Sheriff-County Accord on Control of Drug Fund Now in Question

A carefully crafted consensus between the sheriff and the San Diego County Board of Supervisors to determine how money confiscated in drug raids is spent may be on the verge of collapse.

County officials early this month announced an agreement on the issue, allowing the sheriff discretion over how the funds are used while permitting the supervisors greater oversight over the money.

After a meeting last week with Sheriff Jim Roache, Supervisor George Bailey and attorneys representing both sides, all parties believed they had the matter settled. But proposed language in the agreement now threatens months of negotiation, said attorney Everett Bobbitt, who represents Roache.

The board believes it has authority over all county spending, including the drug funds, according to County Counsel Andrew Freeman. In November, the board sued then-Sheriff John Duffy after discovering that he had placed more than $1 million in drug funds into a secret bank account to keep supervisors from finding it.

Duffy argued then, as Roache argues now, that Department of Justice guidelines specifically give the sheriff authority to determine how the funds are spent, as long as it is within federal regulations.

According to Bobbitt, both parties agreed that Roache will submit applications spelling out how the money is to be used and allow supervisors to review the applications to make certain they meet federal guidelines.

Bobbitt said he drafted legal language to that effect, and that Freeman objected, saying the board wanted greater control over how the money is spent.

Freeman said Bobbitt is overstating the problem, and that differences can still be worked out. He said state law mandates that supervisors still have control over all county money and “ultimately, the responsibility is theirs.”

The sheriff and Bobbitt disagree, and say they will go back into negotiations if a settlement cannot be reached.

Federal guidelines allow property or drugs seized in raids to be converted into cash and split among the law enforcement agencies that participate. As originally established, the rules allowed the funds to be used for “general law enforcement purposes.”

Last summer the guidelines were amended, requiring the head of a law enforcement agency to fill out an application stating precisely how the money is to be used, as a means of accounting for the spending.

Bobbitt said both sides agreed in a meeting last week that the board has only the authority to review the application to see that it meets the guidelines, but not to determine specific expenditures.

But Freeman said, “There’s a question about what was approved at the meeting. It’s not clear. There were some assumptions included here that were not stated at the meeting.”

Ironically, Supervisor Bailey, representing the board, said Monday that he agreed to allow Roache discretion over how the money is spent as long as the board found the expenditure acceptable under federal guidelines, which is Roache’s legal position.

“I don’t have the wording in front of me, but (Roache) has to ask for the money from the feds, and say this is what I’m going to use them for,” Bailey said. “As long as they meet the parameters (of federal guidelines), then we have nothing to object to.”

Bailey said the board “has no hard feelings. We all felt the problem went away when John Duffy went away.”

A final legal determination of who controls the funds will be an important test case, attorneys agree, because local governments throughout the country are fighting with law enforcement agencies over how millions of dollars in drug proceeds should be spent.

It was such a disagreement that set into motion the county’s lawsuit against Duffy last year. Last summer, Duffy wanted to spend $450,000 on laptop computers for his department. Supervisors wanted the money spent on security measures at County Jail in Chula Vista.

The board won, but Duffy argued that supervisors had violated federal guidelines. He began depositing the drug fund money in a checking account without the county’s knowledge. When county officials discovered the account, they sued Duffy and forced him to transfer more than $1 million into a court-controlled trust account.

Since then, the account has grown to about $1.8 million.

Superior Court Judge Harrison Hollywood suggested that both parties mediate their dispute with retired Superior Court Judge William Yale. Yale fashioned a compromise, which requires that Roache’s proposed expenditures appear on the board’s public agendas before being reviewed.

“This was a courtesy to the public process,” Bobbitt said. “Here was a forum for someone to complain if they felt the money wasn’t being spent within the guidelines.”

The board will meet a week from today to decide the issue.