Higher Jail Fees to Be Considered for Cities : Budgets: County officials seek a 25% increase. The 10 municipalities refuse to pay the current charges.

The Ventura County government is expected to charge cities 25% more to book prisoners in County Jail although it has been unable to collect any booking fees from cities since the fee was adopted in September, officials said Thursday.

County officials have suggested that the fee be increased from $120 to $150 per prisoner beginning July 1 to cover the increasing cost of booking prisoners into the jail.

The Board of Supervisors is scheduled to consider the proposal Tuesday.

The fee, criticized by city officials since its adoption in September, was expected to bring the financially strapped county $1.1 million next year, Jim Becker, a county senior analyst, said.

Last year, state lawmakers gave county governments the power to collect the booking fee and other fees from cities to offset some of the cuts in state funds. Ventura County lost $6 million in state funding last year.

But each of the county’s 10 cities has refused to pay the fees, which totaled $517,080 between July and December, 1990. Most cities have sent letters to the county protesting the fee, and some city officials have called the fee illegal and are discussing legal challenges.

Ventura County Counsel James L. McBride said county officials are considering ways to force the cities to pay the fee.

McBride said the Board of Supervisors on Tuesday may propose suing the ten cities to collect the money. Another option is for the county to keep some of the property taxes that it collects for the cities, he said.

City officials reacted with dismay to the proposed fee increase and to suggestions that the county might go to court to collect the fees.

“We don’t even like what the initial fee was and to have it raised would put a real cramp in our budget,” Camarillo Councilman Charles K. (Ken) Gose said.

He said Camarillo has not discussed filing a lawsuit to block the county from imposing the fees, but predicted that the matter would end up in court.

“I suspect there is going to have to be a legal determination,” he said. “Either the county will sue the cities or the cities will sue the county.”

Oxnard Mayor Nao Takasugi was caught off guard by plans to increase the fee.

“Increase? My gosh,” he said. “One hundred and twenty was bad enough on us.”

To save money, Oxnard police have instituted a policy to cite and release most people accused of minor crimes rather than send them to County Jail. To date, Oxnard has reduced its jail bookings for misdemeanor offenses by 80% compared with last year. Ventura police have also reduced bookings to save money.

Takasugi said the proposed increase might prompt other cities to reduce bookings.

“By increasing to $150 it will force more and more cities to book less and less,” he said.

Thousand Oaks City Atty. Mark G. Sellers said city leaders are talking about legal action to block the fees. Although no decision has been made, Sellers said some city officials see the fees as vulnerable to legal challenge.

City officials believe that the fee is illegal because the Board of Supervisors approved the measure by resolution and not by an ordinance, which would have established the fee as law.

Also, he said the state ruling that gave counties the power to collect the fee allows for a fee only when a city employee makes an arrest.

Thousand Oaks, Camarillo, Ojai, Fillmore and Moorpark contract with the Ventura County Sheriff’s Department for law enforcement services. Thus, arrests in those cities are made by county employees and not city employees.

County officials reject that argument, saying sheriff’s deputies make the arrests for the cities. The supervisors also plan to adopt the increased fee by ordinance Tuesday to give it the weight of law and clear up any ambiguity.

Ojai Mayor Nina Shelley said she suspects that the county needs to increase the fee to offset losses it faces because cities are sending fewer suspects to jail for booking.

“I think they increased it to get the dollar amount that they wanted out of it,” she said.

Ventura City Atty. Peter D. Bulens said his city has sent a formal protest letter to the county. But he said Ventura officials have yet to discuss filing a lawsuit against the county. “What will come of that, I don’t know,” he said.