City-County Feud Fueled by Jail and Court Crisis : Government: With nowhere to turn for money, the two entities turn on each other in criminal-justice conflict.

Frustrated by a crumbling criminal justice system that keeps getting worse, officials of the city and county of San Diego, normally cordial, are beginning to fault each other over their commitment to improving the woeful state of jails and courts.

Although city representatives believe the county has done little to make gains in jail and courtroom space, county leaders think San Diego could lend more financial help to solve a problem that affects both governments.

Fueling tensions between the two entities is a state Supreme Court decision last month that declared unconstitutional about $330 million in sales-tax funds for jails and courtrooms because they violate provisions of Proposition 13.

Without the money, government leaders are being forced to go back and search for money in already-tight budgets. And finding little, they are looking at each other with a different perspective.

“Somewhere, sometime, people have got to stop pretending they live in a vacuum and that one jurisdiction does not affect another,” county Supervisor Susan Golding said. “Unless the city wishes to duplicate the entire criminal justice, it should begin to address reality.”

For their part, city officials say they have gone above and beyond the call of duty in providing money for jails and courtrooms, responsibilities legally entrusted to the county.

Most prominent of these expenditures, they say, is the $4.2 million a year they are about to spend for a 200-bed, pre-arraignment jail on county land on Otay Mesa, scheduled to open in May.

At a City Council subcommittee hearing last week, annoyed council members listened as Sheriff Jim Roache described the extra expense and impact the jail would have on his department.

Although the jail is needed, Roache said, it is inevitable that a large number of inmates awaiting trial will be transferred into county jails after a legally required limit of two days in the city jail. The sheriff is already under a court-ordered cap on jail population that he believes will be further jeopardized.

The new jail will cost the county nearly $3 million a year in increased court and probation costs. The city plans to return about $300,000 in fines and forfeitures.

Some city officials consider their new, privately operated jail a favor to the county and were openly chagrined to hear Roache complaining about the effect of the new facility.

“The city is willing to take its responsibility, but the county zealously guards its prerogatives,” City Councilwoman Judy McCarty said. “They tend to resent our intrusion. So the city has said, ‘Blast it, we’ll take care of things ourselves.’ ”

The sheriff said he was simply trying to put the city on notice.

“I’m not trying to be a naysayer,” Roache said in an interview. “But they need to know that their course of action had ramifications far beyond what they were looking at. I applaud their commitment to public safety and jail space, but it is not without pitfalls.”

County officials say the city would place a further burden on the system under a plan by San Diego Police Chief Bob Burgreen to put 102 extra officers from desk jobs onto the streets.

According to the county’s calculations, just 60 of those officers will make 1,200 more felony and 6,660 misdemeanor arrests per year, costing the criminal justice system $5.85 million more each year in court, prosecution and public defense costs.

“When you add police officers or jail beds, there’s a ripple effect that takes place,” said Rich Robinson, of the county office of special projects. “It’s hard to address needs without effect.”

Chief Burgreen said the city normally does take those impacts into account and spends money needed for jails and legal expenses that are tied to projected new arrests. But he noted that much of what the officers do has nothing to do with arrests.

“We are not making arrests 24 hours a day,” he said. “Much of what we do is to make people feel safer.”

While the county has been long criticized for jail crowding and its slow-paced solutions to the problem, county administrators are quick to point out that they have added 3,378 beds since 1986 at a cost of $136 million, including expansion of the Vista jail and construction of the Las Colinas men’s jail in Santee.

The county also added 26 courtrooms for $10 million and has another 20 under construction, Robinson said.

The city has spent millions of dollars itself on countywide projects, including $3 million of redevelopment funds for new courtroom space. The county signed a lease for courtroom space at the El Cortez Convention Center, which is nearly a year behind schedule because of problems with a developer.

City Councilman Ron Roberts said the county made “a lousy decision” in seeking to renovate El Cortez, one of several roadblocks the city has hit when trying to help.

“A frustration that is shared by myself and many of my colleagues is that you look at the record and see we’ve given the county property and money and a jail and crime labs and all we get is excuses,” Roberts said.