COUNTY AUTHORIZES SHERIFF TO RAISE RATES FOR SERVICES
The Board of Supervisors has signed off on Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco’s request to hike the blanket rate charged to 16 cities and other contract entities for the use of patrol deputies and support services associated with operations.
In a 5-0 vote without comment on May 10, the supervisors authorized the 4.09 percent increase, which is retroactive to July 1, 2021. According to sheriff ’s officials, it’s needed to recoup higher costs incurred by the department.
Under the revised rate schedule, the cost of a sheriff ’s patrol deputy will rise from $197.90 per hour to $206 per hour.
“Each year, the Sheriff ’s Department does an analysis of just its patrol operations and determines real costs effectively through its sheer size,” according to an agency statement posted to the board’s agenda. “The fully supported contract law enforcement rates include the entire systemic costs involving the running of a (law enforcement) department.”
The agency acknowledged that the main pressures in the current budget cycle stem from higher “pension obligations and salary increases” obtained by the Riverside
Sheriffs Association for the several thousand deputies it represents, and the costs of increased pensions and salary hikes for executive-level personnel represented by the Law Enforcement Management Unit.
Last year’s hike was 4.74 percent. In 2015, a 7 percent hike prompted an outcry from elected and nonelected officials from Temecula, Lake Elsinore, Moreno Valley, Palm Desert and Indian Wells, who challenged the justification for such a significant upward adjustment. They protested that law enforcement expenses were draining their budgets and should be capped.
The objections led to a two-year assessment of sheriff ’s operations conducted by Netherlands-based professional services firm KPMG, at a cost of nearly $40 million. After the company’s audit and recommendations, some sheriff’s management practices were changed, and adjustments were made to deputies’ schedules and assignments at several stations to save money.
However, the KPMG work has been criticized by the Riverside County Grand Jury and other sources as excessively expensive with limited results.
The city of Menifee in 2020 abrogated its contract with the county for law enforcement services and formed a stand-alone police department. Cities receive the benefit of helicopter patrols, robbery and homicide investigations, SWAT unit and bomb squad responses without having to foot the bills individually. Contracting entities are further spared the cost of lawsuits stemming from the actions of sheriff ’s personnel, according to the agency.
In addition to hiking patrol deputy rates, the board unanimously supported the sheriff ’s request that all 16 municipalities under contract with the county for law enforcement services be required to pay higher or lower sums for the sheriff’s use of facilities dedicated to servicing the communities.