HYBRID MEETING
www.Cityofvallejo.net
CALL AND NOTICE OF SPECIAL
MEETING AT 7:00 PM OF THE
VALLEJO CITY COUNCIL
MARCH 6, 2025
Council Chambers
555 Santa Clara Street
Vallejo, CA 94590
COUNCIL MEMBERS
Andrea Sorce (Mayor)
Peter Bregenzer (Vice-Mayor)
Helen-Marie Gordon
Tonia Lediju, PhD
Alexander Matias
Diosdado "JR" Matulac
Charles Palmares
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AGENDA
TO THE MEMBERS OF THE VALLEJO CITY COUNCIL:
You are hereby notified that I do hereby call the Vallejo City Council in special session to consider only the matters stated on the agenda listed below. NOTICE: Members of the public shall have the opportunity to address the City Council concerning any item listed on the agenda before or during consideration of that item. No other items may be discussed at this special meeting
1. CALL TO ORDER
2. ROLL CALL
3. PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE
4. ACTION CALENDAR
NOTICE: Members of the public wishing to address the Council on Action Calendar Items may do so in person by signing in to the Public Speaker's kiosk located in the back of the Council Chambers or via ZOOM (https://ZoomRegular.Cityofvallejo.net), or via phone, by dialing (669) 900-6833. Enter Meeting ID: 914 0075 0676#. Press *9 to digitally raise your hand from the phone. Press *6 to unmute/mute. For additional instructions on how to speak remotely during public comment, please visit, www.cityofvallejo.net/publiccomment. Each speaker is limited to five minutes pursuant to Vallejo Municipal Code Section 2.02.420 or as approved and announced by the Mayor. In person speakers will be recognized first
A. PROVIDE UPDATE AND RECEIVE DIRECTION ON THE SOLANO COUNTY SHERIFF’S OFFICE PUBLIC SAFETY SERVICE AGREEMENT
Recommendation: Provide staff direction on negotiating a public safety service agreement with the Solano County Sheriff’s Office.
Contact: Andrew Murray, City Manager (707) 648-4576
[email protected]
5. ADJOURNMENT
ADDITIONAL CITY INFORMATION
Members of the public can:
• Like us on Facebook and Instagram (@cityofvallejo)
• Sign up to receive City Communications via e-mail (www.cityofvallejo.net/subscribe) • Sign up for emergency alerts at: alertsolano.com
Dated: Tuesday, March 4, 2025
Andrea Sorce, Mayor
I, Dawn Abrahamson, City Clerk do hereby certify that I have caused a true copy of the above notice and agenda to be delivered to
Andrea Sorce (Mayor)
Peter Bregenzer (Vice-Mayor)
Helen-Marie Gordon
Tonia Lediju, PhD
Alexander Matias
Diosdado "JR" Matulac
Charles Palmares,
at the time and in the manner prescribed by law and that this agenda was posted at City Hall, 555 Santa Clara Street, CA at 3:15 p.m., Tuesday, March 4, 2025.
Dated: Tuesday, March 4, 2025
ACTION ITEM 4.A.
DATE: March 6, 2025
TO: Mayor and Members of the City Council
FROM: Andrew Murray, City Manager
Jason Ta, Police Chief
Veronica Nebb, City Attorney
SUBJECT: PROVIDE UPDATE AND RECEIVE DIRECTION ON THE SOLANO COUNTY SHERIFF’S
OFFICE PUBLIC SAFETY SERVICE AGREEMENT
RECOMMENDATION
Provide staff direction on negotiating a public safety service agreement with the Solano County Sheriff’s Office.
REASONS FOR RECOMMENDATION
The City of Vallejo Police Department has a number of vacant positions, which inhibit service levels. The Department is filling positions at a steady, modest pace. At the current pace, the Department will not be fully staffed for many years. The Department is pursuing a number of strategies to add capability while filling vacant positions. One such strategy is entering a service agreement with the Sheriff’s Office through which the Sheriff’s Office would assign deputies to perform policing in Vallejo. City staff requires direction from the City Council on whether and how to continue working toward a service agreement with the Sheriff’s Office.
BACKGROUND AND DISCUSSION
Sworn staffing levels at the Vallejo Police Department declined precipitously from 2021 through 2023. In 2021, the Department had 83 total officers. By March of 2023, those numbers had declined to 67 total officers with 36 assigned to patrol. Staffing levels reached such a critical low that in July 2023, the City Council adopted a proclamation of local emergency regarding public safety staffing.
