Plan to Add Police Staff Scaled Back

THOUSAND OAKS — A plan to add nearly 10 new positions to the city’s Police Department was scaled back this week by a familiar conflict--opposition to increasing monthly sewer bills.

Thousand Oaks’ $190-million budget will still put more cops on the street and expand public services at a time when other cities are struggling just to maintain what they have.

But City Manager Grant Brimhall, who oversaw creation of the two-year spending plan, made a critical miscalculation by devising a budget that included increased sewer fees to pay for some of the officers.

The budget was approved in a 3-1 vote. Councilwoman Linda Parks, who had repeatedly stressed her opposition to the concept, voted down the sewer hike plan, which needed four votes to pass. Councilwoman Elois Zeanah, who had also knocked the idea in previous meetings, was absent.

The result is that a new detective position was struck from the final budget, and the department will have to wait until the second year to hire two of four new support personnel.

“It seems that all of a sudden, we became a political football,” said Cmdr. Kathy Kemp of the Ventura County Sheriff’s Department, which provides police services in Thousand Oaks on a contract basis. “That’s a little disappointing.”

The “in-lieu” fee, which would have averaged 25 cents per monthly household sewer bill, would have resulted in an extra $150,000 a year for Thousand Oaks’ General Fund--money that would have been used specifically for more police services, according to city officials.

Parks has repeatedly voiced her opposition to such a sewer fee hike, saying sewer bills should be used to collect money for sewers only.

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Moreover, she argued that although city officials pledge that the money would be used for police, it would actually go straight to the General Fund with no strings attached, so it could be used for other purposes.

“I have been against this from the beginning, and to put this budget together with that in it--that’s trying to put pressure on me,” Parks said.

Brimhall said he had ample reason to believe that a fourth vote was out there, noting that Parks had asked city officials for information on other cities that use such in-lieu fees in this manner.

“Certainly, it was a very logical conclusion and assumption,” Brimhall said Wednesday. “There was absolutely reason to believe the votes were there. It’s our professional duty as staff to implement the direction of the council. The ironic thing is, it only takes three [votes] to direct the expenditure, but four to [increase] the revenue.”

Whatever the case, Parks’ no vote left a $300,000 hole in the two-year spending plan, and the budget’s expected winner--the city’s police force--wound up with slightly less from its wish list.

The remainder of the budget--including a proposal to open the Newbury Park branch of the Thousand Oaks Library--was approved as recommended by city officials, despite a plea from Parks to gut other programs in order to fund the extra police positions.

“You want more police services, but you don’t want to pay for it,” a visibly frustrated Mayor Judy Lazar said to Parks. “I’m not willing to compromise our other city services.”

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The Sheriff’s Department will still receive money for three new police cruisers and 4 1/2 full-time positions needed to staff them.

But it will no longer receive enough money to hire a new detective or purchase a new detective car during the 1998-99 fiscal year, and it will only be able to hire two community service officers in the coming fiscal year, not the four that Brimhall originally proposed.

The other two community service officers--staffers who fill out police reports and other paperwork, freeing sworn officers to spend more time on the streets--will still be hired, but not until the 1998-99 fiscal year.

Lazar, Councilman Andy Fox and Councilman Mike Markey maintain that Parks was only against the fee because of her opposition to the larger issue of sewer fee hikes to pay for an expansion of the Hill Canyon waste-water treatment plant.

That, they argued, was a clear example of politics getting in the way of sound decision-making, noting that the in-lieu fee proposal had originated with a citizens committee looking for ways to improve police services, and that the idea had not been met with any public opposition.

“I think it’s important for the public to realize that we’re talking about the price of a candy bar here,” Fox said of the 25-cent increase. “We’re taking politics to an extreme.”

“It’s not even the price of a candy bar,” added Markey, a Compton homicide detective currently on disability leave. “. . . It’s not the price of a doughnut, and that I do know.”

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Many cities, including Los Angeles, charge similar in-lieu fees to residents under the premise that private utilities pay the fees, and that the money is necessary to cover the use by a public utility--in this instance, the city’s sewer system--of public rights of way.

Thousand Oaks residents, in fact, have already been paying for such uses out of their regular sewer bills for the past two years, and users of the city’s water system also pay a similar 40-cent monthly fee that goes to the General Fund for water services, according to city officials.

But Parks said she simply disagreed with the concept of raising a sewer fee to accomplish a completely different aim. She also argued that although city officials pledge that the money would be used for police, it would actually go straight to the General Fund with no strings attached, so it could be used for other purposes.

Parks tried to persuade the council to look elsewhere in the budget for money to fund police services, possibly slashing the proposed addition of a new deputy city attorney--at a savings of $56,000--or cutting into the city’s travel and training budget.

But Brimhall argued that he was trying to rebuild his staff after having to freeze positions and lay off workers earlier this decade, and the remainder of the council refused to cut into city departments.

“I’m not going to tear at the city attorney, the city clerk and all the other positions just because someone is unwilling to do a fiscally responsible job,” Markey said.

Parks then proposed a bond measure to see whether residents are willing to pay for new police services.

Lazar angrily informed her that bond measures cannot be used to pay for personnel, only for property, and accused her of “making off-the-wall suggestions [to] weasel out” of her decision against the in-lieu sewer fee.

Parks responded by asking the council to study other fund-raising options for police services, but she was unable to muster any support for her motion.