After 18 Years, Deputies Leaving Stopgap Offices

In 1978, when Sgt. Al Coutts first entered the used trailers hastily set up off Crown Valley Parkway to serve as the South County sheriff’s headquarters, he was told that they were just temporary accommodations.

Eighteen years and countless rodent infestations later, Coutts and his colleagues are finally moving to better digs.

Starting Saturday, he and 300 others will bid good riddance to the dilapidated trailers that have served as their offices and say hello to a state-of-the-art, $4.2-million facility in Aliso Viejo that will be their new home.

“There’s nothing here worth staying for,” Coutts said of the old substation, pointing to missing chunks of rat-gnawed ceiling and quarters so cramped that the lunchroom is used as a detainment room, copy room and waiting room, all at the same time. “It’s old, it’s decrepit. It’s not a pleasant place to have to spend your time.”

Funded by Mello-Roos property tax revenue, the new facility at 11 Journey includes a 27,200-square-foot building, a 250-car parking lot and two stories of administrative offices, detainment rooms, conference rooms and public facilities. There’s even a seminar room where neighborhood organizations can hold meetings.

“There’s no comparison,” Sheriff’s Department Capt. Tim Simon said of the new facility, which will serve an area covering about 300 square miles and a population of 450,000. “Our people are just walking around on cloud nine here.”

And there’s good reason for that.

For those 18 long years, employees suffered in the old substation, which was meant to temporarily house only 150 employees. The ceiling above the women’s restroom is so leaky that a spare umbrella is kept near the toilet. Rat infestations are so terrible that employees are literally driven out of the building because of the stench of dead rodents. Visitors and employees must park in out-of-the-way shopping malls or risk being towed if they park in the library lot next door.

“Our parking problem is second only to the rodents,” said Simon, who heads the substation. “There’s no place for our deputies to write reports. One hundred of my people don’t even have lockers; they change in our parking lot. It’s a horrible situation.”

With the new facility, purchased from Windrose Pacific Associates and the Mission Viejo Co., all that will change.

The public will no longer have to sit with detained suspects or watch employees eat their lunches while they wait for service; they now have their own waiting rooms.

The rooms are used by people being fingerprinted for jobs or seeking adoption papers, visas or licenses, among other uses.

For the first time, deputies will have a state-of-the-art weight room and cardiovascular facilities, as well as bunks for those who must stay overnight. Staffers will no longer have to share desk space with beleaguered deputies trying to write reports; they will have their own separate offices.

No longer will deputies go without lockers.

“I’m not going to miss changing out of my car,” Deputy Eric Nester said. “It will be nice having a locker, that’s for sure.”

To mark the end of an era, the department is throwing a grand-opening celebration for the public on Saturday from 8:30 to 11 a.m. A pancake breakfast, prizes and a ribbon-cutting ceremony with Sheriff Brad Gates and Supervisor Marian Bergeson are planned.

After that, employees will start moving into their new substation, which won’t be open to the public until Sept. 16.

It’s an occasion that still has many employees shaking their heads in disbelief.

“It’s going to be a real culture shock,” said office technician Jeannie Ebargaray, who has worked at the old substation for 14 years. “No more gnawing, no more candy-addicted rats. It won’t seem real to me until they actually tell us to pack our bags.”