County Planning Commission - Regular Meeting

Good morning and welcome to Lurien County Board of Commissioners Friday August 28th meeting. It's 930. Please rise for the Pledge of Allegiance. with liberty and justice for all.

Commissioner Moore. Here. Commissioner Gallagher. Here. Commissioner Riddell. Here. We have a quorum. Under resolutions number one, investments.

Move to approve.

Second. Discussion? Mr. Moore? Aye. Mr. Gallagher?

Aye. Mr. Riddell? Aye.

Number two, appropriations?

Move to approve.

Second. Discussion? Mr. Moore? Aye. Mr. Gallagher? Aye. Mr. Riddell? Aye. Number three, transfers?

Move to approve.

Second. Discussion? Commissioner Moore? Aye. Commissioner Gallagher? Aye. Commissioner Riddell? Aye. Number four, there are no advances or repayments. Number five, requisitions? Move to approve.

I'll second.

Discussion?

Okay, so I see you got it changed on time there, Casey, so that's good. Item number 790, pay attention to that. That is a, I'll let you discuss it there, Karen and Casey.

So this is the payment for the land purchase for the future water resource recovery facility. Casey and I have been working with the realtors and the prosecutor's office to make sure that we have all of our paperwork in order in a timely manner. so that there would be no delay in payment after we're done with the due diligence on the property.

Okay. So it's not complete yet, right?

Correct.

Okay. okay so that's government that's government speak for we're getting a good deal on over 100 acres of land to put in our wastewater treatment plant so we're paying pretty close to what 13 500 an acre yes sir and with land going now for 38 to 70 000 an acre this is a very good deal for the taxpayers it's a very good deal for the future project of the west side and looking forward to How this is going to land, I know a former administrator was really heavily involved in this, so we joked a lot about naming it after him, but I don't think it would be appropriate. But this is a great deal for the county and a great deal for the west side of the county.

Commissioner, if I could, the source of those funds being used to purchase the land, um our our currently borrowed funds uh that we uh we issued notes uh this last spring paper and then the uh the the planned repayment for those the debt service will be the operational income from the plan once it's up and operational right yeah about what 10 minutes ago i saw it was coming out of the general fund i'm like whoa whoa whoa who's that no no no we don't have any money in general yeah no no effect to the general fund yeah okay

That's it.

Anything further? Mr. Gallagher? Aye. Mr. Moore? Aye. Mr. Riddell?

Aye.

Number six, travel. There were none. Number seven, bills.

We have two pages today. This is page one. Page two, please. And I move to approve pages one and two.

Second. Discussion?

Yep. Looks like we're... We're doing our job of curtailing spending when we only have five items on one page and one on the other.

Anything further Mr. Moore? Aye. Mr. Gallagher? Aye. Mr. Riddell? Aye. Number eight, county commissioners may recess an executive session to consider the appointment, employment, dismissal, discipline, promotion, demotion, or compensation of a public employee or official, along with any other measures specifically identified by motion in accordance with the Ohio Rise Code 121.22G1 through 8. Unless expressly stated otherwise during executive session, matters discussed in executive session are designated by the county commissioners as confidential. Because of the confidentiality of such matters is necessary for the proper conduct of government business, any disclosure outside of executive session is prohibited by Ohio Revised Code 102.03b. While in executive session, the county commissioners may discuss and deliberate at the matters at issue, but no votes may be taken until open session resumes.

And we'll be going into executive session for a bit today.

Okay, B, public comment on agenda items.

I'll bring the sheriff up at number 11. I know he filled that out, but we'll bring the sheriff up on that item. Never had this before, so I was wondering what the board would like to do. Oh, no, Jack, I'm sorry, sheriff. I'll bring you up on number 11. I'll just bring you up when we're talking about it. Gotcha. I guess that's what I was saying, so sorry. Okay. What's well, we got two people want to talk about old business, so we've never done that before.

You guys mind if we just let him talk? I have no problem with it.

Yeah, probably OK, cool. Under old business. Which we have. Rich Baron would like to speak. Yeah, I guess in regards to last week's annexation.

