Supervisors to Vote on Jail Door Project

Long-delayed plans to upgrade the electronic door and locking system at the Ventura County Jail are expected to get back on track today when the Board of Supervisors decides whether to hire a consultant to oversee the work.

For nearly six years, the Sheriff’s Department has been trying to get a new system installed at the jail, which was built in 1980. The original plans were to only replace the electronic system that controls the opening and closing of the jail’s 400 cells, which would have cost about $550,000.

But the county got into a legal dispute with Fire Electric, the Los Angeles-based contractor hired in 1995 to do the job. County officials charged that the company was not living up to its contract because, among other things, it insisted on using what county officials consider substandard materials. Fire Electric agreed to pay the county $75,000 as part of a settlement last year.

Meanwhile, sheriff’s officials found the mechanisms on the jail doors themselves were worn and in need of replacement. The estimated cost of the project is now $2.9 million.

Sheriff’s Cmdr. Mark Ball said the current jail door equipment is difficult to repair, since some of it is no longer manufactured.

He stressed that the jail has countless measures in place to ensure security, but said problems with jail doors prevent the department from using the entire jail.

“A lot of it simply has to do with 20 years of wear and tear on the doors,” Ball said. “Keep in mind that for its first 16 years, the facility was well over capacity, so wear and tear was unusually high. There are ample backup systems, and if doors go down, we can close the cells, but that doesn’t allow us to use the facility to full capacity.”

Supervisors today will consider a recommendation to hire ALTA Consulting Services Inc. of Redmond, Wash., at a cost of up to $229,667 to plan the renovation project. The consultant’s work is expected to take about six months, while the upgrade itself is expected to take about a year and a half, Ball said.