County Grants Wildomar Some Financial Relief

The city of Jurupa Valley, deep in a financial crisis, will be relieved of making $6 million in payments for law enforcement services due to a cost-deferral plan implemented Tuesday by the Riverside County Board of Supervisors.

The board also voted Tuesday in favor of permitting Menifee and Wildomar to delay reimbursements to the county for the cost of services provided to each during their transitions from unincorporated communities to full-fledged cities.

Menifee will be allowed to suspend payments until 2015, when it must begin amortizing $1 million owed to the county, according to Executive Office documents.

Menifee incorporated in October 2008.

Wildomar will be granted a deferral until July, when it must make its first $100,000 payment toward reducing $1.77 million in transition-related debt to the county.

Wildomar incorporated in July 2008.

"If we don't see some fiscal help that allows them to pay this back, there's no more going down this path," board Chairman John Benoit warned before joining his colleagues in a unanimous vote in favor of the relief effort.

Under the plan, the financially strapped Jurupa Valley, which incorporated on July 1, 2011, will be spared paying the last six months of sheriff's department services until 2015.

The county will cover the deficiency by drawing down its reserves.

"We cannot continue to carry the city," said Supervisor John Tavaglione, whose district encompasses Jurupa Valley. "We want to see the city survive, but it's going to take a legislative fix. We can only do so much during this period."

The loss stemmed from the signing of Senate Bill 89 into law as part of Gov. Jerry Brown's realignment package. SB 89 redirected $15 million that would have gone to Jurupa Valley and its sister cities into a "Law Enforcement Services Account" established to assist public safety agencies statewide impacted by realignment, under which more state responsibilities were shifted onto counties, including incarcerating "low-level" criminal offenders and prosecuting parole violators.

Sens. Bill Emmerson, R-Hemet, and Richard Roth, D-Riverside, have proposed another rescue package in the form of Senate Bill 56, which would restore some of the VLF revenue to each of the nascent cities.

The bill is in committee.

Jurupa Valley officials told City News Service last August that disincorporation may be the only option if the state does not come through with the necessary funds. --City News Service