Bailout OKd for Youth Parole Board

The Legislature unanimously passed a special $1.5-million bill Monday that will keep afloat the state Youthful Offender Parole Board, which ran out of money Jan. 1 and has not paid its bills since.

The measure, SB 459 by Senate leader John L. Burton (D-San Francisco), was passed by the Assembly, 69 to 0, and by the Senate, 38 to 0. Gov. Gray Davis intends to sign it as soon as it reaches him, a spokesman said.

The board sets the length of sentences and determines the suitability for parole of about 5,300 young criminals who are too tough to incarcerate in local juvenile lockups.

Last year, a dispute over how the board was run prompted the Legislature to give it only half a budget of some $1.6 million, which kept it in business from July until Jan. 1.

Lawmakers passed a second bill by Burton that would have given the board another $1.6 million for the remaining six months of the fiscal year. But Davis vetoed it because he opposed a requirement that would have shifted much of the board’s work to local juvenile court judges.

The board ran out of money in January and was unable to pay more than $400,000 in bills, including payments on a new headquarters leased from a private landlord. The board’s 20-member staff was paid, however.

The bailout bill provides funds to keep the board in business through June and to pay a stack of bills that it has acquired during the last three months.

It also urges that options to the board’s lease be evaluated and the agency be relocated to share the headquarters space of the California Youth Authority.