Robust appeals for funds made to commissioners
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WARREN -- Approximately 20 county departments made pitches to Trumbull County commissioners for their 2024 budgets proposals that, if approved, will provide several departments hefty increases.
Sheriff Maj. Jeffrey Palmer said the sheriff's office request will be $19.9 million for 2024, which is greater than the $14.9 million sought for 2023.
Palmer said the county gave the department $11.2 million in its general fund expenditures.
The department was provided $3 million from the county's American Rescue Plan Act funds in 2022 to help balance that year's budget. The department is expecting another budget shortfall this year, according to Commissioner Denny Malloy.
The amount has not been identified.
Palmer, who was assigned to oversee the budget earlier this year, told the commissioners he recently spoke to four or five other sheriff's offices across the state to get an idea of their budget process.
"Each department received hefty increases," Palmer said. "Their budgets represented between 42% to 48% of the general fund."
Palmer said the department traditionally has been underfunded in personnel costs and contractual obligations, including uniform allowances.
Employee salaries in the sheriff's office are approximately $6 million.
The county jail, which is operated under the sheriff's office, also has been underfunded traditionally, he added.
Employee salaries and benefits in the jail are about $5.2 million.
The two divisions -- sheriff and jail -- combined for about $11.2 million in employee costs.
Trumbull has about 161 staff members under the two divisions, which should be about 175.
"Now we are presenting realistic numbers based on per-employee costs," he said.
Malloy described the last couple of years as being a mess.
"I know over the last year, you have not been compensated for some of the work you've done," Malloy said.
Due to contract language, the sheriff's office has not been paid by some school districts for school resource officers, as well as Job & Family Services and Trumbull County commissioners for providing sheriff's deputies for security.
The anticipated revenues from these and other contracts may add $2 million or more to the sheriff's office.
The amount being requested does not include anticipated revenues. The anticipated revenue is expected to be between $2 million and $3 million.
Commissioner Mauro Cantalamessa said good strides have been made in reducing benefits costs.
Palmer said local judges have worked with the jail in reducing the number of people placed in the facility.
"We have been running in the low 200s in the number of prisoners in the jail," he said. "We could have as many as 285."
Commissioner Niki Frenchko questioned what the sheriff's office has done to spend less money.
Frenchko suggested looking at ways to decrease medical costs in the jail by staffing nurse practitioners instead of doctors.
PROSECUTOR'S OFFICE
Trumbull County Prosecutor Dennis Watkins told the commissioners that his office has obtained a $495,000 grant from the state to fund a repeat violent offender unit. Assistant Prosecutor Kevin Trapp and public information officer Guy Vogrin were hired using this money.
Watkins is asking the commissioners for $30,000 to create a multipurpose conference center to allow his office to participate in remote meetings, hearings and arguments.
Watkins is proposing that the prosecutor's current library be reconfigured into this updated conference center. He suggested that the Ohio Adult Parole Authority is beginning to require victims to appear before the board during hearings via Zoom instead of traveling to Columbus.
In addition, Watkins is asking the county to provide his office with $90,000 for a Matrix Point Software subscription. In addition to the one-time fee for the subscription is a $6,825-per-month fee.
"Nearly every other county prosecutor's office across the state has adopted an internal electronic case management system, and there appear to be real benefits from both an efficiency and cost perspective," he said. "Maintaining a cloud-based file system will allow immediate access to case information, as well as improving storage, organization and the sharing of electronic or digital files."
CORONER'S OFFICE
Trumbull County Coroner Lawrence D'Amico said the department had a 20% increase in transporting victims. D'Amico said they were able to balance that with lower toxicology costs over the next three years.
"This year, we were able to put money back of $29,776," he said.
D'Amico does not know how much it would cost to move into the new county health department building but said it would be a considerable upgrade.
D'Amico argued that the county's forensic pathologist, Dr. George Sterbenz, has not received a wage increase since February 2019 when he was hired.
"Forensic pathologists are hard to come by," D'Amico said. "There are only about 500 full-time across the country. For a county of our size, we are fortunate to have him. We need to be competitive."
He added, "All of our autopsy services in 2022 cost us about $440,000. Sending the same cases to Cleveland would have cost $525,000, so the county saved $80,000."
D'Amico said wage increases over last two years would have been about 7%. The proposed increase would raise his salary from $218,000 to $234,000, which places him in the 58th percentile for forensic pathologists in Ohio.
"I believe that is very competitive," he said.
Frenchko suggested that percentage wage increases should not be based on increases given to lower-wage union employees earning $16 per hour.
Frenchko said D'Amico's job should be based on saving money not giving raises to higher-wage administrators.
The coroner's office has averaged about 310 autopsies annually over the last several years.
911
New 911 Director Tacy Bond projected revenue increases will bring the department an increase of $275,000.
"It is my hope that you will allow us to get what we need," Bond said. "We have computers that are eight or nine years old. In my previous job, we replaced computers every three to four years under a maintenance plan."
Bond said the department needs some new equipment now, not two years from now when they move into a new building.
"We requested $2,702,259 in transfers," she said. "The main driving force will be wages."
The department has about 20 employees.
"We need more staffing," she said. "We are hoping to get a staffing of 35." Bond said her overtime numbers have been tremendous.
We had 246,000 nonemergency calls and 93,000 911 calls, she said.
Last year, there were 77,000 911 calls at the center.
"There are a lot of things technology-wise I would like to do," she said.
The commissioners will review the requests and other information to determine the 2024 budget.