Mahoning deputy is FOP member of year

Staff report

YOUNGSTOWN

Deputy Lisa Beam of the Mahoning County Sheriff’s Office has received the Ohio Fraternal Order of Police member of the year award.

Beam received the award July 16 at the 25,000-member Ohio FOP’s annual conference in Independence and was honored by her local colleagues at a Tuesday news conference at the Mahoning County Justice Center.

The first Mahoning County FOP member to receive the annual state award, she was nominated by Sgt. Thomas J. Assion, president of FOP Lodge 141, the labor union that represents Mahoning County deputy sheriffs.

“She continually stands up for the rights of law- enforcement officers, and her perseverance and devotion to this cause and to this community is second to none,” Assion said. “I could not have a better person working with me” for FOP and departmental business, he added.

Beam, who is local lodge secretary and blue-unit staff associate for the Ohio Labor Council, joined MCSO in January 1996. She holds a bachelor’s degree in criminal justice from Youngstown State University.

Beam is a county jail inmate-management specialist — a role in which she serves as a liaison between the jail and county and municipal courts and state and federal agencies. She also participates in the sheriff’s Berlin Lake boat patrol.

“She’s a hard worker. She pays close attention to detail in her duties, and she rarely complains,” said Maj. Alki Santamas, who oversees the county jail, where more than 8,000 inmates are booked annually.

“It’s humbling. I’m very thankful,” Beam said, adding that she was surprised to receive the award.

During her 16 years with MCSO, Beam has worked in the jail, patrol, court security and inmate conveyance divisions and in the narcotics task force.

In her union role, she actively campaigned in the successful effort to repeal Senate Bill 5, which would have restricted public- employee collective bargaining in Ohio, Assion said.

Beam is also active in the lodge’s annual Shop with a Deputy event, in which lodge members raise money to take underprivileged local children Christmas shopping.

She is on the state committee for the Law Enforcement Torch Run Special Olympics.

“It’s very important that we promote a philanthropic aspect of the department,” Beam said. The public doesn’t always meet law enforcement under favorable circumstances, she noted.

“The charity that we give — we enjoy it, and it makes a difference, and those kids remember us,” Beam concluded.