Deputy layoffs canceled for now

By PETER H. MILLIKEN

milliken@vindy.com

YOUNGSTOWN

City and Mahoning County officials and lawyers for inmates who won a lawsuit over jail crowding will again gather in Cleveland on Monday for a closed-door mediation session in federal court.

The session, which will begin at 9 a.m., will be facilitated by U.S. District Judge Dan Aaron Polster, to whom the parties jointly faxed a progress report on their discussions before the noon Friday deadline imposed by the judge.

“We’re trying to work out some arrangement, whereby the jail will stay open and city misdemeanor prisoners will be housed” in the county jail, said Iris Torres-Guglucello, city law director.

Meanwhile, the county sheriff’s department has rescinded layoff notices for 101 sheriff’s department employees that were to take effect Sunday, and the main jail will remain fully open until further notice, said Deputy Glenn Kountz, president of Fraternal Order of Police Lodge 141, which represents sheriff’s deputies.

Due to the county’s recession-induced financial crisis, Sheriff Randall Wellington had planned to close half the main jail and the entire minimum security jail as an overnight facility effective Sunday in conjunction with the layoffs.

“This is just putting off the inevitable unless they come up with some money somewhere,” Kountz said. “I still think there’ll be layoffs. I don’t know to what extent.”

The consent decree that settled the inmate lawsuit, which remains in effect until May 17, calls for the county jail to remain fully open and staffed.

The county commissioners are expected to adopt their permanent 2010 budget, including the sheriff’s budget, when they meet at 10 a.m. Thursday in the county courthouse basement. Thursday is the deadline for doing so. So far, the county has been operating under a temporary budget.

“I’m hopeful that, with Judge Polster’s help, we’ll be able to reach an agreement,” with the county on Monday concerning the housing of city misdemeanor inmates in the county jail, Guglucello said.

The city and county have reached agreement on some issues, but some terms still need to be worked out, she said, declining to provide specifics.

An agreement, under which the city paid the county $80 a day for each city misdemeanor inmate in the county jail after its 71st inmate, expired in February.

The city is also seeking alternatives for its offenders, such as house arrest and use of the county sheriff’s day-reporting work detail program, Guglucello said.

County Prosecutor Paul J. Gains declined to discuss the county’s negotiations with the city concerning county jail operations.

Meanwhile, Kountz said he is continuing his petition campaign to remove the county commissioners as an expression of lack of confidence in their leadership.

“The response has been overwhelming,” Kountz said, adding that he didn’t know how many signatures have so far been gathered. Some 13,900 signatures from the county’s registered voters are required, and Kountz said he hopes to gather 16,000 to provide a cushion in case some are invalid.