LA VERNE, CA – The City of La Verne and Plaintiffs in the California Rifle & Pistol Association, Incorporated, et. al, have come to an agreement in which the La Verne Police Department and Chief of Police are to be dismissed from the case, which will continue against the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department and Robert Bonta, in his official capacity as Attorney General for the State of California. The action by the Plaintiffs challenged the constitutionality of concealed carry permit issuance policies and laws that, according to the filed lawsuit, make it difficult and time consuming for Plaintiffs to carry a concealed firearm in public.
“The City was put in a difficult position of defending ourselves as part of a larger Second Amendment challenge based on making sure our residents were provided the ability to apply for concealed carry weapon permits since the Sheriff’s Department would no longer take our residents’ applications,” stated Mayor Tim Hepburn. “We did so in a manner that was transparent, factually represented the true fees of providing the service, and we even subsidized some of the fees. This was a business decision to settle so that we do not continue wasting taxpayer’s dollars on an issue in which we should have never been included.”
As part of setting up a CCW permit process, the City conducted an allocation review for the time it would take for differing portions of the process to set the fees. The fees paid directly to the City total $120.00 for administrative oversight and conducting fingerprinting of applicants. Since April 3, 2023, these fees have been the only fees paid to the City. In addition, applicants must pay the following to outside entities: the State of California Department of Justice for the LiveScan report ($93); the cost of the program administration vendor MyCCW ($398); and the fee for the required third party firearms training provider (up to $250). Initially, the applicant was required to pay half the psychological examination fee ($150), as was explicitly permitted by California Penal Code § 26190(e). Even though the state law was changed to allow applicants to pay the full amount of the psychological examination fee, the City re-bid the contract which now only costs $155 and the City fully covers the costs. An applicant therefore pays $861 or less to apply for a CCW permit, slightly above the Los Angeles County average.
“The City did not choose to be in the position of issuing permits but believe we responded quickly to the change as forced upon us by the County and State and did so in a manner in which the fees reflected the City’s actual costs in processing permit applications,” stated Chief of Police Sam Gonzalez. “The balance between a person’s 2nd Amendment rights and the general public and community’s public safety in providing concealed carry permits was our goal, and we believe we achieved that through the rollout of our permit process and the fees which partially covered our cost of providing the service.”
The offer by the plaintiffs to remove the City from further expense of public funds in continual defense of our actions was well received and ultimately constituted a business decision by the City Council to continue to carry out the permitting process that is required of us, while protecting our scarce taxpayer’s funds. The La Verne Police Department seeks to ensure the public safety of our community is maintained and will abide by any future court decision related to the CCW permit process.
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