Jail deal goes to board for vote

The city's board of control will approve the deal at a special meeting.
By DAVID SKOLNICK
CITY HALL REPORTER
YOUNGSTOWN -- The final step for the city to ratify an agreement to board its misdemeanor prisoners in the Mahoning County jail will come Friday or Monday.
City council unanimously approved legislation Wednesday in support of the three-year deal. County commissioners voted to support the tentative agreement Feb. 7.
Legislation approved by city council permits the city's three-member board of control to ratify the agreement.
The board of control will call a special meeting either Friday or Monday to approve the contract, said Mayor Jay Williams, a board of control member.
The legislation's language reads that the city is estimated to spend 125,000 annually to house misdemeanor prisoners at the county jail and the county misdemeanant jail, expected to reopen in August after being closed for two years.
Cost concerns
The legislation doesn't have a financial cap, but Williams said if the city gets close to the 125,000 figure, the board would advise city council of that so it could authorize spending more. He estimates the cost to the city at about 70,000 annually.
The tentative agreement spells out how much the city will pay to house inmates.
City officials, including the municipal judges, say they will closely monitor the number of city inmates to keep it close to 71 or an even lower each day.
The agreement between the city and the county is needed to comply with a federal order to make the county jail system constitutional, city and county officials say. Inmates won a federal lawsuit against the county two years ago regarding understaffing and overcrowding in the county jail.
Once the board of control approves the agreement, it will go to a three-member federal judicial panel overseeing this issue. City and county officials expect the agreement to satisfy the judges.
Other business
Also Wednesday, council:
*Approved raising the residential garbage collection fees from 9 a month to 11.25, effective March 1. The increase was primarily because Waste Management, a Houston company that handles this service for the city, raised its rate to the city by 2 because of rising fuel costs.
Even with the increase, Youngstown's rate is lower than those in Warren, Akron and Canton, said Carmen S. Conglose Jr., deputy director of the city's public works department.
*Agreed to provide 75,000 to the Western Reserve Transit Authority. The money is going toward WRTA's demolition of the former Salvation Army building on Mahoning Avenue next to the authority's corporate offices on the lower West Side.
skolnick@vindy.com