Gates, Board Agree on Drug Loot

An anxiously anticipated showdown between county supervisors and Sheriff Brad Gates fizzled Tuesday as board members and the sheriff tentatively buried the hatchet and agreed to press ahead with the county’s program for distributing money and property seized in drug raids.

Gates, who has long objected to most attempts to use those proceeds for anything other than drug enforcement, attended Tuesday’s board meeting, during which the supervisors received a report from the county staff recommending that the money be spread among a wide variety of law enforcement activities. Some supervisors had learned late Monday that Gates intended to be at the meeting, and they had braced for a confrontational session.

Rather than object to that plan, however, Gates endorsed it, calling the report “well thought out and sound.”

The supervisors were equally deferential, going out of their way to praise the sheriff and his department. “There is no question in my mind that you are the best, and will continue to be the best,” Board Chairman Don R. Roth told Gates as the sheriff stood at the lectern.

Those sentiments were in marked contrast to the rancor that has characterized relations between Gates and the board for months. Board members have become openly suspicious of the sheriff, accusing him of cultivating the impression that the drug-forfeiture funds could be used only for narcotics-enforcement activities.

It was confusion over that point--confusion that supervisors say Gates was responsible for-- that led to the exhaustive report presented to the board Tuesday. The report, written by officials in the county’s management and budget division, found that other cities and counties use the funds for an array of purposes beyond narcotics enforcement.

But on Tuesday, Gates denied that he had ever led board members astray and said that he could not imagine how the supervisors could accuse him of it. “I don’t know where they could come up with that,” he said.

During the meeting, there was only one glimpse of the earlier disputes, as Roth gently attempted to pin Gates down on his position regarding the legal and appropriate use of the funds. When Gates protested he had never suggested that funds be limited to drug enforcement, Roth backed away.

“I don’t want to open up the previous disagreement of opinion,” Roth said. “I’m just glad you and I are now communicating.”

Still, despite the veneer of good feeling that accompanied Tuesday’s session, some supervisors remained wary of Gates’ pledges to cooperate.

“The real test will come when there is an actual test of these funds and how they should be spent,” Supervisor Gaddi H. Vasquez said.

The sheriff’s Regional Narcotics Suppression Program, one of two funds that he administers with seized drug assets, has accumulated $10.9 million so far this fiscal year, which ends this month. The supervisors have been eager to spend that money on any of several one-time capital expenditures, including possibly using some for a new county jail.

Orange County is under a court order to relieve overcrowding at its central jail.

Gates has previously said that he had concerns about using the forfeiture funds for jail construction, but on Tuesday he was noncommittal. “We will look at each individual topic as it comes up,” he said after the board meeting.