WARREN — Commissioners on Friday finished listening to pleas of the county’s various departments mostly asking for more funds to operate in 2026.

“This was the easy part,” Commissioner Denny Malloy said of the two days of half-hour long presentations detailing why the commissioners should stretch their limited dollars to meet departmental needs. “The hard part will be crunching numbers, because departments are requesting more. Last year, every department got cut. It will be what department has been most honest in what they’ve provided us.

“There is some fat built into these budget projections and we have to figure it out,” he continued.

“There were a couple of departments that surprised me knowing the situation we were in last year, that they are still requesting some things that they know we will not be able to provide.”

Several departments, including the county coroner and clerk of courts, surprised the commissioners by saying they likely will be able to operate in 2026 at the same level or less than in 2025.

CORONER’S OFFICE

Coroner Dr. Lawrence D’Amico is requesting 2% less money than was given to his office last year. The coroner said investments provided by the county four years ago allowed his office to purchase software that now has reduced the need for a full-time secretary.

D’Amico said the office will hire a part-time secretary at 20 hours per week.

In addition, a cooler the department purchased in 2024 has provided his office greater flexibility in handling bodies when forensic pathologist George Sterbenz is on vacation.

“We don’t have to send the remains to Cuyahoga County for autopsies,” D’Amico said. “We typically have a savings of between $20,000 to $30,000.”

The coroner’s office did approximately 160 autopsies in 2025.

D’Amico suggested that Sterbenz services saves the county money and allows Trumbull’s autopsies to be completed at a much faster rate than in Mahoning County, which does not have a forensic pathologist.

CLERK OF COURTS, MAINTENANCE

Trumbull County Clerk of Courts Randy Law also will request the same amount he received for this year. Although he said he plans to hire another employee during 2026, Law does not expect the additional salary to force him to ask for more money in his budget.

Law said his department has a lot of younger employees who are working at lower costs than those that left over the past 10 months.

Building and vehicle administrator Darryl Dunigan also is seeking to maintain basic operations at current levels. However, he added, capital projects wanted by the county would push his budget higher.

“What I want is to have a large enough staff to not have to provide a lot of overtime,” Malloy stated.

SHERIFF’S OFFICE

During the sheriff office presentation, Chief Deputy Dale McDorman said the department is seeking $2 million more than was provided to the department in 2025. He began by outlining savings the department achieved this year, including reducing the amount of overtime by 460 hours.

“We also cut holiday spending in half,” McDorman said.

Resource officer contracts with school districts now reflect the actual costs the county spends in providing officers and equipment.

Jail Administrator Major David Bobby noted that the number of people being sent to the jail had a 20% year-over-year increase over the last three years because more inmates increase the jail’s operational expense.

Bobby explained the jail is looking to staff the jail’s four-bed medical unit.

There also is an increase in the amount of food that must be fed to prisoners.

“The cost of everything is going up,” he said.

McDorman said the state has sent them notification that it will not fund the marine patrol beginning next year. The elimination of state funds will cost the county approximately $32,000 if officials want to continue using boats to patrol Mosquito Lake for a reduced number of days.

“We are going to have to send the responsibility back to Parks and Watercrafts,” Malloy said.

The commissioner said the sheriff seeking a significant increase in its budget scares him. The county initially provided the sheriff’s office $18 million to operate this year and increased that amount over time.

“We’ve already seen most departments coming here seeking increases,” Malloy said.

Bobby said they are looking at some ways to increase funding coming into the jail, including talking to Warren city officials about increasing the amount the city pays for the housing of its prisoners.

“We are operating at a payment schedule that was negotiated in 2017,” Bobby said. “It was supposed to be revisited every year, but, somehow, it was just repeatedly rubber stamped. Costs have gone up since that time.”

Warren officials are supposed to be discussing this next week.

“They appear to be receptive,” he said.

BOARD OF ELECTIONS

Trumbull County Board of Elections is seeking about $200,000 more in funds that it received in 2025. Earlier this year, the commissioners provided the Board of Elections just under $1.7 million of the $2.1 million request that was made by the board.

The board received a $209,000 grant from the secretary of state’s office that is allowing it to finish the year.

Trumbull County Board of Elections Chairman Mark Alberini suggested its leadership knows what elections cost and has over the past five years provided budget projections that have been within 1 to 5 percent of what they needed to operate.

“We have done what we can to cut costs and minimize costs,” Alberini said. “They are very good at doing these projections.”

Board of Elections Executive Director Stephanie Penrose said because 2026 will be a statewide election, they will be printing and distributing more ballots and will need more poll workers than were needed in this year’s elections.

VETERANS COMMISSION, TREASURER

Trumbull County Veterans Service Commission Director Cari Delgado will be sending $250,000 back to the general fund in 2025. Delgado said they want to establish a program to provide veterans and their spouses $500 each for burial expenses.

“This is something I’ve seen in other counties,” she said. “We are going to have people going out in the community to inform residents about what we do.”

Treasurer Augustino Raggozino said his office will be seeking $287,885.36 more in 2026 than was provided in 2025. Since coming into office, he has hired one additional employee and a floater. He is not expecting to hire anyone in 2026.

Next year, the department is establishing an autopay form, which will allow people to use their debit cards to pay their tax bills, as well as allowing people to establish payment plans to pay delinquent property tax bills.

“I’m going to give people every chance to pay their property taxes,” he said. “I am not afraid to foreclose, but that is not what I want to do.”