WARREN City settles bill with county for housing inmates

Some has already been paid; the rest will come out of next year's budget.
By AMANDA C. DAVIS
VINDICATOR TRUMBULL STAFF
WARREN -- The city will pay Trumbull County $788,000 to settle a jail bill that's been the center of a two-year dispute.
Warren recently paid $746,000 of the tab, and has until Jan. 30 to pay the rest.
Mayor Hank Angelo said the $746,000 is what the city had in an account to pay the bill for housing inmates at the county jail.
The balance will have to come out of the 2002 budget.
The county originally said the city owed more than $1 million.
The city took issue with the county's billing procedures, saying some were unfair.
What happened: Angelo said the county was mistakenly booking some prisoners as Warren prisoners, when they were being brought in by Warren officers, but should have been booked under other communities.
Angelo also said there were billing errors because some prisoners were booked on felonies, which are state charges, and had those charges eventually reduced.
In some cases, if a prisoner were booked at 10 p.m. and released in the morning after appearing in court, the county's system automatically charged the city for housing a prisoner for 48 hours.
Updated software: Changes in the county's billing software should help to eliminate some of the problems, Angelo said.
His brother, county Commissioner Joe Angelo, said Commissioner Jim Tsagaris, Atty. James Misocky and county purchasing agent Tony Carson were at the table for the county.
Negotiating for the city were Police Chief John Mandopoulos, Capt. Tim Bowers, Bob Stahl, of the operations department, and a police officer.
The city will now pay the bill quarterly, based on daily bookings. Hank Angelo said the two sides still have to make some language changes in the contract.
"We think it's a fair settlement," he added.
Joe Angelo said he's glad an agreement was reached and noted the contract language was too vague.
"Not everything was spelled out in black and white," he added.
davis@vindy.com