During the recent budget and jail presentation by Santa Barbara County Sheriff Bill Brown to the county Board of Supervisors on April 6, I was shaking my head in disbelief. The supervisors could not make sense out of the disaster, and I’ve never seen all five board members so frustrated, but with good reason. Just to be clear, all the other department heads provided timely and accurate data to the board, and were responsive to questions, so that reliable financial decisions can be made on our behalf. Watching Sheriff Brown speak to the supervisors about the new jails over the past couple of years has been like watching Billy Flynn, the duplicitous, smooth talking lawyer in the movie Chicago. His mantra was “razzle-dazzle them and they’ll never catch on!” That Brown has done. But they may finally be on to him.
Like most average citizens, I knew relatively little about our Sheriff’s Office until a couple of years ago. Deputies were always extremely courteous, helpful, and professional, and I’m sure that continues today. These comments in no way reflect the respect I have for the men and women who put on that uniform and protect us each and every day.
Again, like many of you, I knew there had been a couple of ballot initiatives in the past to raise taxes to fund a new jail, all were defeated by large percentages. The people had spoken, or so I thought.
As I’ve said publicly, I’m not opposed to a new jail. I’m opposed to decisions being made with our money based on bad information. Some people say we must have a new jail; the state is “giving” us 80 to 90 percent of the funds to build it, and we can’t back out now. And as with most things, building it is the easy part. Ongoing operations of the new jail could run into the hundreds of millions of dollars. The supervisors realize there are only so many dollars, and many vital services to fund in this County.
The supervisors have been making decisions on this new jail based on misinformation from the Sheriff. (Actually, in my opinion, there are two new jails proposed: a 376-bed jail and the 228-bed STAR—Sheriff’s Treatment and Re-entry—complex.) Supervisor Steve Lavagnino said to the Sheriff at one point in the meeting, “What this really comes down to is a matter of trust.” Boom! The elephant in the room? He just said he doesn’t trust the highest ranking law enforcement officer in the county.
For the first time, on April 6, the Sheriff gave a projection of the future cost of the complete multi-jail system. The numbers were so different than any past presentation, the board was stunned. The Sheriff has repeatedly said the new jails would cost $17 million a year to operate, but now his calculations show that the number is $29 million. The current custody operations cost about $41 million. According to the Sheriff’s figures, this will increase to nearly $59 million by the time the new jail is open, another stunning revelation.
I spoke to the supervisors in July 2014, asking them and the county executive officer: “Have you verified the Sheriff’s numbers yourselves, and do you know if they are correct?” I never received an answer, but apparently they hadn’t. The main reason the Sheriff has always given for building a new jail was the overcrowding issue. With the recent decline in jail population, maybe we don’t need the second facility. We currently have a little less than 900 inmates; 70 percent of those are “pre-trial,” meaning they have not been convicted of anything. Should some of the inmates who are pre-trial be locked up? Absolutely. But, what if some could be released on bail or electric monitoring? It’s not been in the Sheriff’s best interest to lower those numbers when he’s trying to build new jails. But housing those folks has cost us millions. We need to know if overcrowding is still the issue.
So, what do we do now? The county has spent untold amounts of our money pursuing these projects; people want these new jails, but can we afford to operate them? I, along with others, am asking the board for a thorough, independent investigation to review both the needs assessment and operating cost projections produced by the Sheriff. Three previous “Needs Assessment” reports came from Rosser International, the project’s architect and designer, hardly an independent analysis. Why not put these $140-million projects on hold for a few months and obtain accurate information? If there is opposition to that, that would raise a red flag for me.
Additionally, there should be a comprehensive analysis of refurbishing the South County jail, something the Sheriff has never seriously considered. Sheriff Brown refers to the jail in Santa Barbara as “antiquated,” but what has he done to keep it up for the past eight years? And it’s hard to tell whether he wants to keep it open or mothball parts of it. And will he really shut it down as he has sometimes said?
Sheriff Brown has banked on the supervisors’ yearning for a new jail, and like teenagers champing at the bit for a brand new car, some were just so excited they were not paying attention. One was absolutely giddy when accepting the state’s grant monies. The sad part is, the Sheriff has been focused solely on getting these new jails for the past eight years, spent countless hours lobbying for these funds, and still doesn’t have a plan.
People have been telling the supervisors for more than a year that the numbers didn’t make sense. I do not want to hear them pontificate about how troubling these new revelations are, wring their hands, then rubber stamp whatever the Sheriff wants. My hope is they continue to dig for the truth until they find it. The big question is, will they? Contact your supervisor and let them know your thoughts, they are listening.
Terri Stricklin is the general manager of the Hitching Post in Casmalia. Send comments or concerns to clanham@santamariasun.com.
This article appears in Apr 30 – May 7, 2015.
