FISCAL IMPACT:
Adoption of this ordinance is estimated to produce $352,000 of General Fund revenue to the Probation Department annually. The Department completes approximately 5,000 pre-plea reports per year for the Superior Court. This level of production would generate $880,000 of fees being assessed. However, not all defendants will pay the fee, and the Department's experience in collecting for the cost of probation supervision indicates a 40 percent collection rate. Therefore, the estimated net revenue is 40% of the $880,000 assessed or $352,000. The new revenue will mitigate the impact of state cuts to Probation Department funding.
BACKGROUND:
The $176 fee is based on the average time it takes a Deputy Probation Officer to conduct an investigation and prepare a pre-plea report for the Court. In the 2008 Probation Business Managers Association (PBMA) Revenue Survey, forty nine (49) Probation Departments in California report that they are currently collecting fees for probation reports. The charge for these reports varies from $10 to $600 from county to county. Contra Costa Probation seeks to establish a fee to pass the reasonable cost of this service on to the consumer, as is done in most other counties.
CONSEQUENCE OF NEGATIVE ACTION:
CHILDREN'S IMPACT STATEMENT: