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Council to mull contract renewal
After late OK of CCA pact, Youngstown plans to divert more nonviolent prisoners to house arrest.
YOUNGSTOWN — City council is being asked by the administration to renew a contract to divert some nonviolent prisoners from the Mahoning County jail to house arrest.
Council will consider the request at its meeting Wednesday.
Also at that meeting, council will consider a proposal to use about two-thirds of a $744,700 U.S. Department of Energy grant for energy conservation improvements to the city-owned 20 Federal Place office building, the former Phar-Mor corporate headquarters on 20 W. Federal St.
The request for a one-year house-arrest contract renewal with Community Corrections Associations Inc., a Youngstown company, comes four months into the deal.
Anthony Farris, deputy law director, said he forgot to get council’s approval on the contract renewal even though the city’s board of control signed the contract Oct. 22, 2009. Farris said the mistake came to his attention when the finance department recently refused to pay the CCA bill because there is no authorizing legislation from city council.
The contract renewal calls for the city to pay $40,000 a year to CCA plus $4 a day for each defendant. Since the program was first implemented on a trial basis in August 2008 through this past January, an 18-month period, the city has paid $137,240 to CCA.
The renewal has a two-year city option for the same $40,000 annual fee, but increases the daily fee to $5.
The CCA renewal will be in front of council only a few days after Youngstown’s three-year deal expired Sunday to pay an additional fee to house certain city prisoners at the Mahoning County jail.
The city was paying $80 a day for each misdemeanor prisoner jailed there beyond its 71st inmate.
City officials have complained that Youngstown, facing a $2.5 million general fund deficit, has paid more than any other community to the county for the same inmate services. Everyone pays county property and sales taxes, but Youngstown had paid the additional fee for three years.
The city spent $654,078 on prison fees last year, and $1,120,237 in 2008.
“We still want the [county jail] system to function properly,” Farris said. “Now that the county agreement has expired, it’s not our plan to send as many people as we can to the county jail. We don’t want [an economic] crisis at the county. We have no desire to overload the jail. You want alternative sentencing. There are people who should not be in jail.”
Many of those on house arrest are charged or convicted of driving without a license or with a suspended license, he said.
Also Wednesday, council is expected to accept a $744,700 federal Department of Energy grant that will make 20 Federal Place more energy efficient and help develop a long-term citywide energy conservation program.
The city will spend about $500,000 on energy-efficient lighting throughout the nine-floor building as well as install energy-efficient windows on the fourth, fifth and sixth floors, and make improvements to the heating, ventilation and air-conditioning systems, said Sean McKinney, buildings and grounds commissioner.
“We want to make it more inviting for businesses to stay, relocate and expand there,” he said. “This will help create jobs by making the building more attractive to those looking to lease space.”
The city plans to use most of the remaining money to set up an office that would provide assistance and expertise to help businesses and building owners make their facilities more energy efficient, Mc-Kinney said.
skolnick@vindy.com