The Department has taken a number of steps to orient staff toward the highest priority needs, increase staffing, and engage other resources to supplement staff.
In March 2023, the Department began implementing a four-phase strategy to improve response time to the highest priority calls for service. Phase one focused on reducing call volume. Phase two redeployed non- patrol officers (traffic officers and detectives) to fill vacant patrol slots. Phase three completely redeployed all traffic officers and detectives back to patrol. Phase four would alter patrol staffing models.
The successful conclusion of contract negotiations with the Vallejo Police Officers Association (VPOA) in November 2023 improved the competitiveness of the Department’s pay and benefits with surrounding public safety agencies. The appointment of a permanent Police Chief in December 2024 also created stability at the Department.
The Department has made changes to its hiring process to improve recruitment. The Department no longer requires college credits as a minimum qualification (MQ) for Police Officers. The MQ education requirement is a high school diploma or General Education Development (GED). This change mirrors the MQs of surrounding public safety agencies.
Date: March 6, 2025
Subject: PROVIDE UPDATE AND RECEIVE DIRECTION ON THE SOLANO COUNTY SHERIFF’S
OFFICE PUBLIC SAFETY SERVICE AGREEMENT
The Department has continued to implement new technology that enables Department staff to monitor and be alerted to criminal incidents.
The Department and City have requested and received additional assistance from the California Highway Patrol (CHP). CHP officers now spend some free patrol time enforcing traffic laws on surface streets in Vallejo and a CHP surge team has been assigned to assist Vallejo with sideshow enforcement.
The Department’s current staffing level is 78 sworn staff total, with 38 working patrol. Due to recent staffing increases, the Department has been able to reconstitute the Traffic Unit and the Community Engagement Unit.
The Department is expecting to be able to assign staff to interagency coordination and to reconstitute a Problem Oriented Policing (POP) team by summer 2025. However, the Department is only expecting to add 13 new sworn staff in 2025, which means that there will still be 27 sworn staff vacancies at the end of the year.
Response times to Priority 2 and 3 calls for service are very long.
The Department is also working to implement a retention, recruitment, and referral incentive program. These incentives would reduce Police Officer egress from the Department and attract lateral Police Officers. The City is currently meeting and conferring with the VPOA on this program.
In addition, the Department is exploring the concept of expanding the City’s retired annuitant program. This program, if ultimately adopted and implemented, would expand the Department’s ability to hire retired Police Officer annuitants, with special skills or experience, on a part-time basis (960 hours annually) to fill vital needs.
The Department is also civilianizing by hiring nonsworn Police Assistants to perform some duties that do not require sworn staff.
The timeline to add new Police Officers is lengthy. The process to hire and train a new recruit takes approximately 18 months. This includes intake of an application; physical and written examination; an interview; a background investigation; the six-month academy; and finally four months of field training. The process to hire and train a lateral employee is shorter, approximately nine months. It entails an application; physical and written examination; an interview; a background investigation; and abbreviated field training of four to six weeks.
As the Department was experiencing staffing shortages and looking for options to supplement staff, in August 2023, the Vallejo Police Department asked all of the Police Chiefs in Solano County and numerous Sheriff’s Offices in the region whether they had the capacity to provide staffing assistance to Vallejo. The only agency that indicated that they might have capacity was the Solano County Sheriff’s Office. The Department initiated a dialog with the Sheriff’s Office about the arrangement, although that was delayed until the VPOA successor contract was approved in November 2023. Senator Bill Dodd also became involved and authored a pivotal piece of legislation, Senate Bill (SB) 1379, that allowed the Solano County Sheriff’s Office to hire 20 retired annuitants that would be exempt from the California Public Employees Retirement System (CalPERS) normal 960 hour annual limitation for a limited period. The bill was passed by the legislature and signed into law by Governor Newson on September 29, 2024 and allows the Sheriff to repurpose up to 20 patrol-ready Deputy Sheriffs to assist Vallejo. The bill sunsets on January 1, 2027.
Entering into contract public safety services with the Solano County Sheriff’s Office would provide quicker response times to emergency calls for service, provide additional police resources during critical events, and provide additional visible patrolling and pro-active policing to reduce crimes.
