Money Predicament for Santa Barbara County Officials

Costs for Michael Jackson’s trial are an uncertainty for Santa Barbara Officials. The largest sum of money has been used mostly for security to accommodate the fans that have been present outside the courthouse during the proceedings.By the efforts of State Senator Abel Maldonado, there is a bill in the works for the security during Mr. Jackson’s trial. It is estimated that the costs of the trial will be between $2.4 million to $4 million; not including costs for the city of Santa Barbara, the prosecution, or the investigation. Based on pending estimates of costs for security and other necessities for a single day amounts up to about $40,000. Jason Stilwell, a special projects manager of the administrator’s office in the county says, “Perhaps as much as 85% of that total goes to cover security in and around the court. The problem is that you can’t project that over five months. You’re going to have these peaks and valleys.” Calculations of Michael Jackson’s arraignment last year rounded up to about $157,985. This total includes the time for the staff to plan and prepare and other essential things such as fences, restrooms, trash pickup, etc. About 1,000 fans were around the courthouse to support Michael Jackson during his arraignment which called for more security on that day, yet it was noticed that there were less fans around the courthouse when Mr. Jackson was not in attendance. It is expected that during the trial, these same patterns will be seen. However, the officials cannot rely on this fact and need to focus on the ‘true’ costs that will be needed. It is known that some of the costs are being covered by an association of news organizations, paying $75,000 per day for access to the court, security, trash services, etc., says Bob Nisbet, assisting director of the county’s General Services Department. It is estimated that the county has collected around $90,000 from media organizations. The case being brought against Michael Jackson has been a huge task to the prosecution as well as expensive to them. The officials for the D.A. have commented that according to their budgets, each year, it is presumed that some things will take an extra push to prepare a case. It is not known today what the cost was to put Mr. Jackson’s case together. It is said by Ken Masuda, director of the county’s Office of Budget and Research, the District Attorney has not asked for any aiding funds for pursuing the case. It seems that the $13 million budget they rely on has been sufficient. Mark Van de Camp, a city management analysist, tells that leases to ABC News, Court TV., Fox News, CBS, and NBC, for their use of public facilities are being used to help the cost of security around the court’s perimeters; still overtime expenses will average around $40,000 a month. However much the costs are, the amount of this trial will surely be over the top. Over a length of five months is what the county is looking towards at the present moment, and the figures brought forth show the prediction of what the total will be. Source: Santa Barbara News-Press/MJJForum/eMJey