Strapped County Will Post $19.5 Million for Jail Land

The financially ailing county has agreed to post nearly $19.5 million by a court’s Feb. 25 deadline while the legal wrangle goes on over the ultimate sum the county will owe developer Roque de la Fuente II for seizing 525 acres to build the East Mesa jail.

County supervisors, meeting in closed-door session late Tuesday, agreed to meet San Diego Superior Court Judge Jeffrey T. Miller’s Jan. 24 order to post the $19.5 million. That’s on top of $6.4 million the county put up with the court when it seized the land in 1987.

Miller, who had cut a jury verdict by more than half and ruled in December that the land was worth $22.9 million, said last month that state law requires the county to lodge with the court a deposit equal to the land’s value, plus interest--in this case, $19.5 million more.

County officials said Wednesday they will finance the deposit through a complicated though not uncommon asset transfer involving the sale of part of the County Operations Center in Kearny Mesa to the San Diego Capital Asset Leasing Corp.

A nonprofit entity organized by the county to raise funds for large projects, such as the East Mesa jail, the leasing corporation will, in turn, lease the Kearny Mesa center back to the county, officials said. Meanwhile, the county will use the value of the property to secure a loan, officials said.

The first phase of the jail, a 784-bed facility, is under construction and scheduled to be completed this spring. County officials have said repeatedly, however, that they do not have the money to pay a staff to run the jail, near the U.S.-Mexico border about 7 miles east of Interstate 805.

The county legally took the land from De la Fuente under its eminent domain powers. A jury last fall fixed the value of the land at $55.6 million.

Miller’s Dec. 28 order cutting the award to $22.9 million sparked an appeal to the 4th District Court by De la Fuente. Miller has urged both sides to settle the case.