That's correct. My name is Rich Barron. I represent builders and developers. This is regards to the decision that this board made on Tuesday. we were required by the type two annexation to, uh, conform to seven items, which we did. And I believe that there was paperwork, uh, that went out, was, went through this building Wednesday evening that said that we did, and we met and exceeded those seven items making and denying us because we didn't have any agreement between the city and the township for a TIF. It's not part of that application process. and you heard trustee from amherst say that there was a discussion with the city of valeria that they wanted a hundred percent 30-year tiff and since then we found out from two other people in the room that wasn't discussed but we still went back and asked them to go 50 if they would look at it and they agreed to do that in writing I then found out last night late from the mayor of Elyria that he actually text a couple of the commissioners and said, if he wanted, they'd pull it off the table. But again, the tip isn't part of the request or isn't part of your approval process. They also talked about roadways and dollars. things that again we will discuss with the township and the city if this goes further even though we'd be in the city of valeria we'll still include the township and they are included because they're part of the the land stays with them in this type of annexation but there were comments made that aren't relative and you turn it down based upon things that weren't relative to that statute so i'm here requesting that you do a reconsideration of of what was done and what was said and possibly bring that to a vote

thank you thank you thank you gerald phillips also rich you put down you want to talk in public comment too rich at the end did you want to talk again at the end of the meeting uh can you leave me on that yeah yeah okay I missed it on Tuesday when Mr. Phillips came up. I guess I missed it after I adjourned the meeting. So I'm sure he wants to do a replay.

Well, that's it. Because my comments aren't on the record, so I want them on the record, okay? Correct.

Go ahead, Gerald.

And I talked about the annexation number two, and I indicated that you don't have any discretion. And during that discussion on Tuesday, you were talking about $90, about quid pro quo, negotiating service, and who's going to maintain the road, and tax dollars. Those aren't factors. You guys had no right to consider that. And your own prosecutor's office, Lee Pugh, indicated that they met the requirements of having a legal description conform to the map. Those were her words. Also, your own county engineer reviewed and approved the legal. They have to approve legals whenever there's a transfer. So Mr. Neal Lynch making a statement that they didn't comply with the first requirement, okay, of 709231 is totally inaccurate. And at the same time, Representing the township is the prosecutor's office, and representing the commissioners is the prosecutor's office. Last time I checked the Ohio Rules of Professional Conduct, I can't represent two clients at the same time in an adversary situation. So I don't even know how you could even do that. Also, the issue about the road, all right? That road's not divided. It stopped at the end. Those roads are maintained by the entity who owns them, the township and the county. What you wanted to do was go to the middle and split it. Then you would have a problem of two entities maintaining the road. So what, we're going to have to plow one side of the street and one on the other? That's absurd to do that. Also, they met the conditions. So if you don't reverse it, they can go to the court and sue you for writ of mandamus. And I think at this point, you've got enough legal fees to argue about. So I do hope, based on what Mr. Barron says, that you reconsider it, because then you'll comply with the law.

Thanks, Gerald.

Thanks.

Custom to hear an applause after people die.

Any other old business that we'd like to bring up, commissioners? Mr. President?

Yes, I would like to bring up under old business the very issue that we just heard When we met on Tuesday, the scope of our review is very ministerial. It's just to make sure that the boxes are checked and so forth. And we got involved in a lot of ancillary conversation. I think that's appropriate. I think that shows that the board is interested in making sure that things are not only correct, but that they're just. And there was some information that was given by both parties that contradicted. and as usual to our process we take the time and we go find out if that information is correct or if neither is correct and in this particular case the the information the opinion of the of the township turned out to be a little you know a little slanted and the both the engineer and the auditor's office agreed that the paperwork was in order And so I would ask that we put this back on the table and that we vote to rescind what we did on Tuesday and revote with new conversation. If that, in fact, if it needs to be approved, then we approve it. A process is a little cumbersome, but sometimes that's what it's like when you make sausage. So I'd like I'd like the Mr President. I'd like to. I'd like to suggest make a motion that we rescind the the vote of Tuesday.

I'd like to comment on that though. We have a motion on the floor of the motion OK.

So if you want to discuss it, you can second it and we can have that discussion. So moved. No, he made the motion, so you're seconding it?

Seconding it.

Discussion? Yes.

No, you got to call the roll. He made a motion, he's seconding it to rescind.

No, but there's a discussion point, right? Yeah. Oh, yeah.

Sorry. Yep. Marty's right. Sorry, I'm fighting a 24-hour cold. That's kicking my butt.

So, yes, there is a motion and a second. Now there's discussion.

