Safety Isn’t Cheap in Ventura County

Ventura County does a good job of protecting its residents but spends much more than comparable counties for similar results, according to a draft report commissioned by County Executive Officer Johnny Johnston.

A study by Management Partners Inc. found that out of 14 similar-sized counties, Ventura County spent the most on sheriff, district attorney and jail services. In 2000, the county spent $231 on law enforcement for each resident, compared with an average of $160 for the comparison counties, the report found.

And although Ventura County has one of the lowest crime rates in the state, it does so at relatively high cost, the analysts said.

The report is the newest point of contention in a long-running battle over public safety funding in Ventura County.

On one side are Sheriff Bob Brooks and Dist. Atty. Greg Totten, who have sued the county Board of Supervisors, alleging that their departments have received insufficient funding the past two years. A citizens’ group and at least one city have joined that suit.

Supervisors, meanwhile, have fired back with their own lawsuit, contending that a county ordinance to protect public safety funding is illegal. The county board has said it more than adequately funds law enforcement.

According to the report, Santa Barbara and San Mateo counties have similar crime rates but spend significantly less. In 2000, Santa Barbara County spent $171 per resident and San Mateo County $138, the August report said.

More extensive analysis is necessary to determine if inefficiencies exist in the county’s law enforcement departments, the report’s authors cautioned. But the results could be used as a “rough guide” to measuring Ventura County’s public safety efforts, the report said.

A second mini-study by the California Institute for County Government, also commissioned by Johnston this summer, also placed the sheriff and district attorney’s offices as among the best-funded in the state but did not analyze workloads or results.

Supervisors played down the studies’ significance, noting they were preliminary and that Johnston had not finished his own analysis of them.

“It tells me we are doing the best we can, and we are doing better than a lot of counties,” board Chairwoman Judy Mikels said. “And that is really all it tells me.”

The latest studies were attacked last week by Brooks and Totten. Both officials contend the studies are too simplistic and error-prone to be taken seriously.

Management Partners used measures such as crime rates, staffing and arrests reported to the California Department of Justice and compared them with population numbers to come up with rankings. Brooks said that did not take into account differences in work assignments, police contracts and job vacancies that vary from county to county.

Totten, meanwhile, questioned the accuracy of one measure showing that Ventura County filed the lowest number of felony complaints of the 14 counties analyzed. The report found that Ventura County prosecutors logged 1,229 felony complaints in 2000, compared with the group average of 6,054.

That figure is skewed, the district attorney said, because of administrative errors made by clerks at the courthouse. His office shows that 2,613 felonies were filed that year, Totten said. An audit eight years ago, however, made a similar assessment about felony filings.

At any rate, Totten said, felony filings are not always a good measure of work output.

“It’s not necessarily a complete picture,” he said. “We have a 93% conviction rate across the spectrum, felonies and misdemeanors. And that is very high-quality service.”

The sheriff said he would welcome a full management audit as long as his staff had a chance to weigh in on key issues.

Brooks and Totten criticized the report as being cloaked in secrecy. Totten said he only learned of it when someone tipped him off. He then made a public records request this month for a copy of the report, the district attorney said.

Johnston said he had not intended for the study to become public. But once Totten requested a copy, he was obligated to distribute copies to the Board of Supervisors, he said.

Johnston said he ordered the $16,800 studies as a preliminary step in deciding whether to proceed with a more extensive efficiency analysis of Brooks’ and Totten’s departments.

Supervisors in May had asked him to look into the cost of a larger analysis, which could range from $150,000 to $200,000, he said.