Cities, including 5 in Coachella Valley, to pay more for Riverside County sheriff services

Riverside County supervisors approved increases Tuesday in the amount paid by cities who use the county sheriff's department for police services. The higher costs are driven mainly by pay increases negotiated by unions that represent deputies and other employees.

Sheriff Chad Bianco's department had asked to hike the blanket rate charged to 16 cities, including five in the Coachella Valley, for the use of patrol deputies and support services associated with operations.

The sheriff sought a 2.45% increase in the base hourly rate charged for the use of patrol personnel, including the valley cities that contract with the department for their police forces: Coachella, Indian Wells, La Quinta, Palm Desert and Rancho Mirage. Four of those five cities, however, saw double-digit percentage drops in how much they must pay the department for facility-related expenses.

The increases, which officials said are needed to recoup higher costs incurred by the department, are retroactive to July 1, 2023. Under the revised rate schedule, the cost of a sheriff’s patrol deputy will rise from $209.35 per hour to $214.47 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.”

Last year’s hike was 1.63%, driven in part by greater “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.

In 2015, a 7% hike prompted an outcry from elected and non-elected officials in Indian Wells, Lake Elsinore, Moreno Valley, Palm Desert and Temecula, who challenged the justification for such a significant increase. They protested that law enforcement expenses were draining their budgets and needed to 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 was criticized by the Riverside County Grand Jury and other sources as excessively expensive with very limited results.

The city of Menifee in 2020 abrogated its contract with the county for law enforcement and formed a stand-alone police department, while the city of Coachella has also broached that possibility in recent years.

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 the proposal to hike patrol deputy rates, the board also supported the sheriff’s request that the 16 municipalities that contract with the sheriff's department be required to pay higher or lower sums for the sheriff’s use of facilities dedicated to servicing the communities.

Officials said heftier bills generally stem from county Department of Facilities Management costs to maintain stations, including lights, waterworks, landscaping and custodial operations. The sheriff initially carries the expenses, then passes them on to the contracting parties, each of which is invoiced in proportion to how much it consumes.

While some cities in western parts of the county saw significant jumps — Jurupa Valley, for example, had a 20% increase in facility costs — most of the valley cities under contract were poised to save money under the department’s latest calculations, with only Coachella seeing a small increase of 1.34%.

The other four cities under contract in the valley saw double-digit savings in the facilities charges for the current fiscal year, according to sheriff’s documents. Indian Wells saw the largest year-to-year drop of 28.58%, followed by Palm Desert (26.27% decrease), Rancho Mirage (16.2% decrease) and La Quinta (11.51% decrease).

“Whoever you have out in the eastern half of the county sharpening their pen, they did a very good job,” Riverside County Supervisor Kevin Jeffries told Undersheriff Don Sharp during the Tuesday board meeting.

City News Service and Desert Sun staff writer Tom Coulter contributed to this report.

This article originally appeared on Palm Springs Desert Sun: Cities, including 5 in Coachella Valley, to pay more for Riverside County sheriff services