MILLBRAE IS TURNING OVER THE CITY'S POLICE SERVICES FUNCTION TO SAN MATEO COUNTY SHERIFF'S DEPARTMENT. SAN MATEO COUNTY HAS SEVERE BUDGET PROBLEMS. WHAT HAPPENS WHEN SAN MATEO COUNTY SHERIFF'S DEPARTMENT NEEDS TO MAKE BUDGET CUTS?
Friday, November 18, 2011 at 1:04 AM by Bill Baker, J.D.
Editor and Publisher, The San Bruno Beacon
Half Moon Bay, San Carlos and now Millbrae have voted to disbanded their city police departments and outsource the policing function in their cities to the San Mateo County Sheriff's Department. These cities have outsourced or, in the case of Millbrae, will be outsourcing their police services because it will save them hundreds of thousands of dollars each year.
In a November 17, 2011 Examiner article titled, "Outsourced policing works for San Carlos", San Carlos City Manager Jeff Maltbie was quoted as saying, "From San Carlos' perspective we couldn't be happier".
Unfortunately, even with the happy talk and advertised cost savings the fact of the matter is that the cities of Half Moon Bay, San Carlos and Millbrae no longer have local police departments. In a November 17, 2011 San Francisco Chronicle article titled, Millbrae votes to dissolve police, turn to sheriff, Millbrae Mayor Dan Quigg stated, "I think the citizens will not notice a difference".
Quigg is probably right. Initially, there probably won't be any difference in police services for Millbrae residents. However, as the policing relationships between the cities of Half Moon Bay, San Carlos and Millbrae and the County of San Mateo move forward I have a feeling that what may be starting out as a lovey dovey relationship is going to turn into an ugly legal and political slugfest. Why? Because the County of San Mateo is also a financial basket case. In a June 8, 2011 Examiner article titled, "San Mateo County budget both gives and takes away", San Mateo County Budget Manager Jim Saco was quoted as saying, "“We spend $82 million more than we’re bringing in".
That being said, you can bet that the budgeteers in the San Mateo County Budget Office will be figuring out how to keep as much of the money they receive from these cities for police service in the County Budget, where it can be applied to other County programs, by providing what could best be described as budget conscious police services to the trio of cities who are now at their mercy. As the years go by, the quality of police services in these cities will diminish to the point where residents will notice the lack of police presence in their cities.
This outsourcing will also result in a police force that is significantly less accountable to city residents because the leader of the Sheriff's Deputies patrolling the city will be the San Mateo County Sheriff and not a city police chief who is directly accountable to the City Manager or Administrator. The San Mateo County Sheriff is a County level elected official. So, unless you can find somebody to defeat him in the next County election or put together a posse to recall him, he can ignore complaints from individual citizens, groups of citizens, the city council, the city manager or administrator, etc.
Each time a public service is moved to a higher level of government the individual citizen becomes a smaller part of the equation and is less able to address any problems with those services. In San Mateo County, as city services are converted into county services, those services become less responsive to the needs of the individual cities because the decisions regarding the provision of those services are made by people who think in terms of what is best for the County of San Mateo and not any particular city within the County.
As the County of San Mateo Budget crisis worsens, cuts will be made that will have a greater impact on the smaller cities within the County that have less County level political power. Therefore, small cities (i.e., Millbrae, Half Moon Bay and San Carlos) that are relying on the county for police services might see a significant impact on the level and quality of police services provided to them by the County of San Mateo as County Budget considerations impact the overall ability of the County of San Mateo to provide Sheriff patrol services.
As I have said before, we are living through what may turn out to be the worst depression in U.S, history. Tough decisions about municipal services need to be made in order to maintain the social fabric and physical infrastructure of our cities in San Mateo County. However, from a practical political standpoint, insofar as the City of San Bruno is concerned; in the unlikely event that the disbanding of the San Bruno Police force was ever seriously considered, the best choice for deciding the issue would be for the decision to take the form of a ballot measure so that San Bruno's residents could make the final decision on the issue. If that day ever comes; I will be one of the first people to volunteer for the campaign to stop any efforts to disband the San Bruno Police force.
