Supervisors May Hike the Cost of Police Protection for 9 Cities

Facing a tight budget and the need to expand county jails, the Board of Supervisors is considering a plan to drastically increase what it charges cities for law enforcement services or else stop providing the services altogether.

But the board voted Tuesday to wait two more weeks--while city and county officials try to work out an agreement--before making a decision on whether to notify nine cities that it will terminate its current law enforcement contracts in a year.

City managers of the affected communities said they think the county is trying to squeeze them for more money to cover the county’s budget shortfall. “The newest attempt, I think, is in their never-ending drive to search out new sources of funding--sort of like ‘Star Trek,’ ” Poway City Manager Jim Bowersox said.

The county’s position, as outlined by Chief Administrative Officer Norman Hickey’s office in a report to the board, is that it is entitled to recover the full amount of what it costs to provide patrols in the cities.

The report asserts that the county may have been undercharging the cities by $1 million to $13 million a year. That money could be used to help pay for the expansion of county jails, which is expected to cost $25 million to $50 million.

The county will receive about $15.5 million this fiscal year from the cities that contract for law enforcement services: Del Mar, Encinitas, Imperial Beach, Lemon Grove, Poway, Santee, San Marcos, Solana Beach and Vista. Other incorporated cities in San Diego County have their own police departments.

‘Mutually Dissatisfied’

Several of the city managers and their representatives said Tuesday they are already paying what they should for law enforcement. And even if they are not paying enough, they said, the current three-year contract--signed last year after lengthy negotiations--can be modified without being cancelled.

“The position of Lemon Grove and the position of other contracting cities is that it’s inappropriate to cancel a valid contract in mid-term because you want to get more money,” said Karen Thomson, Lemon Grove’s financial director.

When the current contract was signed last year, “Everyone was sort of mutually dissatisfied,” Thomson said. “I think that’s the best kind of agreement,” because it indicates that neither side got everything it wanted.

Thomson said officials in Lemon Grove, which pays the county $1.2 million a year for law enforcement, are satisfied with the level of service the city has been getting.

She added, however, that if the county tries to charge too much for the service, Lemon Grove will consider other options, like setting up its own police department.

The year-old City of Encinitas would also consider setting up its own police department if the county demands too much money, even though it has only been contracting with the Sheriff’s Department for less than a month, City Manager Warren Shafer said.

The Santee City Council is expected to decide Aug. 12 on whether to do a feasibility study of alternatives to contracting with the county for law enforcement. The study would look at three options, said Steve Wheeler, Santee’s assistant city manager.

One option is setting up an independent police department, which is usually much more expensive than contracting with another agency because overhead costs are high.

Another possibility is entering a joint powers agreement with neighboring communities to patrol several towns with one police force. Finally, the study would look at the possibility of contracting with an agency other than the county for law enforcement service.

‘Respectable Sum’

“We need to protect ourselves” in case the county asks for more than the city can afford, Wheeler said. “I really think we pay quite a respectable sum (about $3 million a year) for law enforcement, and I haven’t seen any evidence that points the other way,” he said.

In fact, several city managers and a Sheriff’s Department official questioned how the county came up with its estimate of how much it is undercharging the cities, noting that the range of the estimate is quite large, almost as large as what the cities are paying now.

Hickey acknowledged that the estimate is overstated. He said that at most, the county will try to recover an additional $5 million a year from the cities.

Supervisor Brian Bilbray said he is confident that the contract can be renegotiated without the county going so far as to give notice that it is terminating the contract.

Supervisor John MacDonald also said he thinks a compromise can be reached. If the board resorts to giving the cities notice that it is canceling the current contract, it will spark “a lot of animosity and adversarial activity, which I think we’ve all had enough of,” he said.

The central point of contention in the dispute is exactly what costs the county is entitled to recover. All of the city managers contacted Tuesday said their cities are willing to pay their fair share, but they say the county is trying to charge them for regional services that all cities--whether they contract with the county or not--receive free of charge.

‘Regional Services’

“What we are concerned with is that the board of supervisors, in an attempt to balance their own budget, is attempting to broaden what it charges the contract cities for,” said Imperial Beach City Manager Sherman Stenberg.

A county report to the Board of Supervisors notes that contracting cities do not pay for “regional services” like the sheriff’s arson and bomb squad, organized crime unit, vice squad and crime prevention programs. Contracting cities argue that state law prohibits the county from charging them for those services, which are available throughout the county.

Bowersox and others said law enforcement contracts benefit both the cities and the Sheriff’s Department. “It’s a symbiotic relationship, not a parasitic one,” Bowersox said. “Contract law enforcement is good for both of us.”

The cities benefit because they get law enforcement more cheaply than they could if they set up their own police departments, since they don’t have to pay for a separate administration.

The county also benefits from the contracts, according to the Sheriff’s Department.

“There’s no question, in my mind anyway, that we’re able to provide better law enforcement to the unincorporated areas because we’re a large agency, and we’re a large agency because of all the contract cities,” Assistant Sheriff Jack Drown said.