Contracts to Be Renegotiated : Threat of Sheriff’s Service Cut to 9 Cities Eased

Backing away from its threat to terminate the county’s law enforcement service contract with nine area cities, the Board of Supervisors decided Tuesday to renegotiate the agreement.

The nine cities, which pay the county about $15.5 million a year for general law and traffic enforcement services from the Sheriff’s Department, had been threatened by the county with a one-year notice of termination of the current contracts.

A recent report from the county’s Chief Administrative Office contends that the county is entitled to fully recover the cost of Sheriff’s Department services and that the cities should be paying from $1 million to $13 million more than they are now.

A month ago, the board seemed ready to give the required termination notice for the current three-year contracts, which started their second year July 1, and either get more money from the cities or cut off the law enforcement service. But representatives from the cities mounted strong objections to the threat, claiming the current cost schedule is fair.

‘Inhibiting Force’

Supervisor John MacDonald said giving notice of termination would have been an “inhibiting force” in the negotiations.

“It’s just good practice not to threaten people when you’re in negotiation with them,” he said.

Nevertheless, the supervisors continued to talk tough about getting more money from the cities to help alleviate the county’s precarious financial situation and to pay for jail expansions.

“It is not our job to make sure the sheriff can contract with a great number of cities. Our job is the budget,” Supervisor Susan Golding said, adding that until now, negotiations between the Sheriff’s Department and the contract cities have been “pretty casual.”

“I think we have to (renegotiate) in a fair way, and a legal way,” Golding said, but she said she is convinced that the county is not getting what it should from the nine contract cities: Del Mar, Encinitas, Imperial Beach, Lemon Grove, Poway, Santee, San Marcos, Solana Beach and Vista.

Each of those cities pays the county for law enforcement services, thereby avoiding the overhead costs they would incur if they had separate police departments.

Supervisor Brian Bilbray said he has “no worry at all” that the cities will either start police departments or contract with some other entity for law enforcement, because the county is now offering “one heck of a good deal.”

Bilbray defended the county’s initial consideration to terminate the current contract, calling it “a very subtle way of getting the cities’ attention. I think they know that we’re serious about the issue.”

Santee Orders Study

The Santee City Council was so alarmed by the county’s original intention to terminate the contracts that it decided last week to commission a feasibility study of either starting a police department, contracting for law enforcement with an agency besides the county, or entering a joint-powers agreement with neighboring communities.

Santee City Manager Ron Ballard said the study was prompted by “the letter threatening termination from the chief administrative officer of the county. It’s not the kind of thing you can take and ignore, because if, for example, the best alternative would be to create our own police department, one year is a very short period of time when you’re talking about acquiring staff, officers, equipment and facilities.”

Assistant Sheriff Jack Drown, who coordinates Sheriff’s Department services with the contract cities, said he is relieved that the supervisors decided not to terminate the contracts. In the meantime, Drown said, the Sheriff’s Department will probably be obliged to provide the service--for free.

One point of contention between the county and the contract cities is whether the cities should pay for so-called “regional services”--things like the sheriff’s ASTREA helicopter program--which are provided throughout the county.

County Chief Administrative Officer Norm Hickey and Sheriff John Duffy are expected to report to supervisors on that issue Oct. 20.

Another key issue in the contract negotiations will be whether the cities should pay directly for liability costs associated with police work. Currently, the county assumes all liability for the Sheriff’s Department.

“Who picks up the cost for liability coverage and the cost for long-term disability?” Supervisor MacDonald asked. “That’s the big issue. We can no longer assume that responsibility entirely.”

But Drown and others said that if the cities became partly responsible for liability insurance, they would be assuming responsibility for something over which they have no control.

Times staff writer Barry M. Horstman contributed to this story.