and we can not get any answers,” Wright said. “It is hard to get anything done when you have no answers.”

Landrith and Wright did agree, however, that sales tax should not be used to fund the proposed $17.9 million jail.

“The City needs that sales tax for projects we need to get done now, like Czech Hall Road, expansion of the Community Center and moving the ball fields,” Landrith said. “I think we need to look at property tax to fund the jail.”