Cities back away from proposed joint police dept.

With the City of Canyon Lake apparently standing solo, all other cities in the proposed new police services agreement have backed off the project after a recently-completed study stated it would be more expensive than current contracted services.

Chris Mann

Canyon Lake City Manager Chris Mann felt the study conducted by Citygate Associates was flawed and he is disappointed the other cities so quickly dismissed the proposed new police “department” that would have potentially provided police services for the seven cities. All the involved cities currently contract with the Riverside Sheriff’s Department for police services.

“Based on the outcome of the Citygate study,” Chris said, “none of the participating cities have indicated an interest in moving forward with forming a Joint Powers Authority (JPA) as a way of providing police services at this time.”

Chris felt the study was flawed and did not explore alternative ways of providing the services, but mirrored instead just a smaller version of the Sheriff’s Department.

“I was disappointed in the methodology of the study, which basically sought to replicate the approach currently taken by the Riverside County Sheriff’s Department, but on a smaller scale,” he said. “Naturally, if you take the same approach, but lose economies of scale, costs will be higher. I felt the study lacked creativity and failed to explore how we might tailor services to the unique needs of each city.”

The seven cities that commissioned the study were Canyon Lake, Jurupa Valley, Lake Elsinore, Moreno Valley, San Jacinto, Temecula and Wildomar. They decided on the study after the Riverside County Board of Supervisors continued to raise the cost of the contracts with its Sheriff’s Department.

The study suggested that the cities stick with the services provided by the Sheriff’s Department and not proceed with forming their own multi-city department of police personnel. Five of the other six cities quickly agreed and have expressed their desire to remain with the Sheriff’s Department. Jurupa Valley is exploring forming its own police department.

The Citygate study found that a police joint powers authority serving the seven cities would cost them $139 million in payroll costs, compared to $135.2 million if they remained with the Sheriff’s Department. There would also be $80 million in startup expenses.

Chris said the City of Canyon Lake remains open to other options and ideas for police services, but there is no plan to do anything other than contracting. He said, though, that may change in the future.