Baca to Explore City Fee Hikes

Facing a third year of painful budget cuts, Los Angeles County Sheriff Lee Baca conceded Wednesday that his department may not be charging 40 cities enough for police services that his department is providing under contract.

The statement marked a turnaround for the sheriff, who previously had insisted that raising prices would hurt cities at a time when all local governments needed to band together to resist budget cuts at the state level. But as the Board of Supervisors opened public hearings on the county’s proposed $17-billion budget Wednesday, Baca said he was “happy to explore” whether more money could be recovered from the cities.

The Sheriff’s Department provides a full package of police services to 40 cities such as Santa Clarita, West Hollywood, Compton, Palmdale and Calabasas through contracts worth $174 million annually. The cities pay for patrol deputies and limited support costs.

But under a 33-year-old billing formula approved by the board, they are not charged for homicide and narcotics detectives, officer training, fingerprint identification and bomb squads. Also excluded are the county crime lab and some helicopter services.

On Wednesday, Baca warned that a prolonged budget crunch had deprived him of funding for almost 1,000 deputies and had forced the closure of two jails and the early release of thousands of inmates. His department has lost $166.8 million over two years, he said, and the county’s proposed $34.8-million reduction for the coming fiscal year “further jeopardizes the safety of the public.”

As an antidote, Baca is promoting a ballot measure that would raise the county’s sales tax by a half-cent to fund law enforcement. But Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky pressed Baca to first look toward contract cities for more money. All 40 contracts are up for renewal in June.

“I know even mentioning it makes the cities go crazy,” Yaroslavsky said. “You’re in a very tough spot because these cities are your customers. But I just don’t know how you can go to the people with a sales tax when you’re not even willing -- when we’re not even willing -- to recover some portion of the cost” from cities.

“I think all of us can try to do something more,” Baca said, adding that he was particularly interested in charging more for training deputies. “It certainly [would not raise] billions of dollars or hundreds of millions of dollars, but it is something that I have to seriously look at.”

Under state law, supervisors have some discretion in deciding which services are billable, said Chief Deputy County Counsel Raymond G. Fortner Jr. Once the board sets its policy, the rates are calculated by the county’s auditor-controller. On a political level, however, lawmakers are reluctant to hike prices without the cooperation of Baca, also an elected official.

For the contract cities, the prospect of higher policing costs in a grim budget year has sparked anxiety.

“We’re really watching our budget very closely,” said West Hollywood Mayor John Duran, whose city pays the Sheriff’s Department $10.6 million per year. “If it’s incremental, that’s one thing. If it’s a large amount, we would oppose it.”

“Cities may be forced to look into other options,” said Palmdale Mayor Jim Ledford. “I hate to even talk like that. But I got to tell you, cities are not in a great position here. We’re being robbed, just like the county, by the state.”