Yorba Linda enters final year of five-year contract with Sheriff's Department by paying 4.2 % more

Yorba Linda will enter the final year of the city's first five-year contract with the Orange County Sheriff's Department on July 1 by agreeing – on a 5-0 City Council vote – to pay a 4.2 percent increase in cost to $10.44 million to continue the existing level of service and staffing.

In the same vote, council members directed city management staff to begin discussions with the policing agency to extend the current contract for five more years through June 30, 2023.

The city ended a 42-year relationship with the Brea Police Department after a contentious nine-hour meeting in April 2012 with a 3-2 council vote and later approved a five-year pact with the county to begin July 1, 2013, although services began six months early on Jan. 5.

Assistant City Manager David Christian reported to council that a recent assessment “shows adequate staff for now,” but a reappraisal will be needed due to Town Center development, a steady increase in calls for service over the past four years and increasing population.

A new provision in the contract allows the city manager and county executive officer to approve changes that have “a fiscal impact of one percent or less” without returning to the council or board of supervisors for approval, Christian noted.

“This is intended to expedite and simplify minor changes...that may come up from time-to-time,” stated Christian, adding that staff “would anticipate keeping the council fully appraised of any amendments and would reserve the right to take changes of less than one percent to the council if warranted.”

The contract calls for services to be provided by 40 full-time equivalent positions and an added 12.9 regional and shared staff personnel. The latter includes traffic and auto theft positions and a motorcycle supervision sergeant.

Regular staffing includes a lieutenant (the city's chief of police services), four patrol sergeants, a half-time administrative sergeant, a half-time investigative sergeant, three investigators, one investigative assistant, 21 patrol officers and three motorcycle officers.

Also: one crime prevention specialist, two community service officers for parking and traffic enforcement, a community support deputy, school resource officer and one office specialist.

More than half of the total contract cost, $5.9 million, is attributed to the costs of providing the 21 patrol deputies and the three motorcycle deputies, at $245,351 for each of the former, and $250,688 for each of the latter. Cost for the lieutenant is $358,667.

Unions representing the deputies and managers negotiated a 1.5 percent cost-of-living raise effective July 7, with another 1.5 percent effective in January. Health insurance costs jumped 4 percent to $1,281 monthly for safety personnel.

The department serves 13 of the county's 34 cities and unincorporated county territory, including Yorba Linda's two county islands, Country Club and Fairlynn.