The Sheriff’s Office sent the City a basic proposal in February 2024. It envisioned 11 dedicated staff working four days per week at a base annual cost of $6M - $8M. City Manager’s Office and City Attorney’s Office staff Date: March 6, 2025
Subject: PROVIDE UPDATE AND RECEIVE DIRECTION ON THE SOLANO COUNTY SHERIFF’S
OFFICE PUBLIC SAFETY SERVICE AGREEMENT
began discussing the potential contractual arrangement in greater detail with the County Administrator and County Counsel in May 2024. Those discussions remained at a high level pending the outcome of SB 1379 and became more detailed after the Governor signed SB 1379 in September 2024. The County provided the City with a non-binding term sheet in December 2024 that contemplates up to 17 dedicated staff at an annual cost of $11M plus.
Prior to proceeding with more detailed contract negotiations, the County would like to understand whether the City is willing and able to fund the contract. The County Board of Supervisors has not yet acted upon or endorsed the term sheet.
Below are the details of the basic terms as proposed by the Sheriff’s Office in December 2024:
The Sheriff’s Office would provide municipal police protection within the corporate limits of the City within specific assigned beats (as ultimately agreed upon) during the hours of 1200 to 2400, seven days a week. The Sheriff’s Office would assign up to 17 full time employees (“FTE”) consisting of one Lieutenant, two Sergeants, 12 Deputies, and two Dispatchers. Staffing levels are subject to availability of personnel without reduction in coverage for County needs and the requirements of SB 1379.
Generally, sheriff deputies working in unincorporated areas perform the same functions that Vallejo Police Department officers perform, except traffic enforcement. That said, deputies do not normally respond to the same number of violent incidents as urban police officers do.
The proposed terms provide that the City would need to indemnify the County for all of the following:
• Any and all liability, claims, loss, expense, costs, damage, including property damage, personal injury, death and liability of every kind, (including without limitation costs and attorneys’ fees) of every nature directly or indirectly arising out of or in connection with the services provided under the Agreement and for any breach of the Agreement by City, excepting only such loss or damage caused by the willful misconduct of County.
• All damages or claims for damages suffered by County regardless if any insurance is applicable or not. • Obligations to indemnify remain even after termination of the Agreement for liability incurred during the Agreement.
As proposed, the Sheriff’s Office will be responsible for selecting and assigning staff to provide services under the agreement, other than for the Lieutenant, as described below. The Sheriff’s Office will assign experienced qualified Sheriff's Office personnel to perform services. After consultation with the City Manager, the Sheriff’s Office will make the final selection of the Lieutenant. The Lieutenant will act as the point of contact with the City and will consult with and consider any recommendations from the City Manager on all key matters within the scope of the agreement.
The Sheriff’s Office will be responsible for all administrative tasks and personnel matters related to the services provided under the agreement including but not limited to hiring and supervision of personnel, establishing standards of performance, assignment of personnel, determining and effecting discipline, determining training required, maintaining personnel files, and other matters relating to the performance of services and control of personnel.
Personnel assigned to provide services under the agreement would be required to abide by all rules, regulations, policies, and procedures applicable to County employees and specifically Sheriff's Office employees rather than Vallejo policies.
Date: March 6, 2025
Subject: PROVIDE UPDATE AND RECEIVE DIRECTION ON THE SOLANO COUNTY SHERIFF’S
OFFICE PUBLIC SAFETY SERVICE AGREEMENT
A further provision of the proposed agreement is that the agreement is conditioned upon the determination that the Settlement Agreement entered into by Rob Bonta, Attorney General of the State of California, and the City of Vallejo, as of April 8, 2024, will not be applicable to the County and that such determination must be made by the Attorney General or his designee.
The Sheriff’s Office has provided that a definitive contract agreement is also conditioned upon agreement by the applicable County employee bargaining units.
The Sheriff’s Office has proposed the following initial annual budget associated with the agreement (the budget is subject to change depending on the final operational model). Note that this budget does not include the increased costs that the City might bear to honor the indemnification of the Sheriff’s Office under any agreement. If a deputy is involved in an incident for which a claim is submitted, the City would be responsible for covering the costs of discovery, defense, and potential eventual settlement or judgment. Such costs would ultimately depend on the activities, assignments, training, etc. of the Sheriff’s Office staff assigned to Vallejo. Staff will be working to estimate this cost once we have some additional information.
