Sheriff’s gambit forced city’s hand, but raises new questions

If Youngstown City Council ap- proves the purchase of $22,000 in new equipment for video arraignments, it will provide a sad affirmation of the inability of political subdivisions to work together for the betterment of the community. Or more specifically, in this case it demonstrates Sheriff Randall Wellington’s commitment to seeing a political stunt through to the end — even at a cost to the city police department in which he served the majority of his career.

It was Wellington who said he could no longer spare the manpower to oversee video arraignments from the county jail. It was his deputies’ union that said it would not allow city police officers to enter the jail building to oversee the arraignments.

Video arraignments from the county jail were established years ago for two primary reasons. They eliminated the possibility of dangerous outbursts in the small, crowded Youngstown Municipal Court quarters in City Hall. And they eliminated the need to take prisoners from the county jail to City Hall and back, with the attendant dangers that come with prisoner transport.

The deputies’ union says that the few hours a week it took to oversee the video arraignments became a safety issue because it took deputies away from their duties within the cell blocks.

One can only assume that they are less concerned with the safety of Youngstown Police Department officers who will be doing the transporting. And, indeed, it appears that the leadership of the city police department’s FOP would rather have its members take on the risks of prisoner transport than risk offending another FOP lodge’s claim of jurisdiction.

We expect that city council will approve tonight the purchase request of video equipment that will be installed in the old City Jail. It’s really the court’s money that they’ll be spending, and the judges are understandably eager to avoid losing video arraignment all together. And in the overall scheme of things, perhaps the loss of an additional city police officer’s services a few times a week — which will cost the city about $10,000 a year in lost productivity — isn’t a deal-breaker.

Still, it would be nice if before council voted on this expenditure someone asked police Chief Rod Foley to explain why an accommodation couldn’t be reached to avoid unnecessary prisoner transportation and its attendant risks. Does he, as a manager, agree that union jurisdiction trumps common sense.

The bigger picture

In the meantime, Mahoning County commissioners should be asking some bigger questions. For instance, if the cost of running the sheriff’s department under current contract is so high as to make proper manning impossible, isn’t it time to look at ways the sheriff’s budget can be cut without endangering deputies or the public?

For instance, must routine security at the Courthouse be manned by full-time deputies?

And Trumbull County’s jail is manned by corrections officers who are trained and paid at a lesser rate than deputies. Experienced Trumbull County deputes are paid about the same as those in Mahoning County, $20 an hour. Certainly not a princely amount, but a living wage. Corrections officers, however, are paid $11 to $15 per hour in Trumbull County, and those who aspire to join the deputy ranks can pursue the training and education that would make them eligible to apply for openings.

If it works in Warren, why wouldn’t it work in Youngstown? For that matter, Columbiana County privatized its jail years ago. Sheriff Wellington should be asked to explain why he’s comfortable paying his jail personnel at the same rate as patrol personnel. Or why it makes sense to pay jailers nearly as much as state corrections officers are paid to work in penitentiaries populated by a higher percentage of hardened felons.

Wellington isn’t running again, but the commissioners should press him on why he refuses to think outside the box. And now is the time for commissioners to set a tone that will tell whoever succeeds him that the status quo is not acceptable, and that the next budget will be written with an expectation that the new sheriff will be a better steward of the public purse.