The Seal Beach City Council will review the budget on Monday, Feb. 27. The city jail’s budget is expected to get a close look at that time. The city jail was operating with a deficit at last report.
City Manager Jill Ingram said she would also update the council on the search of a permanent chief of police. Robert Luman is currently the interim chief of police, replacing the now-retired Jeff Kirkpatrick as Seal Beach’s top cop.
“The council will also hear an update on the SBPD Jail and Tennis Center operations as part of the mid-year review as well,” Ingram said in recent e-mail to the Sun.
Last year, then-Director of Administrative Services Robbeyn Bird told the council that the tennis center had been running a deficit of about $70,000 a year from 2006 to 2010. At that time, Tim Kelsey, director of community services, said staff expected the tennis center to have a deficit of about 26,867 for the fiscal year 2011/12. That reduction would be the result of reducing landscaping, the private manager’s draw and having the staff of the private company that runs the center take over janitorial duties.
The jail was recently criticized by resident Joyce Parque, who described the jail’s “pay to stay” program as a “bed and breakfast” for criminals that costs the city money.
“The sole purpose of operating our ‘pay-to-stay’ jail operation is to keep our limited number of police officers out on the streets, in the neighborhoods, and patrolling our commercial zones and highways,” wrote then Chief Kirkpatrick in an April 2011 staff report to the council.
The Seal Beach jail reopened February 2008, following an eight-month shut down. The jail closed after the city allowed its contract with the private company managing the jail to expire. As previously reported in the Sun, the private firm operated the jail at a loss. During that time, some jailers were arrested for stealing from a pay-to-stay inmate and a former employee of the jail later conspired with a former inmate to committ a murder in another city.
After Seal Beach closed the jail, staff requested proposals from other private operators. The operators who responded wanted Seal Beach to pay the expenses for the jail in exchange for which the private operators offered to split the profits with the city.
During the time the jail was closed, Seal Beach officers took inmates directly to the Orange County Jail.
On April 7, 2011, Kirkpatrick told the council that an officer could be tied up for two to 12 hours at the county jail. Yet with a city jail, an officer could be back on the street in 15 to 20 minutes.
When the jail reopend in 2008, city officials planned to generate enough revenue from having pay-to-stay inmates to off-set the cost of running the jail. The policy is called “cost neutrality,” which is a fancy way of saying the goal is to break even.
Unfortunately, the jail has run a deficit instead.
According to Kirkpatrick’s 2011 staff report, the city hoped to get business from the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency. However, the ICE contract did not work out because the Seal Beach jail was too small for their needs.
The city contracted with the U.S. Marshals to house five federal inmates, but federal budget cuts resulted in Seal Beach not having any inmates for four months in 2009 and in 2010.
In April 2011, Robbeyn Bird, who was then director of administrative services, said the jail brought in $642,000 in 2010 and cost the city $753,000. That’s roughly the cost of one full-time police officer for a year.
Complicating matters, federal laws regulating jails changed. Last year, Kirkpatrick told the council that the law limited the city to leasing 18 beds. The jail is built for 30 beds.
As part of efforts to balance the city’s budget, the Seal Beach council last year eliminated the overtime budget for the city jail.
A Seal Beach jailer—who is not a sworn officer—was arrested on Christmas Day 2011 for taking bribes to allow inmates to receive contraband and unsearched visitors.
He was reportedly working alone during the times when the incidents occurred.
