By Hannah Drown
cleveland.com
ELYRIA, Ohio — Lorain County Commissioners unanimously approved $700,000 in emergency funding for the Lorain County Sheriff’s Office to help address a payroll shortfall at the county jail and ensure employees are paid through the end of the year.
The unanimous decision was reached during the commissioners’ Dec. 5 meeting, where Chief Deputy Tanya Czack explained that a $1.8 million deficit in jail salary allocations was discovered by Sheriff Jack Hall’s administration after taking office.
“That $1.8 million was in salaries,” Czack said. “It wasn’t in a line item where you could just say ‘we’re not going to purchase that.’”
Czack told commissioners that the budgeting error stemmed from incomplete salary projections in the budget established by the previous sheriff. To keep payroll intact, the sheriff’s office spent much of the year reducing expenses and reallocating funds from other areas of jail operations.
Along with the emergency funding, commissioners approved the use of $189,000 in unused Targeted Community Alternatives to Prison (TCAP) grant funds that had remained unspent for several years.
“Working with the chief and her team, we recognized that these were grant funds that were received that were to reimburse the jail for an employee that was out there,” Fiscal Director KC Saunders explained. “That reimbursement was not happening.”
Commissioner Jeff Riddell described the budgeting mistakes made under the previous sheriff’s administration as “significant” and praised Czack for consistently updating commissioners and correcting many of the issues.
“The previous sheriff cut $1.8 million out of the budget without knowing he was doing it,” Riddell said. “…. It would have been nice not to pay the $700,000, but it needed to be there. You just had one less miracle than what we were looking for.”
The financial strain comes as voters in November rejected a proposed quarter-percent sales tax increase to support the sheriff’s office, which would have generated an estimated $13 million annually.
Commissioners have warned that significant budget reductions affecting personnel and services are anticipated. The county’s general fund will experience considerable strain without this additional revenue source, according to Riddell, who suggested staffing cuts could exceed 15%.
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