Los Altos Hills and Santa Clara County have been unable to reach a long-term law enforcement contract so far, necessitating a temporary three-month extension while negotiations continue.<\/p>\n
Los Altos Hills has expressed concerns about increased costs and a lack of clarity about how Santa Clara County calculates some of its overhead costs, leading to a June 9 council meeting to discuss public safety. Los Altos Hills contracts with the Santa Clara County Sheriff\u2019s Office for its law enforcement services as it has no police department.<\/p>\n
Annual contract costs with the Sheriff\u2019s Office are approximately $2.75 million, with a potential 23% increase with a new contract to around $3.38 million, Mayor Rajiv Bhateja said. Previous policing costs rose at approximately 5% per year under previous agreements. The Sheriff\u2019s Office has said the methodology for calculating overhead costs has also changed, affecting total costs. Overhead costs include West Valley Station facility fiscal services, IT services, internal affairs and records.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The lack of an agreement before the June 30 deadline led to the 12-week extension, while an independent overhead methodology assessment from outside consultant Vasquez & Company reviews the county proposal. Los Altos Hills city staff said the assessment will determine if the increased overhead costs are fair and reasonable for Los Altos Hills to pay and any costs that might be improperly charged, city staff said.<\/p>\n
The temporary contract runs until Sept. 30, with the old contract expiring June 30. Cupertino and Saratoga are in similar contract renegotiation scenarios with the county as Los Altos Hills, and the three cities have formed a joint committee to negotiate together with the county to bring a proposal back to the respective councils. Saratoga has agreed to an extension, while Cupertino has yet to vote on it, city staff said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The Sheriff\u2019s Office\u2019s new contract offer also has no cap on the percentage increase for services, a concern for Los Altos Hills, with the current agreement having a cost cap of 2%. Town staff noted the cap didn\u2019t keep pace with the expenses the county was incurring, like deputy salary increases. The county first identified that the service to Los Altos Hills was not cost-neutral for the county in 2024, necessitating an increase in costs. Bhateja also argued that places similar to Los Altos Hills, like Portola Valley and Woodside in San Mateo County, paid less in patrol costs per hour than Los Altos Hills, something he wanted the county to consider in negotiations.\u00a0<\/p>\n
In addition to the contract extension, Los Altos Hills discussed long-term options for alternative public safety models and service levels in town. Los Altos Hills currently pays approximately $500,000 in private security patrols with PalAmerican, leading to total public safety costs of around $3.9 million a year, a high cost for a town with a general fund of around $15 million.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Bhateja suggested that Los Altos Hills consider a volunteer program like Atherton, where residents serve as eyes and ears for police, reporting suspicious people and activities. Other options he suggested include reviewing the use of private security versus the Sheriff\u2019s Office and looking for more cooperation with other cities or an independent police department. Funding could include a possible parcel tax. Discussions will take place at further meetings.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Los Altos Hills and Santa Clara County have been unable to reach a long-term law enforcement contract so…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":362757,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[88,90,89],"class_list":["post-362756","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-jose","tag-san-jose","tag-san-jose-headlines","tag-san-jose-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/362756","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=362756"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/362756\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/362757"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=362756"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=362756"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=362756"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}