Sheriff should resign, CCA director Billak says on radio show

The CCA head is frustrated over lack of access to the LEADS database.
By PATRICIA MEADE
VINDICATOR CRIME REPORTER
YOUNGSTOWN -- The director of Community Corrections Association believes that Mahoning County Sheriff Randall A. Wellington should call it quits.
"If I sat where he [sits], I would resign," Billak said Wednesday during an interview on the Louie Free Show on WASN-1500.
Billak was expressing frustration over CCA's lack of access to the sheriff's department Law Enforcement Automated Data System terminals. Billak said CCA does presentence investigations for common pleas judges and needs defendants' criminal histories pulled from LEADS.
Billak said his agency has been denied access to LEADS at the sheriff's department -- even though the sheriff gave assurances the situation would be rectified. He said judges are getting criminal histories from the prosecutor's office that may not have up-to-date information.
Billak suggested that maybe the sheriff's subordinates "are playing political games with us."
Sheriff's response
Wellington, reached after the radio program, said that, because of a staff shortage, the LEADS terminal in his record room is available only one day each week and the LEADS terminal in the jail booking area could not be made available to CCA employees.
The sheriff said it's untrue that the issue is motivated by politics and noted that he gave Billak an alternative to obtain criminal histories but that Billak didn't take it.
Wellington said he told Billak that Walter Duzzny, head of the Mahoning County Emergency Management Agency, is willing to let CCA use the county's LEADS terminal at the 911 center.
Billak, contacted at his office after the radio program, said to use LEADS at the county 911 center would mean redoing contracts he has with LEADS in Columbus and the effort would be a "formidable waste of time."
He said CCA does roughly 20 presentence investigations each month, which takes a LEADS operator less than an hour. He added that Duzzny wanted $1,000 per month for the LEADS use.
Age issue
Free, meanwhile, talked on the air about seeing Wellington fall asleep three times at a meeting and questioned the sheriff's stamina. The sheriff is 73.
Billak said during the radio show that age has a bearing on physical stamina. He said the sheriff is a man of integrity but the LEADS issue is a breakdown of the system. The CCA director said he'd resign if he were the sheriff, adding later in the show that whether the sheriff has the stamina for the job is a personal decision.
Wellington called "ridiculous" the stamina and resignation comments.
"I could say nasty things about [Billak], but I won't stoop that low," the sheriff said. "I would never think to criticize him."
Wellington said he didn't shut the door on Billak for LEADS access but can't accommodate him at this time. The sheriff wondered why Billak made the situation a topic for talk radio when he was given an alternative.
Billak suggested during the radio program that the LEADS issue may be tied to his refusal to allow his staff into a segregated cell range that houses violent inmates. He said a CCA employee received a death threat from an inmate, and he has an obligation to keep his staff out of harm's way.
Wellington said that's not true -- reiterating that he simply cannot accommodate CCA at this time.
meade@vindy.com