By Aaron Morrison Lamorinda Sun
The Contra Costa Times
CONTRA COSTA, Calif. — Lafayette, Orinda and Danville may look at weening themselves from county sheriff department contracts for police services, whose costs are rising significantly this fiscal year over last.
Each of the three Contra Costa towns has set aside funds in their current year’s budgets to study their towns’ police services.
The study would evaluate the pros and cons of setting up their own city-run police departments independent of Sheriff’s department services. Each town has seen an increase of from 9 to 13 percent in service fees for patrol officers alone.
That increase, sheriff’s representatives say, is a result of increased benefit costs for sheriff’s department employees, many of whom serve as patrol officers in the towns with which the department contracts.
The cities have no complaints about the Sheriff’s department’s performance.
“The level of service has been excellent,” said Danville Town Manager Joe Calibrigo. “Our concern is from a cost standpoint.”
Danville, with the largest population of the three towns, has set aside $50,000 in its budget for the joint study that Calibrigo said still may not be carried out. If he and his colleagues can come up with a simpler solution to absorbing the unexpected rise in contract service fees, the study may not be necessary, he said.
“Contra Costa County threw a new wrinkle at us,” Calibrigo said. “We expect (costs) to go up each year. But when the Sheriff doesn’t have the ability to anticipate what costs will be, there is a concern for us.”
When Sheriff’s department employees adopted a new retirement benefits package a few years ago, the county began paying out more money to meet its financial obligation to a “3 percent at (age) 50 retirement plan,” said Scott Daly, commander of the administrative services bureau for the county sheriff’s department.
The new plan turned out to cost far more than anyone expected. Since employees could retire on the new benefit plan without having paid into it many eligible deputies retired immediately when the benefit went into effect the county was forced to offset the cost increases.
“The plan is incredibly generous to employees,” Daly said. “All of that is a relatively large increase in cost to field a deputy sheriff.”
A $20 million pension obligation bond, needed to retain a healthy level of funding for retiree health care costs, bailed the county out of impending debt. As a result, each contracted city was asked to pay their share of that $20 million, based on the level of services they receive from the county, Daly said.
Without such an unusual rise in costs, the efficiency a contract arrengement brings most small cities has both financial and non-financial benefits, said Tracy Robinson, administrative services director for Lafayette. That city set aside $25,000 to aid the three-town study.
Typically, a contract with the sheriff’s department provides for a police chief, a few sergeants, a couple investigators, a more than a dozen patrol officers, traffic officers and a school resource officer.
Each town negotiates its contract based on the level of services it needs, along with recommendations from the Sheriff’s department.
Commander Daly said such contracts shield cities from liability claims, and give other help in operating a law enforcement agency.
“We provide administrative support that no city (of a small) size could afford,” Daly said. “We do all the testing, hiring and training processes required to get people to the point of being qualified officers.”
Being a “prudent financial manager,” however, means cities must reduce spending in all areas of their budgets, Daly admitted.
These three towns are not the first in the county to seek out city-operated police departments. In 2006, the city of San Ramon also concerned with the rising costs of its contract with the county formed its own police department with a one-time start-up price tag ranging from $550,00 to $600,000.
That city reportedly saves about $1.6 million annually by operating its police services in-house.
Copyright 2008 The Contra Costa Times