HAS SHERIFF LOST TRACK OF TIME? NO RECORDS KEPT ON COSTS.

Byline: Troy Anderson  Staff Writer

Sheriff Lee Baca has no idea how much it really costs to provide service to contract cities like Lancaster, Palmdale and Santa Clarita, so he can't determine what the price should be, according a county Auditor-Controller's Office report released Monday.

The audit comes as the sheriff is facing up to $143 million in cuts in his $1.7 billion budget and is in the process of releasing 2,600 jail inmates to reduce costs.

The audit found that the Sheriff's Department does not keep accurate records on whether the 41 cities to which it provides law enforcement services are underpaying or overpaying the department for those services.

The central problem is that the Sheriff's Department has chosen not to use timecards, arguing that it would take an average of 15 minutes per day per employee to fill out a timecard. Auditors said their experience with employees performing multiple tasks is that it takes 30 seconds to a minute to fill out a timecard.

Auditors found that the system used to track the amount of time patrol deputies work is not accurate and cannot be used to bill contract cities for the actual services provided, noting that the lack of accurate records could result in the Sheriff's Department subsidizing contract cities for law enforcement services.

``This practice will continue to result in the county either subsidizing the cities or overcharging them,'' auditors wrote.

The finding alarmed county officials, who said the audits meant the Sheriff's Department could be providing more services to the cities than the county is paid for, while taking deputies away from unincorporated areas where 1 million people live. Some of those areas have recently seen rises in violent crime.

``I can't believe this,'' said Chief Administrative Officer David Janssen. ``The problem that triggered this audit had to do with Pico Rivera. They concluded that they had overprovided services for certain months.''

Janssen said the Board of Supervisors was concerned that funds used to pay for Sheriff's Department services in unincorporated areas were not being used to subsidize services in contract cities.

``Because we have a contract with (each) city, the Sheriff's Department will make sure that all vacancies are automatically covered, either by overtime or assigning a deputy,'' Janssen said. ``If they are short a deputy, those will come out of the unincorporated areas because they don't have a contract for services in the unincorporated areas.''

The supervisors have received complaints from residents of communities without city government who claim deputies are taken away from unincorporated territory to serve in cities.

The audit found that contracts with cities require the Sheriff's Department to bill the contract cities for actual services provided. However, the sheriff does not have sufficient supporting documentation to bill based on actual services provided, and instead bills for services based on the contract budget.

The Sheriff's Department provides patrol deputies in the unincorporated parts of the county and to 41 cities, including Agoura Hills, Calabasas, Westlake Village, Hidden Hills, Malibu, Palmdale, Lancaster, Santa Clarita and La Canada Flintridge.

About 2,200 deputies are assigned to patrol with approximately 1,000 assigned to contract cities. In 2001-02, the sheriff collected $170 million for contract city patrol services.

The department currently gathers data on hours deputies work through its dispatch system when deputies log on to it at the beginning of their shifts.

Auditors recalculated the amount of time shown as worked in contract cities for three sheriff's stations over five days and noted miscalculations at every station every day.

The Santa Clarita station reported zero nonbillable ``excess minutes,'' but auditors found 33 excess hours were provided.

The San Dimas station overreported deputy services by 33 hours and underreported other staff time by 12 hours for one day.

The auditors recommended that the Sheriff's Department require all staff, particularly contract city patrol deputies, to use timecards for specific tasks and bill cities for actual services provided.

Assistant Sheriff R. Doyle Campbell said the department does not agree that the use of timecards would reduce errors, but rather would increase the likelihood of errors as two levels of manual entry would be added.

Assuming that each employee spends 15 minutes to complete the timecard, Campbell said this would result in an estimated loss of 130,000 patrol hours annually, or the equivalent of 74 sheriff's deputies at an annual cost of $7 million.