Supervisors Back Move of Sheriff Headquarters : Law Enforcement: Proposal calls for county to buy building in Kearny Mesa for $6 million.

The relocation of the Sheriff’s Department headquarters from its crowded downtown offices to a vacant Kearny Mesa building that the county would purchase for $6 million was endorsed Wednesday by the Board of Supervisors.

Most of the five-member board voiced support for the plan, which would also allow the sheriff to cancel expensive leases of office space around town, but final approval must wait until at least November.

“This is a good economic deal,” Supervisor Brian Bilbray said. “It makes good business sense. . . . It makes good sense from a public service point of view.”

Sheriff Jim Roache would move about 190 central administration and management personnel from the old offices in the downtown courthouse and jail, freeing up space to be occupied by administration and support staff for the downtown jail and the Probation Department.

The price tag of the new facility, owned by General Dynamics, would total $6.8 million when the communications systems, a debt reserve and other costs are factored in. The building is appraised at $8 million, Roache said.

The county would borrow most of the money, but its Solid Waste Division, which will house workers in the new facility for three years, would contribute $700,000 and the sheriff’s drug asset forfeiture fund would add $500,000 up front.

Part of the future annual payments on the debt would come from the drug seizure fund and savings on existing office leases, though the county general fund would be tapped for $240,000 in the third year of the loan and $284,000 each year thereafter.

Roache and county staffers favor the location in the 9600 block of Ridgehaven Court because it would be “central and accessible” for the command staff, based throughout the county; would be near the site of a proposed new jail and would be near the County Operations Center, which serves as the county’s disaster communications hub.

The facility has adequate parking and storage, and is on a cul-de-sac that could be made secure for department personnel, according to a study on the proposed move.

Roache and several supervisors took pains to dispute media reports that they implied that the Sheriff’s Department is fleeing downtown because it is too dangerous for its employees. An attack on a civilian Sheriff’s Department employee that took place about the time that the relocation plans were announced was coincidental, Roache said.

Roache said the department may be able to move into the building by early next year if its purchase progresses smoothly.