What's Behind the City/County Lawsuit Over Freed Inmates?

The City of Fresno sued Fresno County in September saying that Fresno County Sheriff Margaret Mims needed a judge's approval before she released inmates from the Fresno County Jail early. County of Fresno supervisors recently asked the City of Fresno to settle the lawsuit, calling the case foolish and wasteful. I beg to differ.

Every year it seems, the Board of Supervisors and other elected county officials, particularly the sheriff and district attorney, get into spirited arguments over how the budget should be allocated. There is, of course, never enough money to satisfy everyone. The district attorney and sheriff warn of dire circumstances if they don't get enough money, the media duly reports the political maneuvering, the public yawns and after sufficient posturing, a face-saving budget compromise is made.

Last year, however, Sheriff Mims served notice to the supervisors that she was going to release prisoners from the jail early since she would not have the budget to maintain adequate jail staffing levels. Since an early release would have the most dramatic impact on the City of Fresno, Mayor Autry and the City Council (full disclosure: I was on the Council at that time) assumed that she was using the threat in her spat with the supervisors, but nonetheless the City chose to take no chances and sued the County to demand a judge's approval before an early release of prisoners could be initiated.

Whether the City's lawsuit headed off the prisoner release or whether the annual county board-sheriff-district attorney grandstanding was over and the sheriff's threat was no longer needed, the prisoner release did not take place. The City, however, chose to continue the lawsuit fully knowing that the County budget would again be up for review, and the same bickering and threats among the County elected officials would take place. The issue had morphed from being an "internal" county feud into directly impacting the City--an unacceptable situation.

There are three points I would like to make about this issue. The first is that it is not a given that every county has the budget fights over public safety as does Fresno County. As a Racine County (Wisconsin) supervisor for seven years, we never had these budget brawls. Second, the City of Fresno had a very legitimate reason to send a clear message to the County that it would not ignore their threats even if it meant filing a lawsuit to protect its citizens. And, finally, this issue again points to the ineffective and outmoded 19th Century county form of government used by Fresno County. As I have proposed many times in the past and continue to propose, a Blue Ribbon Commission needs to study and make recommendations for reorganizing the means by which Fresno County government operates. There's got to be a better way!

Coming Soon. . .

1). City taxpayers guarantee another business loan?
2). Local Amtrak: The good, the bad and the ugly

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