{"id":7698,"date":"2026-08-25T14:40:38","date_gmt":"2026-08-25T14:40:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/nextcitydigest.com\/?p=7698"},"modified":"2026-08-25T14:40:38","modified_gmt":"2026-08-25T14:40:38","slug":"saratoga-renews-contract-with-county-sheriffs-office-despite-higher-cost","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nextcitydigest.com\/?p=7698","title":{"rendered":"Saratoga renews contract with county sheriff’s office despite higher cost"},"content":{"rendered":"
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After months of negotiations and considering other policing options, Saratoga City Council approved a five-year law enforcement contract with the Santa Clara County Sheriff\u2019s Office on Aug. 19.<\/p>\n

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Saratoga, Los Altos Hills and Cupertino had to decide by Sept. 30 if they would like to continue contracting law enforcement services with the county sheriff\u2019s office. Their contracts had expired at the end of June, but the cities received an extension to continue negotiations.<\/p>\n

On Aug. 11, Saratoga councilmembers voted 4-1 to moderately reduce general law enforcement and traffic enforcement and agreed to pay $10.6 million for next year\u2019s contract, as opposed to the $11.6 million the sheriff\u2019s office said it would cost to continue its current level of service. Saratoga is currently paying about $9 million for these services.<\/p>\n

City Manager Leslie Arroyo said the tradeoff would be less patrol availability. Councilmember Belal Aftab cast the sole opposing vote, saying that he would have preferred to maintain law enforcement services at their current level due to the already lean staffing of deputies in the city and the fact that the city\u2019s automatic license plate readers are currently inaccessible. Arroyo acknowledged that continuing to contract with the sheriff given the increased costs would affect the city\u2019s finances, leaving room for the possibility that Saratoga may partner with Los Gatos-Monte Sereno Police Department for future policing services. The new contract includes an exit clause, allowing the city to leave the agreement within one year\u2019s notice.<\/p>\n

During the Aug. 19 council meeting, Saratoga councilmembers unanimously approved the contract. Arroyo said the county needed the cities to decide before September if they were going to renew their contracts with the sheriff to give the Board of Supervisors enough time to execute the contracts. The final alterations to the contract included stipulations in case a city terminates its contract with the sheriff\u2019s office early, requiring the departing city to pay for its portion of the West Valley substation\u2019s lease through November 2029, according to lawyer Catherine Engberg, who also serves as Portola Valley\u2019s town attorney.<\/p>\n

Arroyo said the three cities hired an auditor from Vasquez and Associates to determine if there were any options for reducing or adjusting the costs associated with the sheriff\u2019s contract, specifically regarding the overhead fees that were passed onto the cities. California\u2019s Government Code 51350 states that counties can only charge cities for the specific, direct and indirect costs incurred because of a contract, not including general administrative or operational costs. On Aug. 11, Arroyo told the council that overhead and support costs were incorporated into the hourly rates for law enforcement services in their previous contract; however, this new agreement would separate out a substantial portion of the costs into \u201cshared overhead pools,\u201d which cover investigations, records, information technology, personnel and training, internal affairs, administration and countywide support services.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt may be a little different than other counties do, but there\u2019s nothing in that audit report that says, \u2018What you\u2019re doing is illegal,’\u201d said Saratoga Mayor Chuck Page on Aug. 19. \u201cTo me, it makes more sense to move on and make sure we\u2019re locked in than to try to fight an imaginary fight.\u201d<\/p>\n

However, Los Altos Hills Mayor Rajiv Bhateja said he is still in talks with the county and is still committed to getting law enforcement services from the sheriff. He told this news organization that he believed the town should pay the cost of the actual service, which is $1.5 million. However, he is facing a $1.9 million overhead for those services, which were already limited. Los Altos Hills pays for around 7,281 patrol hours per year, which doesn\u2019t cover the whole year.<\/p>\n

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\u201cWe\u2019ve asked for it in the past,\u201d Bhateja said in an interview. \u201cThey said, \u2018We don\u2019t have it, because we don\u2019t have enough people,\u2019 but part of it is also how much we\u2019re willing to pay.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bhateja also noted that the overhead fees for all three cities totaled $22 million. However, the county\u2019s draft budget for 2026-2027 included a stipulation if the contract cities did not renew their services with the sheriff, which would lead to $2.2 million in savings.<\/p>\n

County Executive James Williams said those savings would be the result of the county cutting and reallocating services and positions if the cities did not renew their contracts.<\/p>\n

Cupertino Mayor Kitty Moore said she is waiting for the report by Vasquez and Associates to be completed and reviewed by her, Bhateja, the Cupertino city manager and the town manager of Los Altos Hills before making a decision on the contract or considering policing alternatives. Cupertino would have to pay around $25 million total to continue law enforcement services with the sheriff\u2019s office. Overhead costs account for $14 million.<\/p>\n

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\u201cWe have a fiduciary duty to review so that we aren\u2019t paying more than what is really attributable to the sheriff\u2019s contract,\u201d Moore said in an interview.<\/p>\n

Williams said the county had broken down costs line by line for the cities to determine if each was incurred from the services provided by the sheriff\u2019s office.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s obviously the direct costs associated with the enforcement \u2014 deputies on the ground \u2014 but there\u2019s also the costs associated with the supervision of that division,\u201d Williams said. \u201cNow some of the cities are calling that overhead, but those positions wouldn\u2019t exist at all without that division.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Los Altos Hills, Cupertino are syill negotiating with sheriff’s office for law enforcement services.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7697,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7698","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"yoast_head":"\nSaratoga renews contract with county sheriff’s office despite higher cost - Next City Digest<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/nextcitydigest.com\/?p=7698\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Saratoga renews contract with county sheriff’s office despite higher cost - Next City Digest\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Los Altos Hills, Cupertino are syill negotiating with sheriff's office for law enforcement services.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/nextcitydigest.com\/?p=7698\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Next City Digest\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-08-25T14:40:38+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"5 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/nextcitydigest.com\\\/?p=7698#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/nextcitydigest.com\\\/?p=7698\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"admin\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/nextcitydigest.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/13065d40d633843429ac57d4e5c06f9b\"},\"headline\":\"Saratoga renews contract with county sheriff’s office despite higher cost\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-08-25T14:40:38+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/nextcitydigest.com\\\/?p=7698\"},\"wordCount\":948,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/nextcitydigest.com\\\/?p=7698#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/nextcitydigest.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/08\\\/1dcd4671323ad6b44d332d5a0d48f0cb-scaled.webp\",\"articleSection\":[\"News\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/nextcitydigest.com\\\/?p=7698#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/nextcitydigest.com\\\/?p=7698\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/nextcitydigest.com\\\/?p=7698\",\"name\":\"Saratoga renews contract with county sheriff’s office despite higher cost - 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