Fresno County considers giving sheriff more funds.
By Kerri Ginis and Denny Boyles
Fresno Bee
FRESNO COUNTY, Calif. — Fresno County Sheriff Margaret Mims on Friday stopped releasing inmates early from the jail after supervisors said they might send an additional $6 million her way.
But it’s only a temporary measure, she warned, and more inmates could be let go starting next week if her department doesn’t get the money.
That didn’t satisfy city officials, who have accused Mims of creating a public-safety crisis. On Friday, the Fresno City Council decided to ask a judge to stop her from letting more people out of jail.
Attorneys for the city could go to federal court as early as Tuesday to seek a temporary restraining order. That’s the same day county supervisors will discuss giving the sheriff more money.
Supervisor Bob Waterston said Friday that he and other county staff have found a way to borrow money internally. It would provide enough funding to bring a permanent halt to inmate releases and also avoid sheriff’s employee layoffs.
Waterston wouldn’t say where the money would come from, but county Auditor Vicki Crow said the proposal calls for the county to borrow $6 million from its own risk-management fund, which pays out workers’ compensation and general liability claims.
Crow and other county officials are already saying they don’t like the idea.
They say it could put the county’s bond rating and investments at risk. And they also discount Mims’ claims that she needs $6 million or will have no choice but to start releasing inmates again.
Supervisor Susan Anderson said the sheriff is using “scare tactics” to get more money, and the board shouldn’t respond.
“I don’t think that she has done what she needs to do in her department to find the money,” she said. “Every department has taken cuts. I can’t believe that in a $140 million budget, she can’t find $6 million.”
Releasing more inmates early, board Chairman Henry Perea said, “would be an irresponsible decision to make and would put the public at jeopardy. It’s like playing Russian roulette with people’s lives at this point.”
Sheriff’s officials started releasing inmates Tuesday, roughly a week after county supervisors cut the Sheriff’s Department budget by $2.8 million as the county struggles with its finances. Mims said the cut has forced her to close two floors of the jail, lay off 50 correctional officers and 19 community-service officers, and release 800 inmates by the end of the month.
The $6 million would make those measures unnecessary, Mims said.
As of Friday afternoon, the Sheriff’s Department hadn’t laid anyone off, but it had released 72 inmates who were awaiting trial. Most face felony charges, such as drug possession, burglary, grand theft or receiving stolen property.
The releases have outraged city officials.
Mayor Alan Autry this week called on the City Council to allow staff to ask for a temporary restraining order that would halt the releases. On Friday afternoon, council members did just that.
Although Autry was pleased to hear that Mims agreed to temporarily stop the releases, he said the city still wants to seek changes in a 1994 federal ruling that forces the county to release inmates once the jail reaches capacity.
Autry said the method of calculating capacity is flawed, because it is based on staffing levels, not on actual space available.
“This is a manufactured capacity issue,” Autry said. “We believe the federal courts never envisioned a budget cut driving releases.”
On Tuesday, county supervisors will reconsider the $2.8 million budget cut to the Sheriff’s Department. They will discuss options that include reimposing a hiring freeze, eliminating step pay increases and promotions and closing county offices early.
Waterston said the board also will discuss the option of borrowing $6 million. He said the money wouldn’t have to be paid back for three years.
Mims likes the idea, but some other county officials said they won’t support it.
Crow, for example, said borrowing money from the risk-management fund is “not appropriate for this particular case” because of the possible effect on investments.
Crow also questioned why Mims needs $6 million to keep her operations running through June 30, the end of the fiscal year. Crow said she analyzed the sheriff’s payroll and based on the amount of money spent since July 1, Mims would only be short about $1 million by the end of the year.
But sheriff’s officials discount Crow’s assessment of their budget deficit. They said Crow’s projections are off because their salaries and benefits can fluctuate by more than $500,000 from one pay period to the next.
“She doesn’t run sheriff’s operations,” Undersheriff Scott Jones said. “She doesn’t know what we do and the monies we need to do our job.”
Perea said he is confident the board will find a way to restore the $2.8 million that was cut, but he said he won’t agree to give her any more money, especially if it comes from the risk-management fund.
“It’s probably not a good place to go just because it continues to put us in a situation where we’re avoiding making the hard decisions,” he said. “There are other ways to find this money.”
Anderson said borrowing money for ongoing operations is a bad business decision.
“What are we going to do next year? Borrow more money?” she asked. “We really have to learn to live within our means.”
Copyright 2008 McClatchy Newspapers, Inc.