PERSONNEL:
17 FTEs
$5,831,905
Subtotal Personnel $5,831,905
SERVICE & SUPPLIES
Crime analysis services and software
Law enforcement staff one-time
outfitting (uniform, vest, helmet, radio,
phone, bodycam, tazers, gear) with
replacement costs as needed
Ongoing cost body worn
Ongoing cost cell phones
$200,000
$181,661
$14,010
$7,740
Subtotal Service and Supply $403,411
SERVICE VEHICLES
8 vehicle purchases and outfitting
Vehicle maintenance and fuel
Ongoing in-car video
$981,259
$269,951
$25,464
Subtotal Service Vehicles $1,276,674
Expense w/o Administrative OH
$7,511,990
S.O. Administrative Overhead $1,787,854
INSURANCE AND LIABILITY COSTS
Administrative costs
Workers Compensation (additionally,
City to quarterly reimburse County for
all w.c.-related claims payments made
$500,000
$57,700 +
costs
incurred
Date: March 6, 2025
Subject: PROVIDE UPDATE AND RECEIVE DIRECTION ON THE SOLANO COUNTY SHERIFF’S
OFFICE PUBLIC SAFETY SERVICE AGREEMENT
Reserve
Insurance costs
$1,000,000
$375,000
Subtotal Insurance and Liability
Costs
$1,932,700
Total Projected Expenses $11,232,544
Plus potential one-time costs for
ensuring proper radio dispatch
communications, costs TBD
Unknown at
this time
Upon the expiration or earlier termination of the agreement, the Sheriff’s Office will have the option to purchase the vehicles from City, or the vehicles will become the property of City.
Police Department staff are analyzing how an agreement with the Sheriff’s Office as proposed above would improve response times and other aspects of public safety in Vallejo.
CITY ACTIONS
City staff requires direction from the City Council on whether and how to continue analyzing and working toward a service agreement with the Sheriff’s Office. Note that prior to executing an agreement with the Sheriff’s Office, the agreement would need to be reviewed by the California Department of Justice (CalDOJ) under the City’s settlement agreement and the City would need to address its own employee bargaining requirements.
Potential next steps the City could take include the following: (These steps would all likely be necessary.
Some steps could be done simultaneously, while others would require information or action from a previous step.)
• Obtain direction from the Council on any of the identified terms that the Council wishes for staff to obtain more information on or otherwise negotiate further; • Further analyze and propose a funding mechanism for the agreement; • Further analyze and estimate the public safety impact to Vallejo of the agreement; • Work with the Sheriff’s Office to gain a better understanding of the proposed budget; • Determine final coverage available, whether increases in insurance coverage is desirable, and actions necessary to address insurance coverage and any cost increases thereof; • Analyze and propose a process for addressing the City’s employee bargaining responsibilities; • Facilitate CalDOJ’s review and potential approval of the agreement; • Communicate to the County whether the City generally accepts the fiscal aspects of the terms as outlined (The County has communicated to staff that general agreement on the fiscal aspects of the agreement is necessary to entering into the drafting stage of the agreement) • Work with the County to draft the detailed terms of the proposed agreement; and • Approval of the formal proposed agreement by both the City and the County.
Date: March 6, 2025
Subject: PROVIDE UPDATE AND RECEIVE DIRECTION ON THE SOLANO COUNTY SHERIFF’S
OFFICE PUBLIC SAFETY SERVICE AGREEMENT
FISCAL IMPACT
Fiscal impact to the City will ultimately be dependent on upon the final terms of any agreement and an analysis of potential liability. Some potential funding mechanisms of the agreement include General Fund unassigned balance, which is anticipated to be approximately $25M at the beginning of FY 2025-2026; Measure P, which is anticipated to generate approximately $18M annually; or General Fund expenditure reductions. Note that SB 1379 only allows the Sheriff’s Office to engage retired annuitants beyond the normal 960 hour annual limit through January 1, 2027. So, the proposed arrangement with the Sheriff’s Office would be limited term.
ENVIRONMENTAL REVIEW
This action is exempt from the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) because it is not a project which has a potential for resulting in either a direct physical change in the environment, or a reasonably foreseeable indirect physical change in the environment, pursuant to CEQA Guideline section 15378.
ATTACHMENTS
None
CONTACT
Andrew Murray, City Manager (707) 648-4576
[email protected]