Sheriff Is Due Private Lawyers

Sheriff Bob Brooks won the first round in his threatened court battle with the Ventura County Board of Supervisors on Wednesday when a judge ordered that the county must provide him separate legal counsel at taxpayers’ expense.

Superior Court Judge Bruce A. Clark ruled that the county’s lawyers have a conflict of interest in representing both the sheriff and the board with respect to the board’s implementation of a local public safety funding law.

The Board of Supervisors must therefore provide Brooks with outside lawyers, Clark ruled. That could occur as early as Tuesday, when supervisors hold their weekly meeting.

It will be up to the supervisors, however, to decide what law firm to retain, the judge said.

“If they follow my interpretation, they can hire any gunslinger that used to be good and no longer is,” Clark said.

Brooks’ private Oxnard attorney, William Hair, protested, saying the judge should instead order the supervisors to appoint his law firm. Leaving the decision to supervisors is like “putting the fox in the henhouse,” Hair argued.

“You are giving the Board of Supervisors the power to decide who they are going to go to battle against,” Hair said.

After the hearing, County Counsel Frank Sieh said Hair’s $215-an-hour services would likely be acceptable to supervisors. But a final decision is up to the board, Sieh said.

Wednesday’s ruling was a big win for Brooks, who has repeatedly feuded with supervisors over his budget.

Brooks and Dist. Atty. Greg Totten contend their departments are being underfunded in violation of a public safety funding law adopted in 1995.

The ordinance ensures that all proceeds from Proposition 172’s half-cent sales tax go to four public safety agencies, including the sheriff and district attorney.

Beyond that, the public safety departments receive annual revenue increases out of the county’s general fund. Brooks and the board disagree over how much of an increase public safety offices should receive each year.

Clark said the dispute arises out of ambiguous language in the ordinance. The law calls for the sheriff to receive base funding plus “any associated inflationary costs.”

Brooks maintains that means the county must pay for all increased costs, no matter how high the hike. But the board two years ago moved to cap annual increases at the consumer price index, currently about 3.7%.

Clark ruled the sheriff has a right to let the courts define exactly what that phrase means.

“ ‘Associated inflationary costs’ is ambiguous and is in need of judicial determination,” the judge said.

Undersheriff Craig Husband, who attended the hearing on behalf of Brooks, said he is gratified by the ruling. More than 50,000 voters who signed a petition urging the adoption of the law years ago wanted to see law enforcement receive the higher level of funding, Husband said.

“It’s a good initial step toward restoring the spirit and intent of the ordinance,” he said.

Brooks will ask the board to retain Hair’s firm, Nordman Cormany Hair & Compton, Husband said. To select another firm would waste money, the undersheriff said, because the lawyers would be starting from scratch on complex issues.

The sheriff may also seek financial assistance from private organizations that have offered to help, Husband said.

Supervisors have been united in their opposition to the sheriff’s threatened lawsuit. That unity may be tested, however, with the court’s ruling.

Supervisor John Flynn said he will ask the board to rescind the ordinance completely, which he believes would make Clark’s decision moot.

“We really have no choice,” Flynn said. “The ordinance took away the budgeting authority of the board.”

But it is unclear whether the veteran supervisor would get any support for such a bold move.

Supervisor Steve Bennett, a leading critic of the previous funding formula, said an appeal of Clark’s decision is one of several options the board will consider.

But if the issue does move to the courts, Bennett said, he hopes it is settled quickly to hold down costs.

“The taxpayers are the losers today,” he said.