NUECES COUNTY - The Nueces County sheriff's race is one of the high profile races this November, and Thursday, both Jimmy Rodriguez and Jim Kaelin addressed business owners in the northwest part of Corpus Christi.
Dirty conditions inside the Nueces County Jail was the topic dominating the discussion between the two men, each vying for the seat of the county's top cop. Democratic candidate and Chief Deputy Rodriguez has worked with the department for almost 10 years.
"I'll be the first to accept responsibility for the cleanliness," Rodriguez said. "We could have been cleaning better, and we have, and we will continue to do that."
Republican candidate and former DPS trooper Jim Kaelin agreed that the former administration should shoulder the blame.
"Well I think this election is really gonna be defined by the mismanagement that's gone on in the Nueces County Jail," Kaelin said. "You can't take a facility like that and let it deteriorate to the condition it deteriorated in the nine years that they've been there. It did not happen overnight."
Many wondered if the cleanliness problems just recently developed or developed over time. So 6 News asked Rodriguez if he'd seen the problems developing over the last few years.
"It's a matter or prioritizing the problems," Rodriguez said. "When you look back at the history of the jail, we dealt with the issues of suicide and deaths and abuse and those things, and that's where we've been focused. And now there's problems of maintenance, and we're going to deal with those maintenance problems too."
Rodriguez said pictures of things like clogged toilets only represent a small percentage of the over 500 jail toilets. They are problems that prompted the removal of federal inmates. An issue kaelin said hurts the county on the bottom line.
"But remember, 45 dollars a day is going out that window," he said. "There were 55+ prisoners taken out of that Nueces County Jail. We haven't got them back, and they don't know when they're going to get them back and there's millions and millions of dollars that are going to be lost."
As for the facility itself, Chief Deputy Rodriguez said the sanitation issues at the jail have been addressed. He said contractors are currently working on plumbing issues. Some of the metal walls need to be removed so they can get rid of the rust.
As of Thursday, no re-inspections for the jail are scheduled, but Chief Deputy Rodriguez said state inspectors can come at any time. There was no word on Thursday if or when federal inmates will return.
Online Reporter: Shaun Hegarty
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