REGIONAL REPORT : Counties Get Protests but Not Jail Fees

When California county governments first began imposing a controversial jail-booking fee on cities last year, they knew that city officials were going to object, that lawsuits were possible and protests inevitable.

But Sacramento had just taken away millions of dollars in county aid, and the local governments desperately needed the money. So, almost without exception, they swallowed hard and adopted the fees.

Some, like Orange County, delayed the effective date of the fee until this year to give their cities time to budget for it. But sure enough, they and other counties got what they expected: lawsuits, protests and intergovernmental acrimony. What they’re not getting, in many cases, is the money.

At a hearing today, California cities will ask a Sacramento Superior Court judge to allow them to withhold their fees until the issue is settled by the courts.

But even without the court’s blessing, many Southern California cities are refusing to pay up.

In Orange County, six cities are late in their payments, three have yet to pay a penny, and one, Irvine, has sent its $31,000 bill back to the county with a note saying that it objects to the fee and has no intention of paying. Total unpaid tab for Orange County cities: $551,400.

Frustrated by the late payments, Orange County officials have referred the matter to their lawyers and are considering a set of proposals for adding teeth to their bill collection efforts from cities.

County officials elsewhere in the region tell similar stories.

Take San Diego County, for instance: Cities there owe more than $2 million for prisoners they have booked in the County Jail since July 1. But they are not paying.

And in Ventura and San Bernardino counties, county governments have resorted to seizing property tax revenue from their scofflaw cities, infuriating the municipalities and touching off yet another round of litigation.

What has brought the cities and counties to this loggerhead?

At the local level, both sides of the dispute agree that it is the result of a craven Legislature that solved its short-term financial woes by dumping them on local governments.

“The real beef,” said Poway City Manager Jim Bowersox, “is with the state Legislature and the methods they’re using to address the fiscal crises in the state of California.”

Santa Ana Mayor Daniel H. Young wholeheartedly agrees.

“This problem is the result of a cynical, predatory public policy that balances their budget on the backs of local government,” he said. “It’s inexcusable.”

Even state legislators show little enthusiasm for the booking fees, but they defend them as a needed tool during a time of dwindling government resources.

“It’s obviously a very controversial fee, but it came about because of a serious shortfall in revenues,” said state Sen. Marian Bergeson (R-Newport Beach), who chairs the Senate Local Government Committee. “It was a way at the last minute of allowing counties to make up for some of that loss.”

In July, 1990, the Legislature took more than $700 million in state funding away from counties to help ease a $3.6-billion state budget shortfall. To help counties recoup the loss, state lawmakers gave them the authority to charge local governments for both property tax collection and the booking of city prisoners into county jails.

Counties were allowed to make the fees retroactive to July, 1990. Some held off but others imposed the fees immediately.

Law or no law, many communities are refusing to ante up.

Poway and Santa Ana are among nearly two dozen San Diego and Orange County cities that have refused to pay their booking fees, an unusual act of civil disobedience that has stunned some county officials in those areas and stripped them of money that some had counted on to balance their already depleted budgets.

“We can’t afford to lose this money,” said Orange County Supervisor Harriett M. Wieder. “If they have a problem with this fee, they should take it to the state, not us. We don’t like it either.”

In Ventura and San Bernardino counties, officials have taken a more pro-active, and controversial, stand on the fees: protecting themselves against cities that refuse to pay by confiscating property tax funds.

“We do what we have to do to pay our bills, too,” said Penny Bohannon, manager of legislative affairs for Ventura County. “We have to remember that the state only allowed us this authority because they had cut our budget. We were caught between a rock and a hard place.”

But city officials furiously object to the seizure. In San Bernardino County, the city of Twentynine Palms and other municipalities dashed off formal protests to the county, and similar objections have been logged in Ventura County. Cities in both counties filed suit to reclaim their money.

“The problem is they’re short of funds and we’re short of funds,” said Charlotte Craven, a member of the Camarillo City Council. “We’re just passing bucks back and forth. They’ve got our money and we want it back.”

With counties objecting to the stubbornness of recalcitrant cities--and with cities protesting that they are being forced to bear the burden of the state’s poor fiscal planning--the entire issue has predictably wound up in court.

Round one of that dispute will get its hearing today as lawyers for California cities ask a Sacramento Superior Court judge to let them hold onto their booking fees until the constitutionality of the levy can be decided.

The hearing may get crowded, given the cast of characters in this courtroom drama: 100 plaintiffs, including cities from throughout the state, and at least 81 attorneys are involved.

The cities argue that the booking fees violate the state Constitution and represent a double tax on city residents, who they say already pay for booking through their property taxes. Cities also argue that the fees imposed by the counties far exceed the actual cost of booking.

Given the damage that the issue already has done to relations between many city and county governments, few officials see much hope for either side going away happy from the lawsuits. Nor is there much hope that the state will revoke the fees, since it has no other money to offer counties in return.

The bottom line: The booking fees may get a little fine-tuning, but few expect them to go away.

“The state is in fiscal chaos,” Bergeson said. “Every level of government is facing severe and immediate cutbacks. We simply have to find an equitable and cost-effective way of dealing with that.”

Times staff writers Dan Morain, Alan Abrahamson, Tina Daunt and Martha Willman contributed to this report.