Our View: For Santa Clara County, the move to open a training
facility at the shuttered Holden Ranch seems like a no-brainer
because it saves money
Turning the vacant Harold Holden Boys Ranch just outside Morgan Hill into a law enforcement training center seems like a classic no-brainer. The plan for the 1.2-acre site adjacent to the William F. James Boys Ranch would generate more than $120,000 per year for the cash-strapped county and make it much easier for law enforcement officials to train locally. “You’ve got facilities that are vacant. It’s perfect. It’s out of the way,” said Santa Clara County Sheriff’s Deputy Terrance Helm.
It would also allow county law enforcement officials from both the Sheriff’s Office and the Probation Department to stop training at a facility at Evergreen Community College run by the South Bay Regional Public Safety Training Consortium, which both departments find unsatisfactory.
In addition, the presence of law enforcement officials next to the runaway-plagued boys ranch could only enhance efforts to increase security there.
“It’s ideal and it’s sitting idle,” said County Supervisor Don Gage of the plan. “There’s no downside, they don’t shoot (guns) up there …”
Like Gage, we’re having trouble finding a downside with the Holden Ranch training center proposal.
Unfortunately, the plan failed by one vote when it went Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors on Nov. 15.
“They voted it down just for the time being,” Sheriff Laurie Smith said of her proposal, noting that the proposal failed for procedural reasons. “They said I didn’t get throughout the right committee …”
Apparently, while review by the public safety committee is the usual procedure for this type of proposal, it is not required.
“Bureaucracy is the only thing holding this up,” Helm said.
Both Helm and Smith are optimistic that the training center at Holden Ranch will be a reality – eventually. We hope their assessment that this bureaucratic snafu is a only temporary delay.
We urge Gage, who voted in favor of the plan on Nov. 15, will champion the training center at the Holden Boys Ranch and shepherd the proposal through the county’s often byzantine procedures and committees. No-brainers don’t come along often and, though we understand the value of process, it’s frustrating to watch bureaucracy slow the implementation of a great idea.
