Trumbull citizens budget review committee talks about cost cutting at first meeting

By Ed Runyan

runyan@vindy.com

WARREN

A committee of 11 volunteers had two hours of meetings Tuesday to begin examining Trumbull County’s finances.

Its chairman, Mike Matas of Cortland, offered to share cost-saving measures used in Lake County, where he is budget director.

Matas rattled off a long list of areas where he thinks the committee can find savings – such as examining services the county provides that are not mandated by Ohio law, examining the collective-bargaining agreements with employees and finding less expensive ways to provide medical care to jail inmates.

“There is a lot of entitlement out there in the government sector,” Matas said of employees. “And that’s something that takes a long time” to address, he said. “This is going to be a longtime process.”

He said one of the easiest ways Lake County saved money was by combining information technology services for the county, cities, villages and townships. He said Lake County also saved money by having a car dealership handle certain vehicle maintenance tasks.

He also suggested adjusting the fee schedule for services provided by the county building department.

Auditor Adrian Biviano and the three county commissioners participated in the first hour of the meeting, providing handouts on various county financial data.

Commissioner Mauro Cantalamessa said he hopes the committee will look at “cost containment” and “cost-saving” ideas.

Commissioner Frank Fuda said the commissioners already are “doing a lot as far as doing more with less,” such as securing grant money to carry out many millions of dollars worth of sewer projects and having the county’s maintenance department perform tasks that normally would be done by outside contractors, including the demolition of a couple of county buildings.

Former Resco Products manager Stephan Stoyak of Liberty said he would like the committee to incorporate Lean Six Sigma into its discussions. Lean Six Sigma is a methodology that “signifies that the customer is always to be put first,” according to the Aveta Business Institute.

Stoyak said he thinks there is a “huge opportunity” to reduce costs by using a “bottom up” process that empowers employees to find better ways to do things. A suggestion box is one of the tools used, he said.

Stoyak noted that one of the charts provided by the commissioners showed that the number of employees working in general-fund departments such as the sheriff’s office or courts rose from 444 in 2008 to 503 in 2016 – a 13.8 percent increase.

Stoyak said he thinks that’s an area that should be addressed in light of decreased revenue streams.

The commissioners formed the committee after Fuda raised the possibility of raising the sales tax by a quarter percent and Biviano suggested that county budgets be cut because of the threatened loss of Medicaid-related sales-tax revenues.

The committee will meet again at 6 p.m. Feb. 28 in the commissioners hearing room.