Roache Redecorating Poorly Timed : Spending thousands on furniture while the county cuts corners is indefensible

A few thousand dollars may not seem like much in a San Diego County budget that approaches $2 billion. But at a time when the cash-strapped county is cutting back on everything from benefits to the poor to paid vacations for staff, every dime counts. Or at least it should. Unfortunately, that message apparently hasn’t reached Sheriff Jim Roache.

The sheriff recently spent roughly $4,000 to purchase posh furniture for his office and that of Undersheriff Jay LaSuer. Specifically, $3,000 was used to purchase two oak wall units, $950 was spent to fit the sheriff’s walnut desk with a glass top, and $450 was spent on a new “Ero-Dynamic” graphite chair for LaSuer.

Last week, Roache acknowledged that the money for those and about $9,000 in other questionable purchases came from a special fund established to buy evidence and pay informants. The sheriff then reworked the accounting books, switching the expenditures into the Headquarters Building Fund. But if that helped the books balance, it did little to address the broader question about making such expenditures at all.

The county is in a fiscal crisis. During these tough times perhaps its most precious commodity is credibility. But how can it credibly plea poverty when the sheriff is spending thousands of dollars on cozy office furniture even as the county is tossing the poor off welfare rolls?

Just last week the county Board of Supervisors voted unanimously to restrict the access poor San Diegans have to health care. That action alone is expected to affect up to 2,000 people, many of them the so-called working poor who lack employer-paid health-care policies. Earlier this year, the board--on another unanimous vote--limited general relief payments to about 2,200 people, some of whom will almost certainly become homeless if they lose that $291 monthly check. For now, the payments continue because the boards action has been challenged in court.

The county is also locked in a face-off with county employees over its demand that they take unpaid leave to ease the fiscal woes.

So which is the real San Diego County--the one that can no longer afford to fully assist the poor or the one that doesn’t blink when providing the sheriff with a posh office?

That’s a legitimate question. This is, after all, the same county--and sheriff--that just a few weeks ago was trying to persuade voters that a sales-tax increase was essential to the health of the criminal justice system. Voters said no to that request because they weren’t convinced that the county had already squeezed all the fat from its budget.

That notion was fueled by a county grand jury report that said the county may be wasting $70 million a year on welfare fraud alone. Roache’s expenditures--from whatever account--only add to the cynicism. And they couldn’t come at a worse time.

Rather than spending scarce dollars on fancy furnishings, the county desperately needs to be investing in a reservoir of trust with its constituents.