EL MONTE>> City leaders have been looking forward to a new hotel and outlet mall coming to the area near Flair Plaza. Now they may get some former inmates there as well.

Los Angeles County wants to open a regional probation office in the area to manage the influx of former inmates it has been asked to handle as a result of state prison realignment under AB109.

El Monte residents are outraged, saying the city is too often the “dumping ground” for such unwanted facilities. And they fear it will be a big step backward in the city’s increasingly successful effort to attract more investment.

But county probation officials say the new offices would merely move their already existing operations from cramped space in the El Monte courthouse to a more industrial area. The 55 probation officers at the courthouse currently share 15 desks, forcing them to juggle appointments with the approximately 80 parolees and people on probation they serve every day. The new facilities, at 9349 Telstar Ave. and 3375 Rio Hondo Ave., would have the same number of probation officers and serve the same number of people, about 70-80 a day, according to Reaver Bingham, deputy chief of the County Probation Department.

The proposed office would also have space to house additional services aimed at putting former inmates on the right path, such as cognitive behavioral therapy, substance abuse counseling, job placement services and help finding housing.

The City Council will consider Tuesday whether to officially oppose the proposal.

Bingham hopes they won’t.

“If every community said we don’t want to have them, it will drive them underground and they won’t get the help they need. That is when you have more problems. If we give them the services they need, then you can have a real positive impact on public safety by advancing the cause of rehabilitation,” Bingham said. “If we continue to have the attitude of not here, I just don’t know how that bodes well for public safety.”

Probation officials, as well as former inmates, say the best way to get people on parole and probation the treatment they need is to locate services near where they live. And many of the people the new office would serve live in El Monte.

“We cannot turn a blind eye and say people on probation and parole don’t live here … why not give them the help and services they need so that we can protect the community,” former inmate Natalie Venegas, an El Monte resident who has been out of prison for seven years, told the City Council last month.

But other El Monte residents pointed out that while the facility might serve their neighbors in need, it also will also bring in people from neighboring cities. And, they asked, why it can’t be located elsewhere.

“We have been the dumping grounds — whatever the county doesn’t like, whatever the state doesn’t like, bring it to El Monte,” resident Cosme Jimenez told the council. “Other cities need to participate as well.”

And, residents pointed out the probation offices would be right across the street from the planned Flair Spectrum project, a proposed 500,000-square-foot outlet mall, 220-room hotel and 600 homes.

“I have to say, if I was a person building those hotels and those outlets and you allow this, I would dump that whole project and say, we don’t want to be there,” long-time El Monte resident Jane Myring said.

While most councilmembers have largely reserved judgement of the proposal until Tuesday’s meeting, councilman Juventino “J” Gomez has been a vocal opponent. Among other concerns, he said having former inmates coming to the community will increase crime and burden the already-stressed police department.

“At the end of the day, we do not have the police force to do so many extra assignments,” he said. “So I’ve been fighting this … I’m going to continue fighting this.”

It is not entirely clear whether Gomez’s opposition will make a difference.

The county is legally required to notify El Monte of its plans, but it may not actually need the city’s approval.

“They have sovereignty,” Gomez said.

But any official city opposition could make an impression on County Supervisor Hilda Solis, who could, in turn, make a difference in the project’s fate.

“I want to be clear that though I think this proposal makes sense, I would never support it moving forward without first hearing from the community,” Solis wrote last week in a letter to the community. “I have had several productive conversations with members of the City Council and the city staff, as well as the Probation Department and I am hearing residents’ concerns loud and clear. I do not support moving forward right now, but I do support continuing to work together to serve the needs of all our community members.”

If not El Monte, the probation office will likely go somewhere nearby.

When AB109 put state parole supervision in the hands of the county, county probation officials determined they needed to set-up seven new offices to supervise the released inmates.

It has so far opened five of those offices across the county in: West L.A., South L.A., Pacoima, Carson and Lancaster.

It plans to open the final two offices in the San Gabriel Valley — one in El Monte and one somewhere in the West San Gabriel Valley, Bingham said.

The deputy chief said there is no evidence, even anecdotally, that the other AB109 offices have caused crime to increase in the communities where they are located. Instead, they have precisely the opposite effect, he said, by adding to the law enforcement presence with probation officers.

“They see things, notice things. They really become a part of the community,” he said. “Everywhere we have placed these new offices, we have gotten nothing but compliments from neighbors, schools, public officials.”