Grand Jury Looks at Jails as Key to New Funds

Ventura County should consider consolidating some of its facilities to save money, selling excess land at its jails and renting unused jail beds to other counties, according to a new grand jury report.

With more than $1 billion worth of land, title to 136 buildings and about $6 million in annual rent payments, the county should develop a coordinated strategy for managing its real estate, the citizens panel suggested.

On any given day, three of 10 jail beds are unfilled. Even with a Sheriff’s Department forecast of maximum jail needs through 2015, the report found more than 100 beds would remain empty daily.

Sheriff Bob Brooks said his department already collects $1.65 million a year from the state and federal governments by renting empty cells to temporarily house their prisoners who have been arrested in this county. Reimbursement for people subject to deportation by the Immigration and Naturalization Service brings in an additional $1.7 million a year.

Brooks said he has approached other counties about handling jail overflow, but their limited budgets prevent expanding the practice. “They’d be happy to give us inmates, but they don’t want to pay,” he said.

The grand jury report focused on the land surrounding the Todd Road Jail, near Santa Paula, and the Ojai Women’s Facility, saying that only a small portion of the 141 acres in Ojai are needed to accommodate an average of 156 prisoners a day there.

Adjacent to the 20-acre Todd Road Jail complex is a 137-acre, county-owned lemon orchard expected to generate about $300,000 for the county’s general fund this year. The report suggests assessing whether this land should be sold or developed.

Brooks cautioned that the Ojai land may not be very desirable because it lies near an earthquake fault in a flood plain and its soil is contaminated with nitrates from an inmate-run pig farm that was discontinued several years ago. Also, zoning issues and concerns about safety would make developing either site difficult, the sheriff added.

“There’s the reality that you can’t put anything that close to a jail,” he said.

The grand jury said the county owns approximately 11,000 acres in about 900 separate parcels.

County properties include thousands of acres that always will remain in public use, such as Channel Islands Harbor, Camarillo Airport, Ventura County Government Center, 3,700-acre Happy Camp Canyon Regional Park near Moorpark, golf courses and other recreational facilities.

The General Services Agency staff oversees about 2.6 million square feet of space used by the county in 154 buildings, of which 18 are leased. The county leases extra space in about 70 other buildings. In all, the county spends about $500,000 a month to lease 480,000 square feet, the report says.

Most of that space is leased on behalf of the Human Services Agency and the Health Care agency, which operate welfare offices and health clinics throughout the county along with the Ventura County Medical Center.

“They need to have locations spread out around the county, so they can be where their clients and patients are,” said Sean Payne, the GSA’s manager of real property services. “Consolidating doesn’t necessarily work.”

Separately, County Executive Officer Johnny Johnston is expected Tuesday to recommend that the Board of Supervisors adopt a policy calling for an inventory of the county’s capital assets and having a committee of senior department heads assess the continued need for these assets--ideas also suggested in the grand jury report.