Booking Fees Expected to Produce $1 Million

Despite efforts by some police departments to reduce the number of suspects booked into County Jail, a booking fee charged to cities will still generate a projected $1 million annually, county officials said Thursday.

The county recently billed cities $120 for each time that their police officers booked a person into County Jail. The bills totaled $517,080 for the six months between July and December, 1990.

The fees are expected to raise the same amount during the first six months of 1991, totaling about $1 million for the fiscal year, Norman R. Hawkes, the county’s auditor-controller, said.

Friday, the county also sent bills to about 50 school and other special districts totaling $5.8 million to cover the cost of collecting property taxes from those districts during the 1989-90 fiscal year.

School districts in the county will pay $3.2 million, Hawkes said, and special districts--such as sanitation and water districts--will make up the balance, he said.

Despite angry objections by school and city officials, the County Board of Supervisors approved the fees in September after the state cut about $6 million to the county.

Police departments in Ventura and Oxnard, which face the largest booking fee bills, have cut down on the number of suspects booked through the jail.

Oxnard, which adopted a cite-and-release program to reduce the number of bookings, was billed $142,480--about half of the amount police officials there had anticipated.

Still, “You are never happy to get a bill,” Assistant Police Chief James Latimer said. “I get mad every month when I get my water bill.”

Ventura, where police have also reduced the number of bookings, was billed $107,280--also about half the amount first predicted.

County Budget Manager Bert Bigler said he believes that the county has raised what it had anticipated, despite the reduced number of bookings, because county officials used conservative estimates in projecting the number of suspects booked into County Jail.

Hawkes said the bills are due by March 1. County officials have not discussed whether to assess penalties for cities, schools or special districts that miss the deadline, he said.

In hopes of eliminating the booking fees, several cities have begun to lobby legislators to repeal the laws, passed by the Legislature in July, that allow the county to assess them.

State Sen. Ed Davis (R-Santa Clarita) has said he will try to repeal the law that allows the booking fees because it is a disincentive for local law enforcement agencies to arrest and book criminals.

In December, state Sen. Gary K. Hart (D-Santa Barbara) and a Northern California assemblyman introduced a bill to repeal the law that allows counties to bill school districts for collecting the school’s share of property taxes.

But Penny Bohannon, the county’s legislative analyst, said there is little chance that the Legislature will repeal the law, given the state’s financial woes.