Yesterday, January 3rd, the City of Brea distributed a press release announcing that the delivery of police services to Yorba Linda would cease at midnight tomorrow night. That’s the boots on the ground. Dispatch Services will follow later Saturday morning.
Yorba Linda, using the OCAlert system, informed all Yorba LInda residents of the transition on Wednesday, January 2nd, but you can’t find the press release on the Brea city website anywhere.
According to the release, “Other terms and conditions affecting the early termination of the law enforcement services agreement are still being worked out.” The release doesn’t clarify what this means. Are we on the hook for a big cash settlement or two? Are we giving away a fleet of cars and motorcycles? Could there still remain a lingering threat of litigation?
Using the excuse that the OCSD’s premature hiring of 21 Brea officers (likely half of the force assigned to Yorba Linda) caused the Brea PD great harm and drastically reduced their ability to live up to the contract, Brea seems to have leveraged a threatened lawsuit into an early out agreement.
Looking for more details?
Brea Matters has covered this story from the beginning in posts published on December 17 and December 21.
In response to the OCR article on December 19 “Yorba Linda will stick with sheriff’s contract” I commented, “Since, according to Mr. Schwing, the OCSD has everything in line to take over duties, i.e. cars and pirated officers, except for a couple of wall lockers, would you mind if Brea pulls the plug on December 31?
People scoffed at my comment saying that such a quick exit was impossible, but it seems that I was more right than wrong. Can I get a big… I told you so?
The OCR also hinted at the early exit on December 21st as well, citing, “The Orange County Sheriff’s Department is now working on a plan to expedite its takeover of police services in the city, said Capt. Steve Doan of the Orange County Sheriff’s Department. The department could be in charge of patrolling the 20-square-mile city by Jan. 5.”
NBC-LA: New Sheriff In Town.
In case you didn’t quite catch it, Mayor Garcia said, “I think any community that isn’t looking at that is woefully not looking at the train coming down the tracks.” Thanks for clearing that up, Mister Mayor.
Staff as sneaky as ever.
So… if we all pretty much saw the handwriting on the wall, why has Brea waited until now to even whisper about it? Because Brea operates with a culture of secrecy and it’s greatest fear is that residents will actually want to know what’s going on and, heaven forbid, dictate what they prefer!
The closing comment in the news release stated, “A Brea only Police Department increases budgeted costs by approximately $2.5 million annually due to the loss of economies of scale and sharing of command positions with the City of Yorba Linda. The budget increase is anticipated to be partially offset by new city revenues stemming from a recent boost in the economy combined with cost savings from a major, structural city reorganization implemented at the beginning of the Great Recession.”
What! Are you kidding me?
Not a loss due to economies of scale, a loss due to the sudden and unanticipated termination of what must have been a very lucrative contract.
We didn’t share command staff, we charged Yorba Linda an arm and a leg for command support. Are they thinking of the Fire Department’s relationship with Fullerton? (How’s that going by the way?)
And do they really think we’re that stupid to buy off on their “recent boost in the economy” line? C’mon, what’s in your wallet?
And what “structural city reorganization implemented at the beginning of the Great Recession” are they talking about? The one where the WPA bailed us out or the one where Tim O’Donnell and senior city staff got big fat raises?
Hard to tell if they’re referring to the “New Deal” or the same ol’ crap!
I don’t know about you, but that obnoxious O’Donnellism, “Leadership is disappointing your constituents in increments they can absorb.” seems to have been the underlying mantra of staff and council for at least a decade or more.
Start doing things for us Tim, not to us.
Ending the costly relationship with Yorba Linda early makes sense and saves us money, funds we’ll need to offset rising costs to police our own neighborhoods. But I’m still hot under the collar that Brea took so long to offer this half hearted half baloney attempt at keeping us informed.
Where is Measure U now that we need it? Oh, you didn’t pass it. Maybe next time.
The other elephant in the room.
They solicited bids. Their RFP couldn’t describe the lemon they wanted, so they got handed apples and oranges instead. They crunched numbers. They argued for months, strung out between political issues and personal agendas.
Unsatisfied that the right decision was made the first time and tempted by the possibility that a few more bucks might be saved, Yorba linda’s new Mayor reopened the can of worms and the whole ugly process started over.
12/4 – Once again the people were heard, the hour got late, the meeting adjourned without conclusion and was reconvened last night, 12/18. More blah, blah, blah and yadda, yadda, yadda.