TRUMBULL COUNTY Dispenser money is in a muddle

No one in the department has acknowledged responsibility for depositing the money.
By STEPHEN SIFF
and PEGGY SINKOVICH
VINDICATOR TRUMBULL STAFF
WARREN -- The amount of money turned in to the Trumbull County Auditor's Office from feminine-product dispensers in 14 county restrooms has dropped from about $400 a year to nearly nothing over the eight years Tony Delmont has been in charge of the maintenance department.
Delmont, head of the department since 1994, refused Thursday to talk to reporters. He earns $71,000 a year as department head.
Workers in his department are responsible for buying products and putting them in coin-operated machines in most county buildings.
However, when interviewed by county employees conducting an internal inventory, no one in the department took responsibility for depositing the money, and there was a confusing array of answers about who removes the money from the machines.
The missing change concerns county commissioners, but the amount of money involved is small, said Commissioner Joseph Angelo.
Because of the lack of deposits, commissioners are yanking the machines from the county buildings.
"It is an embarrassment to our county," Angelo said. "As long as nothing criminal is involved, I will stand by my people. I know we have a problem, and I'm fixing it."
How much money?
The size of the problem, at least in regard to the missing money, is not clear.
Last year, Trumbull County bought $4,653 worth of feminine hygiene products from Envirochemical of Cleveland.
The first two months of the year, it also spent $550 with another company, Central Service and Supply of Brookfield.
The grand total was more than 17,750 individual units, which presumably wound up in vending machines and for use by female inmates at the county jail.
So where did they all go?
The maintenance department does not keep track.
The jail estimates it needs about 720 pieces a month, or 8,640 a year, for female inmates.
So where did the rest go?
Employees conducting the internal inventory found boxes in a restroom off the jail's main control room, where inmates wouldn't be allowed to enter.
"We have no choice but to assume that there is some employee use of these products," those doing the inventory wrote in a report turned over to county commissioners this week.
Although two vending machines in the jail restrooms are not stocked, a spot check found that machines in other county buildings are.
Under investigation
The prosecutor's office asked for the inventory shortly after an investigation began by the state Bureau of Criminal Identification and Investigation and the state auditor's office.
Both agencies have been probing purchasing matters for about a month after a series of Vindicator articles that began in early August revealed poor record-keeping and excessive buying by the maintenance department.
siff@vindy.com
sinkovich@vindy.com