Councilman demands others to
explain vote on Todd Road Jail wing
March 06, 2015
By Peggy Kelly
Santa Paula News
A Santa Paula City Councilman demanded others on the panel to explain their votes to rescind formal opposition to a new wing that could be added to Todd Road Jail at the Monday meeting.
“Your realize what you’re doing, right?” Councilman Jim Tovias said after the motion to withdraw formal opposition to the plan passed. “Wow … ”
At issue was a 2013 action on the part of the then council to formally oppose the Ventura County Sheriff’s Office from seeking a $32 million grant to construct a 64-bed medical-mental health wing at Todd Road Jail. The jail is west of Santa Paula in the unincorporated area.
The original application was denied mainly because the county did not show the funding source for the grant match, but Sheriff Geoff Dean announced in December he would reapply.
The issue was brought to the council in January where after some discussion the council voted 3-2 to drop formal opposition; Councilwoman Jenny Crosswhite joined Tovias in voting to oppose repealing the former council’s action.
Mayor John Procter, Martin Hernandez and Ginger Gherardi voted yes.
The jail, first opened in the mid-1990s with a planned build-out of 2,100 beds, currently has beds for 840 inmates.
Tovias had initially voiced objections to the county being at the mercy of the state if it accepted the grant but in recent months his concerns centered more on water.
Perception also was addressed at Monday’s meeting where several speakers said they feared Santa Paula would be known as a jail town.
Devon Cichoski told the council she also questioned the number of unwanted projects that lower-income Santa Paula attracts.
Former Mayor Fred Robinson, now president of the Chamber of Commerce, said he was approaching the council, “with a heavy heart,” to address his concerns that “County jails are no longer places that house deadbeat dads and multiple DUI offenders … With the state pushing its prison population to the counties, the county jail has become a prison, with hard-core criminals,” that could in turn morph the facility and city’s perception into “Chino, Wasco, maybe even Soledad.”
He called upon individual council members to change their minds and noted his admiration of Crosswhite for her vote to maintain formal opposition.
Robinson said his initial reaction was “what basis, what factual basis did you use to overturn this, what document did you see or read,” that caused council members to drop formal opposition and he called for the council to explain.
Procter took the bait and said there is a clear need for a medical facility to serve prisoners and he viewed the physical expansion as not a large one; in addition, he noted the only people that voiced their concerns about Santa Paula being known as a jail town was “from this dais” and in council chambers.
Tovias said the city had information the others were unaware of when the city, led by Tovias, made a presentation to the Board of Supervisors opposing the facility in October 2013, a meeting where Tovias said he became the “target” of Supervisor Steve Bennett.
“I’d like to hear from the other two,” said Tovias.
As the only other member on the council at that time Hernandez said he had been the only one against the city opposing the facility in the first place based on humane needs of prisoners.
And, “frankly” Hernandez said that in speaking with numerous people from out of the area, the only people comparing Santa Paula to prison towns is Tovias and Robinson.
“Nobody, nobody ever makes references to Santa Paula as a prison town and if that’s how you want to label yourselves,” it is their decision.
Hernandez said he would “throw back” to Tovias the question of what information he might have that should be shared.
Tovias said he found “interesting” conversations he had with Rob Corley, of Ventura who works with the state department of education who told him, “What happens when you have a facility where people stay for a certain amount of time their families start to move in,” negatively impacting the community overall.
Gherardi said she wouldn’t have chosen to put the jail outside Santa Paula to begin with, but it’s there and she sees no problem with a medical unit.
“The fact is the jail is here, and what they are asking for is within the existing fencing of the jail,” she said.
Tovias noted, “Remember the stigma Camarillo had with the mental hospital,” the former state facility.
And, with new development coming to Santa Paula, Tovias said it “makes perfect business sense,” to oppose expanding the jail now and in the future.
After more discussion Hernandez offered, “one last minute of education,” on the efforts to reduce jail populations overall as well the costs of new facilities.
“Jails aren’t cheap, not just to build but to staff,” with the former costing hundreds of millions of dollars and the latter costly on an ongoing basis.
And jails also serve “The fragile,” that Hernandez said have a constitutional right to care while incarcerated.
Tovias had also objected about water use of the jail and water rights, a subject Gherardi and Hernandez said is a separate issue that would be examined if the county’s application were successful. City Attorney John Cotti said the city and the county would address water usage and rights if the grant application were approved.