Threat of lawsuit by Gains won’t solve funding issues

Mahoning County Prosecutor Paul Gains wants the commissioners to return the $100,000 they took from his operating budget in March or else he’ll fight them in court. Not only is the threat of a lawsuit ill-advised, given the economic realities confronting governments at all levels, but it won’t endear him to taxpayers in the private sector who want officeholders to do more with less.

If he doesn’t get the money and decides not to sue the commissioners, Gains says he will be forced to lay off personnel, which will affect the prosecution of criminal cases. The prosecutor’s threat is contained in a letter dated April 27.

“Failure to adequately fund this office will also result in delays in the disposition of cases, resulting in overcrowding of the jail and the probable filing of another lawsuit” by prisoners alleging unconstitutional jail crowding, Gains wrote.

He said some of the criminal duties will have to be assumed by civil-staff attorneys, resulting in less service to elected officials, both county and township.

Such threats serve to amplify what Republican Gov. John Kasich has preached since he unveiled his state biennium budget that contains a 25 percent cut in the Local Government Fund in the first year, and 25 percent in the second year: Governments at all levels must find new ways of providing services to the people who pay their salaries. Mahoning County stands to lose $2.4 million over the two years.

Residents deserve more from the prosecutor than his sky-is-falling scenarios and threats. Just four months ago, he gave nearly $200,000 in pay raises to his staff. This in the midst of a recession that has forced private sector employees to accept wage cuts, pension freezes and higher costs for health care benefits.

As we said in an editorial on March 27, the county commissioners could have slashed $197,670 from Gains’ budget because that was the amount he increased salaries in his office this year compared with 2010. All 32 assistant prosecutors received raises ranging from 3 percent to 22 percent. The highest amount went to Rebecca Doherty because of her promotion to chief of the criminal division.

Dire consequences?

Instead, commissioners Anthony Traficanti, John A. McNally IV and Carol Rimedio-Righetti only cut $100,000. But now, the prosecutor is demanding all of it and warning of dire consequences if he doesn’t get the money.

In his April 27 letter to Traficanti, McNally and Rimedio-Righetti, the prosecutor said he did not deserve “this ill-conceived, political and personally motivated shot at me and my staff.”

Are politically motivated decisions being made in county government? Of course they are. And Gains would have an argument to make had he not granted the exorbitant raises to his staff. His contention falls flat because he wasn’t forced to lay off employees. He only was told to do what most everyone else with a job is doing: Tighten his belt.