Sheriff Stands Firm in Budget Dispute

Ventura County Sheriff Bob Brooks said Tuesday his budget feud with the Board of Supervisors will end up in court -- whether or not the county agrees to pay his legal fees.

Brooks said he will dip into his department’s treasury if necessary to pay the $215-an-hour services of an Oxnard law firm that he and Dist. Atty. Greg Totten hired in November to investigate a possible lawsuit against the supervisors.

The law enforcement leaders maintain that the board illegally altered a public safety funding ordinance in 2001, slowing the growth of their budgets. Brooks and Totten are pursuing court action to settle the dispute.

Brooks contends he has a right to hire counsel to do preliminary legal analysis because the county’s lawyers, who advise the Board of Supervisors, have a conflict of interest.

Supervisors have criticized the threatened lawsuit as a waste of taxpayer money. In a closed-door session today, the board is expected to reject the sheriff’s request to have the county pay for the private law firm.

At Tuesday’s board meeting, Supervisor Steve Bennett challenged Brooks’ contention that he had authority to hire the law firm. All contracts with attorneys must first be approved by the board, Bennett said.

Absent that, the November agreement with the law firm of Nordman, Cormany, Hair and Compton is not valid, and any fees associated with it are the sheriff’s personal responsibility, Bennett said.

“It won’t come from the taxpayers,” he said.

Tuesday’s exchange again highlighted a power struggle underway at the Hall of Administration. Their funding unchallenged for years, the sheriff and district attorney are bristling over recent changes brought on by tight government finances and a new board majority.

Brooks and Totten are upset over a 2001 board vote that altered the amount of an inflationary hike their departments receive each year.

Before the vote, four public safety departments -- the sheriff, district attorney, public defender and probation -- received spending increases of between 7% and 10% each year under a complex funding formula.

The 2001 vote, however, capped their spending growth at the consumer price index, about 3.75%.

In addition, the four departments share all of the estimated $50 million a year in special tax revenue generated by Proposition 172.