Sheriff, D.A. Sue Ventura County

Ventura County Sheriff Bob Brooks and Dist. Atty. Greg Totten made good Wednesday on their threat to sue the county in their campaign to restore full funding to their agencies.

In a lawsuit filed in Superior Court, Brooks and Totten contend county supervisors unlawfully capped the annual inflationary increases their departments and two other public safety agencies receive each year.

“This has cost us our ability to protect the public,” Brooks said. “The issue is not going to be resolved without going to the court. Once it’s cleared up, it can be put to rest and we’ll move on.”

Supervisors have argued that the formula that allowed the law enforcement treasury to grow by 77% over a decade was so flawed that it would bankrupt the county if left unchanged.

The decision made by the supervisors two years ago put the board in a showdown with the popular officials, who responded with political firepower. Brooks has already closed a county jail in Ojai and plans to close one in Thousand Oaks by the end of next month to help cover a possible $10-million budget gap.

County and city officials are furiously working on alternative measures to keep the East County Jail open, at least temporarily.

Brooks and Totten allege in their lawsuit that the board unlawfully amended a local public safety funding ordinance without submitting the matter to a vote of the people, as required by state law. The complaint alleges that the board unlawfully diverted an estimated $50 million of public safety sales tax revenue by failing to place the funds in a special public safety trust fund.

The lawsuit seeks a court order forcing the supervisors to account for all public safety tax revenue diverted to the general fund, comply with the original law or submit the changes to a public vote, and continue to fund public safety agencies according to the original formula.

“It is truly unfortunate and regrettable that we must take this legal action to compel the Board of Supervisors to comply with the law and honor the promise it made to Ventura County citizens,” Totten said in a statement after the lawsuit was filed.

At issue is a public safety funding law adopted by supervisors in 1994 after a citizens group supported by law enforcement leaders threatened to put it on the ballot. The ordinance requires all county proceeds from a special half-cent sales tax adopted by a statewide voter in 1993 be given to the Sheriff’s Department, district attorney’s office, public defender’s office and probation department. This year, the four departments will share $50 million.

In 2001, a new board majority capped the cost-of-living increase at the consumer price index of about 3.75% because public safety spending was growing at twice the rate of the county’s income, supervisors said.

Brooks contends that the 2003-04 budget for his department is $10 million short of what he needs to keep it operating at previous levels, and Totten says he needs an additional $2.8 million. Brooks is proposing to close the East County Jail and transfer nine officers to save about $800,000 a year. But the idea has caused a public outcry in Moorpark and Thousand Oaks.

City officials fear it will take too long for officers to drive suspects to the main county jail in Ventura, effectively taking officers off the streets longer and extending response times to service calls. The jail takes in 3,500 suspects a year.

Officials from the cities met Wednesday with Brooks and Supervisors Linda Parks and Judy Mikels to discuss ways to keep the jail open, even if only part time. Trimming the hours of operation is one option they are considering, Parks said.

One scenario would be to keep the jail open during busy times, such as nights and weekends, and close it during the weekdays.

“We talked about some possible short-term solutions in terms of buying us a little time before we actually have to eliminate those services,” Mikels said. “We don’t know if there’s any merit to them. There really aren’t any long-term solutions except for restoring the original funding ordinance.”

Although no final decisions were made, everyone agreed to reconvene next week to discuss the issue further, Parks said.

“I think our first choice would be to keep it in operation as long as we can, and if we do have to close it, to affect the bookings as little as possible,” Parks said. “We don’t want to compromise our level of service.”