Sheriff says East County jail may not close in July
By Michael Picarella
Acorn Staff Writer

After Ventura County Sheriff Bob Brooks and District Attorney Greg Totten alleged that their departmental funding is inadequate and are readying to sue the Ventura County Board of Supervisors for allegedly improperly diverting up to $57 million that the duo claims should’ve gone to public safety budgets, the board last week unanimously approved to research the cost and time of conducting an efficiency study of the two departments.

Brooks and Totten want to see more funding for their respective departments. The two officials claim that without more funds, they’ll no longer be able to fulfill their statutory duties to protect and serve the citizens of Ventura County, said Ventura County Supervisor Linda Parks in a recent interview.

"I voted for the efficiency study because I believe it will be needed in the lawsuit to see if it’s true that the sheriff and district attorney will be so restricted that they can no longer adequately provide for the public’s safety," Parks said.

The study will provide, in addition to other items, an analysis that compares Ventura County’s spending on law enforcement and public safety with other counties.

Parks said her first priority, as an elected official, is public safety.

"The good news about our public safety revenues," Parks said, "is that they are guaranteed each year through a sales tax. So, they aren’t affected by the state budget crisis. On top of those guaranteed funds, the board of supervisors is bound to provide additional funding to public safety defined as ‘associated inflationary costs.’

"Last year," Parks said, "the board of supervisors decided that the inflationary costs would be the consumer price index (CPI), typically used by government and business to calculate inflation."

Parks said the cost of inflation today is about 3.7 percent and the sheriff and district attorney are asking for 14 percent more for their growing budgets.

"To accommodate these two agencies means cutting from other agencies," Parks said. That’s a difficult decision.

"We can only use discretionary funds from the county General Fund," Parks said, which include monies that go toward hospitalization of uninsured poor people, care for the mentally ill and a veterans administration that provides war veterans with needed benefits.

Some county funds are for specific uses, Parks said, such as money the state gives for roads or foster care programs. This money can’t be diverted elsewhere, she said.

"These are tough times and they are going to get tougher," Parks said. "The sheriff and the district attorney realize this. Yet, the fact remains that they are proceeding to sue the board of supervisors and the board of supervisors is required to pay their legal bills to sue us."

The county has already been forced to cut the budgets of departments this fiscal year. More cuts will be necessary in June, Parks said.

If an efficiency study is approved, county officials said an outside consultant with expertise in law enforcement agencies would be put on the job.

Earlier this week, Brooks said one-time reserve county funds in the amount of about $5 million could be used for this coming fiscal year’s budget, if the board of supervisors approves. This plan would save from necessary layoffs, otherwise.

The sheriff faces bigger problems for fiscal year 2004-05, but he said his department would have to cross that bridge when the time comes to cross it. Hopefully, the economy will be better, he said.

For now, Brooks said, the Ojai Honor Farm jail would close July 1and most likely the East County Jail will still be shut down as well, but that date is unknown at this point.

Brooks said he and Totten would still take legal action against the board of supervisors, regardless of the approval of reserve funds for his department.

Regarding the county’s possible efficiency study of the sheriff’s department, Brooks said he’s not afraid of audits. However, he said that his own department staff knows best how to work his budget and an outside source will most likely not help.

A similar study conducted in 1995 left the department with weak solutions that didn’t help, Brooks said. He expects the same results this time.