Okay, Marty. I disagree with all the criteria being met. There's issues with the land and the parcel. There's a little square that's in an area that's not included in it that's part of the parcel. Furthermore, those other items should be addressed, not have to be. And I get that. And as a commissioner, could be a lawsuit either way i'm looking at it there's going to be a lawsuit either way if they shut down the road if you shut down the road and say we're just not going to do it the township does now what do you do i think it's more importantly that you do the right thing the right thing is sit down and come up with an agreement the township wants to annex is the way it sounds to me. You guys want to annex. Come up with the right deal so that it can be done. Fix that parcel issue that there is. There is an issue there. It's not 100% accurate. As far as I'm concerned, I don't like this deal. It's a dirty deal. The mayor should be part of this. There's no testimony from the mayor. This is not what we do for the public. It's not what we do. We try and work things out. And that's the way I feel about it.

well this was a petitioner who was asking out the city this was a um so it really um to me i go right back to issue number that number six number seven and which means number one wasn't fulfilled or or there's issues with it so i agree six seven and one with the issues i had we did discuss other issues involved in that which is what happens when you have a discussion it doesn't have to be to the fact i'm going to reiterate again that i believe this should be in front of a judge not in front of three elected officials i think it should be in front of an elected judge that's where it should be but again that's how the state of ohio made it happen and that's how it's going to be so Commissioner Waddell, would you like to add?

I just believe that we've completed the task that we were given. It's not a vote on whether annexation is good or bad for either party. It's not a vote on maintenance agreements because the statute calls for those to be worked out after the annexation. And I fully understand the fears and concerns of Amherst Township in this part of the process. However, this has been going on for... Today is like day 38 since we took the motion to put this on the calendar, and there's been 38 days for somebody to work out an agreement, and I think we have to go on the... you know that's not our concern on this annexation issue but as i said on tuesday i would like to believe that the city and the township and the best interests of the community will get together and do the right thing but that's not the purpose of of this particular action correct This is the action of a developer wanting to change the jurisdiction of the land he's developing for whatever reasons that are appropriate to his business plan. And Lyria has services to deliver that Amherst Township cannot. And that's why we have an annexation procedure. I just want to reiterate this has nothing to do with anything else except the developer wanting to get City of Elyria services. And I think he's complied.

Anybody have anything to add? Or no? No? Okay. Okay. So there's a motion on the floor regarding to repeal Tuesday's vote.

Correct.

If that happens, then we'd have to do another motion in order to pass a corrected version, correct?

Correct.

Okay. Mr. Riddell?

Aye.

Mr. Gallagher?

Present. Oh.

Mr. Moore? Aye.

No. That's it move on.

Is there anything else on there?

You look, that's all my old meetings or what?

I need more time, OK?

OK. More business.

Okay. We're business number nine and earning green with Ohio department of health for the tuberculosis reimbursement funding in the amount of $3,502 and 22 cents per TV case meeting treatment standards for 2026.

Move to approve. Second.

Discussion? Mr. Moore? Aye. Mr. Riddell?

Aye.

Mr. Gallagher? Aye. 10, enter an elevator maintenance agreement with Mosley Elevator Middleburg Heights in the amount of not to exceed $48,300 annually for the elevator maintenance and repair service contract. Forbids were received as being the most complying with specifications for the seven county buildings and will be paid from the contractual purchase service account.

Move to approve.

Second.

Discussion? Commissioner Moore? Aye. Commissioner Riddell? Aye. Commissioner Gallagher? Aye. 11, approve an interim cooperation agreement with Village of LaGrange to facilitate their ability to utilize multi-agency radio communication system. County will provide the Village of LaGrange with a loan in the amount of $78,898.02 to purchase radios and equipment, and loan is to be repaid to the county within two years of the receipt of the funding and shall be interest-free, which will be paid from the commissioner's other expenses account.

Move to approve.

Second. Discussion.

Yes, we have the sheriff here today to discuss item number 11. So what? Oh, okay. Sorry.

Thank you.

Good morning.

Good morning, sir. How are you doing today? Good. The commissioners, as the sheriff of Lorain County, Jack Hall, 9896 Murray Ridge Road, Elyria, Ohio. Put that formally on the record. I had conversations with the LaGrange police chief, Mark Lobenthal, yesterday to advise him that I would be up here to address the board on this specific issue. I certainly appreciate and understand the Board's intention of providing a loan to the Village of LaGrange for nearly $79,000 to purchase MARC radios. However, in a discussion point that I'll be bringing up when my agenda item hits the itinerary later today, there's a difference between Ohio Revised Code provisions of shall and may. In regards to this, the Lorain County Sheriff shall provide the protection of the Lorain County Courthouse, the courts, the judges, the plaintiffs, the defendants, the visitors, the attorneys who appear and work in that building every day, including the clerk of court's office, the prosecutor's office, and the security of that building. This board has embarked on a very large project of incorporating the Marks radio system in Lorain County as a public safety radio communication system in Lorain County. With that, that project is nearly finished, but left alone right now and unfunded is a $90,000 cost to put bidirectional amplifiers within the Lorain County Justice Center to allow my deputies to protect that courthouse, the court personnel, and all the employees that are in it. I object to number 11 as I see this as a function of the Board of Commissioners as may provide funding to the Village of LaGrange for nearly $79,000 when we have a shell request and a project of $90,000 to finish. the dedication and application and installation of the MARCS radio system within the Lorain County Justice Center and to provide the needs of what my mandate is under state law to provide those protections of that courthouse. My objection is providing nearly $79,000 to the Village of LaGrange without first appropriating the $90,000 which is required to finish the radio communication systems within the Justice Center. That's my public comment. If there's any questions, I'll entertain them, but otherwise I'll return.

