Expiring jail pact with city discussed

By Peter H. Milliken

Sheriff’s department and jail operations are a top priority, a commissioner says.

YOUNGSTOWN — Mahoning County officials hope the city will continue to subsidize county-jail operations for an additional year, said Anthony T. Traficanti, chairman of the county commissioners.

“Hopefully, we can work something out here in the very near future,” Traficanti said after Thursday’s meeting of the county commissioners.

A three-year deal, under which the city has been paying the county $80 a day for each city misdemeanor prisoner beyond its 71st city inmate, will expire Sunday.

Mayor Jay Williams said that financial arrangement will not continue, but city officials are concerned about the jail-funding crisis and will be as cooperative as they can be.

Under the expiring agreement, the city spent $654,078 on prisoner fees last year, down from $1,120,237 in 2008.

The city agreed to pay the fee in February 2007 to help the county settle a federal lawsuit, in which inmates successfully complained about overcrowding and understaffing at the jail.

On Wednesday, the inmates’ lawyers, the county commissioners and other county officials and city officials met at the county sheriff’s office for a closed-door mediation session requested by the inmates’ lawyers.

“I think we made progress,” Commissioner David N. Ludt said of that session.

Ludt said he believes the concerns of the inmates’ lawyers were satisfied, but he said negotiations continue between the county and city.

If the city won’t contribute financially to county-jail operations, “there’d be a reduction in services” in county government, Ludt said.

“We’ll probably have to go back to the federal court” to resolve the jail’s financial woes if the city won’t help, Ludt added.

The city’s refusal to continue the terms of the agreement that expires Sunday is “just another challenge for the commissioners to take into consideration when we’re preparing a final budget, not only for the sheriff’s department, but for all general-fund departments,” said Commissioner John A. McNally IV.

The general fund is the county’s main operating fund. So far, the county has been operating under a temporary budget. The commissioners must pass a full-year budget by April 1.

“We all want to keep the sheriff’s department and the jail as operational as possible,” McNally said.

As to the prospect for any compromise concerning a continuing jail subsidy from the city, McNally said: “I think that’s just going to require more discussion between the legal staffs for both the county and the city.”

If recession-induced revenue shortfalls force the county to close parts of the jail, the county runs the risk of having to release inmates or of re-creating the jail crowding that spawned the inmate lawsuit, Traficanti observed.

Ludt and Traficanti emphasized the importance of renewal of the county’s half-percent sales tax by the voters May 4 to continue funding the jail and other county functions.

However, Traficanti added, “Even the sales tax passing is by no means going to dig us out of the hole. This is just going to keep our heads above water.”

Ludt said, “We need to pass the tax just to maintain what we have.”

The concessions taken by deputy sheriffs, including taking one unpaid day off every two weeks, probably need to be continued beyond their June 30 expiration, Traficanti said.

“There’s going to be more concessions coming, probably from everybody in the county” government, Traficanti predicted.