CRIMINAL JUSTICE Trumbull County commissioners asked to fork over funding

Commissioners say they're not obligated to fund the Victim/Witness office.
WARREN -- Requests for money are coming at Trumbull County commissioners from both sides of the criminal justice system.
Commissioners heard budget matters at their work session Tuesday from both the Ohio Public Defender's Office and the county prosecutor's Victim/Witness Division.
Commissioners are being asked to seek renewal of state grant funding for Victim/Witness.
Commissioners noted that they are not obligated to fund the program's local share if the Ohio Attorney General's Office doesn't come through with the greater amount of money.
Dollars
The total proposed grant amount is $129,874 with Victims of Crime Act grant money funding $97,405 and Trumbull County funding the required 25 percent, $32,469. Also sought is $3,100 in State Victims Assistance Act dollars.
This money will fund two full-time and two part-time employees and would be the county's 18th renewal of this grant.
"We still need that required local match," stressed James Misocky, assistant prosecutor.
Misocky said Trumbull County operates a "model program" for addressing needs of crime victims. He credited Miriam Fife, court advocate, whose office is on the Trumbull County Courthouse's second floor.
Public defender
Also running an efficient program is the local public defender's office, said Atty. James F. Lewis.
Lewis runs the office that includes another state-funded lawyer, Anthony Consoldane, and two paralegals, one executive secretary, two part-time investigators and 16 contracted attorneys. Employees there are set to receive raises established by the state.
At the same time, however, the state has trimmed $30,000 from the office for the coming year. Lewis said the office has an $885,000 total operation but needs an additional $64,000 from the county.
"It's mandated. I know you don't want to do it. We're the bad guys; Victim/Witness are the good guys," Lewis told commissioners.
Caseload increase
But he noted his office's caseload is up due to a poor economy. The office handles 6,000 indigent cases a year at about $147 per case; $380 a case when an outside lawyer is appointed by a judge in event of a conflict of interest.
Lewis noted that some counties, instead of having a public defender's office, choose instead to have an appointed counsel system at a higher cost.
"Our system is probably the most efficient in the entire state," he said.
The county's contract with the public defender expires June 30.
Lease agreement
Also, commissioners heard from Michael Psznick, Veterans Service Commission officer and director. That office now faces "deplorable conditions" brought on by renovations and construction at the city-owned Kinsman House and adjacent carriage house, 321 Mahoning Ave. N.W., where the veterans are located.
Commissioners today are set to enter an emergency, one-year lease agreement with Kurt Sauer of Park Porter Limited, 280 North Park Ave., for housing the Veterans Service Commission. The cost is $1,783 per month for 2,087 square feet including cleaning, maintenance and parking.
The veterans have been at the carriage house 50 years and urged commissioners to communicate to Mayor Michael O'Brien the desire to return once the renovations are complete.