Funds for Trumbull environmental officers cut off because of dissatisfaction

By Ed Runyan

runyan@vindy.com

WARREN

Police working the environmental beat in Trumbull and Geauga counties have had their funding cut off as a result of dissatisfaction with their performance.

But Maj. Harold Firster of the Trumbull County Sheriff’s Office says the decision doesn’t mean his office has quit answering the phone.

“We haven’t left them high and dry,” Firster said Thursday of the Trumbull County Health Department and others who rely on the environmental officer at the sheriff’s office. “The program has ceased, but we haven’t let it drop.”

The Geauga Trumbull Solid Waste District last month shut down its employment of the Trumbull and Geauga counties sheriff’s departments and Warren Police Department for environmental enforcement, eliminating the $39,000 annually paid to the Geauga County Sheriff’s Office, $67,000 to the Trumbull County Sheriff’s Office and $75,000 to the Warren Police Department.

Firster explained that the environmental officer for his department, deputy Harold Wix, has trained other deputies so they can handle such calls now. His department also has educated troopers with the Ohio State Highway Patrol so that they can better enforce laws regarding transport of used tires, he said.

Firster’s comments came at a meeting of the solid- waste district’s policy committee.

The money to pay for environmental enforcement came from solid-waste tipping fees collected at area landfills. Since 2007, one officer from each department has handled environmental issues such as open burning and dumping and stockpiling of junk cars and tires.

The solid-waste district and the departments have clashed over the years in trying to define officers’ responsibilities, especially in Warren, where a detective has been assigned environmental tasks while continuing to investigate other types of crimes.

Warren Police Capt. Rob Massucci said the conflict is that the $75,000 is not enough money to pay for an officer and his benefits so he can devote his entire work day to environmental issues. Instead, the detective answers environmental calls when he has time.

Massucci said he agrees with others who say an environmental officer should be “stationed” at the solid-waste district offices on Enterprise Drive and answer full time to the solid-waste district.

One of those who is dissatisfied is Geauga County Commissioner Skip Claypool, a recent addition to the district’s board of directors.

“I’m not seeing results. We need to fix the system, not pay more money,” Claypool said.

Bob Villers, the district’s executive director, said he’s been “told point-blank littering is not going to be enforced” because the environmental officer also has drugs and murders to deal with. “Environmental issues are not a priority with law-enforcement officers,” Villers said, adding that environmental issues also are not a high priority with many judges.

Claypool suggested that a lack of documentation of how environmental officers spend their time is an indication that they may not be needed.

However, others on the committee disagreed.

Frank Migliozzi, Trumbull County health commissioner, said it’s difficult to document the value of having a deputy accompany personnel from the county health department when they investigate nuisance allegations and issue violation notices.

It’s possible that such assistance has saved the life of one of his nuisance-abatement personnel, he said.

Massucci said his environmental officer generally achieves compliance when he makes a visit to someone guilty of dumping or littering. Those visits are documented on police “call logs,” but they generally don’t require that a citation be written.

The policy committee will meet again later this month in hopes of fixing the program.