Countywide : County Seeking Money From Fund for Jails

County fiscal officers, always seeking ways to fund day-to-day operation of Orange County Jail, hope to get their hands on an additional $1 million annually from a fund set up to ease moves into new or expanded jail facilities.

Doug Woodyard of the county’s administrative staff said the fund has about $1.8 million in it from assessments on court fines and traffic tickets. It was set up 18 months ago, he said, at the same time as a similar fund in Solano County was established by the Legislature. The purpose of both funds is to provide money for transition staffs and to buy such things as heavy equipment at new or enlarged jail facilities.

Both funds are scheduled to be terminated July 1, 1991, but Assemblyman Thomas M. Hannigan (D-Fairfield) has introduced a bill to extend the life of the Solano County fund indefinitely.

Woodyard’s office has recommended that Orange County supervisors support Hannigan’s bill and try to have it amended so that it applies to both jurisdictions.

Woodyard said the fund could still be used for transitions and will be used at Theo Lacy Branch Jail in Orange, when and if that facility is doubled in size. The county began construction there earlier this month, but a Superior Court judge ordered the work stopped until legal challenges have been resolved.

Woodyard admitted that that the $1 million is not a lot of money in this case. The annual cost of operating the county’s jail facilities is estimated at $55 million to $65 million, he said.

The county’s legislative planning committee, which includes all five supervisors and 11 other county officials, is scheduled to discuss Hannigan’s bill next week.