Town of Lancaster has sued Los Angeles County, saying the Sheriff’s Division is raking in an “unlawful revenue” of greater than $10 million by overcharging dozens of cities for its policing companies.
Like greater than 40 different cities within the county — together with Palmdale, Compton, Carson and West Hollywood — Lancaster pays for sheriff’s deputies to police its space. However amid a staffing disaster, the Sheriff’s Division isn’t assigning as many deputies to Lancaster as the town has paid for, says the go well with, which was filed in March.
As a substitute, present deputies are working extra extra time to make up for it. However extra extra time prices lower than extra deputies, and the county allegedly isn’t passing alongside the financial savings, in accordance with the lawsuit.
Attorneys for the town filed the case as a proposed class-action on behalf of all 42 of the county’s contract cities, pending the courtroom’s approval.
Mayor R. Rex Parris stated Lancaster’s lawsuit goals to carry the county accountable, however pressured that the town nonetheless helps the sheriff’s deputies who patrol its streets.
“Let me make this crystal clear: Our deputies are our neighborhood’s guardians,” he wrote in an emailed assertion to The Occasions this week. “It pains us to see them pushed to their limits, short-staffed, and scheduled to work extra time, compromising their potential to guard and serve.”
The Sheriff’s Division stated in an emailed assertion this week that it had not formally been served with the go well with, however reiterated its dedication to policing native communities.
“We’re devoted to sustaining honest and clear monetary practices whereas delivering high-quality public security companies to our communities,” the assertion stated.
Spokespeople for the county declined to remark.
Because the mid-Nineteen Fifties, some cities in Los Angeles County have prevented the headache and expense of getting their very own police departments by contracting with the Sheriff’s Division for policing companies.
For years, there have been no state legal guidelines regulating how a lot the county may cost for these companies. However in 1973 — after a number of cities accused the county of overcharging them to fund basic operational bills — the state Legislature created a statute banning counties from marking up the value of their policing companies.
Below the present five-year contract, Lancaster pays greater than $25 million to the Sheriff’s Division every year — a determine that features pay, advantages and an 11% legal responsibility surcharge for about 70 deputies. However filling all 70 of these positions has turn into a problem.
By late final 12 months, division data present, greater than 20% of sworn positions had been vacant or held by deputies who had been out on medical go away, relieved of obligation or in any other case unavailable to work.
That’s why, in accordance with the lawsuit, for the previous a number of years the county has assigned solely 51 deputies to the Lancaster station. To bridge the hole, the lawsuit says, these deputies have to work greater than 32,000 hours of extra time per 12 months, at an estimated value of $3.2 million. That expense is about $1 million lower than it will value to pay for the advantages and salaries of 18 extra deputies.
However the metropolis says the county isn’t passing alongside the financial savings.
“The county engages on this similar follow with respect to different contract cities,” the go well with says. “By doing so, the county makes an unlawful revenue off the contract cities.”
The lawsuit estimates that the “unlawful revenue” from all of the contract cities totals greater than $10 million for deputy pay alone — although the go well with says the true determine could possibly be increased after accounting for sergeants, lieutenants and higher-ranking officers.
It’s not clear whether or not leaders in different contract cities are conscious of the lawsuit, as a number of mayors didn’t reply to The Occasions’ requests to remark. One who did reply deferred to the California Contract Cities Assn., a bunch that represents 80 contract cities throughout the state.
Marcel Rodarte, the affiliation’s government director, instructed The Occasions he hoped either side would “attain an amicable decision” after reviewing contract information.
“We’re additionally nicely conscious of the continued personnel points inside the division however are hopeful that these difficulties will subside underneath the present sheriff’s management,” he stated. “We’re at the moment working with the division to resolve most of the most urgent points our cities have confronted with guaranteeing contract compliance and minimizing liabilities regarding regulation enforcement.”
The price of policing contracts — and the rising value of authorized legal responsibility from them — has been a repeated supply of controversy within the county’s 42 contract cities.
Within the early 2000s, an out of doors audit discovered that the Sheriff’s Division was maintaining such sloppy data it won’t have been gathering sufficient cash from contract cities.
However prices went up, and, by the late 2010s, some cities had begun elevating considerations in regards to the rising expense of authorized settlements stemming from misconduct, abuse and shootings by deputies. Jim Ledford, mayor of Palmdale on the time, stated legal responsibility prices had been “out of this world” and wished the county would cowl them.
After Alex Villanueva took over the division in 2018, some cities started elevating considerations about whether or not a number of the sheriff’s controversial choices — together with rehiring sure troubled deputies — would result in costly lawsuits that might enhance authorized payouts and insurance coverage prices.
On the time, the Lancaster mayor stated he wasn’t nervous in regards to the sheriff’s hiring choices however flagged the division’s staffing issues as a trigger for concern, saying that forcing deputies to work 16-hour shifts could possibly be an issue for public security.
“I actually don’t care about how the sheriff manages particular person personnel choices,” Parris stated in 2019. “I care about whether or not the individuals in Lancaster are safer.”
Two years later, officers in Compton accused the Sheriff’s Division of “rampant” fraud, claiming the understaffed company routinely charged the town for patrol work that was not really achieved.
The brand new allegations out of Lancaster come months after the metropolis introduced it will type its personal public security company. In September, metropolis officers stated at a information convention that the brand new native police division will reply to low-level crimes in an effort to alleviate the workloads of overextended sheriff’s deputies.
