Some O.C. Cities Aren’t Paying Booking Fees : Government: Six owe $551,400 in prisoner charges. Four are protesting the levy or its implementation.

SANTA ANA —  In an unusual act of civil disobedience, some Orange County cities have been refusing to pay their bills on the prisoners they book into county jails, a move that has infuriated county officials and cut into already scant budget reserves.

According to figures obtained by The Times Monday, the county government believes that it is owed more than $551,000 in unpaid jail-booking fees. A small fraction of that is owed by cities that say their checks will be in the mail soon, but most is a result of disagreements about the constitutionality of the fee and questions about the way it is being administered.

In the past, the county picked up the tab for booking the prisoners that local law enforcement agencies brought to the county jails. That changed earlier this year after the state authorized counties to recover the cost of providing the service. Orange County, faced with cuts in state funding, on July 1 began charging the cities $154 per inmate.

“We did not think that (the booking fee) was in the best interests of local governments, and so we have not been paying it,” Paul O. Brady Jr., city manager of Irvine, one of the defiant municipalities, said of the booking fee. “It’s not that we’re trying to be obstinate. It’s just this was something we wanted to dispute.”

When told about the unpaid bills, Supervisor Thomas F. Riley said: “I’m pretty surprised to hear that. . . . I guess it comes down to: ‘What are we going to do to enforce the law?’ ”

Riley, who is a retired Marine Corps general, added: “In my background, when you get an order, you say, ‘Aye, aye, sir.’ It sounds like these cities are saying instead: ‘We’re not going to do it.’ ”

The cities, however, maintain that the fee is improper and may even be unconstitutional. Some argue that it should be rescinded altogether. Although all of the cities say they expect to pay the fees eventually, some say they are holding out at least until the county addresses certain procedural questions.

In an Oct. 30 letter to County Auditor-Controller Steven E. Lewis, Brady warns that “the City of Irvine disputes the booking charges and does not intend to pay the invoice.”

Said Lewis: “We haven’t ever had anything like this. It’s very unusual.”

According to Lewis, six cities--Irvine, Santa Ana, Garden Grove, Stanton, Seal Beach and Huntington Beach--have not paid the full amounts of the levy, which the Board of Supervisors enacted last January. The board made that move after the state Legislature cut aid to counties and provided them with a way to make up for part of the lost money by charging cities for processing their prisoners.

County and city officials both objected to the scheme. Cities were particularly critical, arguing that it would force them to bear an unfair share of the state’s budget shortfall. Orange County supervisors, responding to the city’s protests, delayed implementing the booking fee--from July 1, 1990 to July 1, 1991--but said they could not forgo it completely because they needed the money it would generate to balance their own budget.

The total in unpaid jail-booking fees since that time comes to $551,400, according to records kept by the auditor’s office.

“They’re shortchanging their own taxpayers,” Supervisor Harriett M. Wieder said of the holdout cities. “There’s a better way to manage problems than acting like that.”

Officials of some of the slow-paying municipalities say their failure to pay should not be interpreted as evidence that they are protesting the fee.

Officials for Huntington Beach say that they intend to pay the city’s $3,400 bill and that the delay is merely the result of slow paperwork. Similarly, Seal Beach City Manager Jerry L. Bankston said that although his City Council strongly opposed the fee, its tardiness in paying an $8,600 bill is “the result of some miscommunication.”

A seventh city, La Palma, has protested some of the fees that were charged to it. The county relented and waived the disputed amount, La Palma Police Chief Norman Hansen said.

But the other four have stronger objections, either to the fee itself or to the way the county has implemented it. They say they expect to pay soon, but the county government has not seen the money and will not be counting on it until the checks are cashed.

“This is kind of an extraordinary thing,” said Bill Hodge, executive director of the League of Cities’ Orange County Division. “Some of the cities are considering litigation, and they feel strongly that this is a constitutional violation.”

Santa Ana Mayor Daniel H. Young said cities such as his have been badly battered by the fees, and he called their imposition a “cynical and unfortunate act by the Legislature.”

“We’re trying to provide a voice of protest,” Young said. “This is real stuff. . . . It really goes to the heart of our ability to provide services.”

Santa Ana books more people into the county jails than any other city, and it has long argued against the fee. Its outstanding bill of $371,000 is by far the largest of any Orange County city.

Santa Ana City Manager David N. Ream said that although his city has deep objections to the fee, its unwillingness to pay its bill is not because of those differences. Ream attributed the delay instead to procedural questions, saying that the city is working with the county to confirm the number of bookings before it agrees to pay.

“It’s taken quite some time,” Ream said, “but it’s just a question of getting the documentation, and I think that can be resolved fairly quickly.”

Garden Grove City Manager George Tindall said his city expects to pay the money eventually, but he added that officials in his city remain strongly opposed to the levy and want to check county records to verify how much they are being billed.

“We have not paid a cent yet because they have not demonstrated to us how they came up with the $154 fee,” Tindall said. “This is not an anti-county issue. It’s one of fairness. We’re being asked to balance the county and the state budgets, and we’re tired of being dumped on.”

Going Directly to Jail, Not Collecting $154

Angered by a fee for booking prisoners at the Orange County Jail, some Orange County cities have not paid the bill. The fee of $154 per prisoner went into effect on July 1, and the following figures reflect unpaid bills rung up since then.

City Owed Santa Ana $371,000 Garden Grove $122,000 Irvine $31,000 Stanton $15,400 Seal Beach $8,600 Huntington Beach $3,400 Total $551,400

Source: county auditor-controller.