Okay, thanks. Thanks. Thank you. Go next.

Yes, commissioners. To support the sheriff here, we do have five weekly meetings with MCM, our consultant for the radio teleprompter. And as recently as this week, we had the discussion with regards to BDAs for the Justice Center to give a little history on this. When this project was initiated, Sheriff Stimetti at the time did not see the need for BDA in the Justice Center. So, there were some accommodations made with a lesser way of being able to boost the signal in the Justice Center. The $89,000 that the Sheriff references is something that I initially thought that he was going to try to find funding for, at least some funding for. In order to cooperate and try to bring this to a conclusion, I have requested that we apply for some grant fundings to cover the cost of that. That does not mean that we're not going to go ahead and install the system that Sheriff Stametti had agreed to. It's just going to give us a little bit more time to find the funding that we would need to boost the signal with a BDA.

Thank you.

Yeah, but didn't they go through the whole county and BDAs for all the buildings?

Not all the buildings. There were tests that were done. And they had to determine which buildings needed BDAs. And the majority of them were schools. So the BDAs have not all been installed. All the wiring, I think, is close to being completed. But it's the part of the process where now we're hoping to get them all installed before school started. But obviously, that hasn't happened. So the BDA part of the project is still ongoing.

That's countywide with all the buildings?

The schools that need the BDAs, yes.

OK. But worst case scenario, we can come up with the $90,000 to do the Justice Center, right?

What do you think about that, Casey? Can we advance it? Depends on what we come up with in executive session today. I'm pretty confident we can get a grant for this. So I'm twisting Casey's arm over here, and he says that we could probably advance it and then be reimbursed.

Well, that's what I would like to do. If that's what's holding this up, then I'd like to at least get an advance and get that done over at the Justice Center.

I just have a question, though. You mentioned that Sheriff's Dometi at the time gave his opinion of what the building needed. Did the, did the Motorola decision, did they agree or disagree with that decision?

They agreed with the decision. Um, but at the time there wasn't as much activity at the justice center. I think under sheriff hall, um, his folks are more active and participating in the building security at the justice center. And I could see where the need would be there.

Okay. And I do believe that the contract with Motorola requires that they determine certain BDAs, and that was included in their bid. And that if other BDAs are determined to be needed...

that would be an extra that the county would pay per the contract with motorola yes that is correct so they did i mean they they did focus on the schools because a lot of the schools probably should have been built with a bda for whatever reason they were not uh so and i can't remember if there was seven maybe seven schools sheriff i think throughout the county that needed the BDA. So the BDA allowance was absorbed by those locations, which left us with a hole for the Justice Center.

Okay, but there's a process in place is what I'm saying. So the sheriff's concerns are, you know, it's nice to have the conversation so the public knows that things are going to be taken care of, but there's already a process in place to do that.

Yes, sir.

Very good.

Is there anything further? Mr. Moore? Aye. Commissioner Riddell? Aye. Commissioner Gallagher? Aye. Community Development 12, approve and enter in agreement with Neighborhood Alliance the amount of $97,200 for the Meals on Wheels program funded by the program year 25 Community Development Block Grant, and this will be paid from the contract services account.

Move to approve.

Second.

Discussion?

Did you want to discuss this, Carmen, or no? Did you have anything to add?

Good morning, Commissioners. Thank you very much for requesting that I address this issue, this contract. Meals and Wheels is a very important part of our CDBG program. We've been funding this for a number of years now, and with our a PY25 grant, Meals and Wheels was contemplated as part of that grant. So this is just doing the formal contract award to Neighborhood Alliance. They serve approximately 55,000 meals to our residents on an annual basis. to some 267 individuals. And that's roughly about four meals per person per week over that period of time.

It's my understanding that there was 32, is it 32 organizations that were approving this for? Or all the communities? I was informed that all the communities are benefiting from this because this was passed in 2025. Yes. So the next round in two years, only those that have opted in, I understand, will be benefiting from this program? right uh yeah you you're referencing uh the urban county um designation right and designation i just wanted i just wanted to point that out yes so two years from now when people start yelling and screaming well yeah it doesn't mean people aren't going to get food it just means not as much that's my understanding what i was told to me

That is possible, but we still will be working through the mechanics of that in the future. But the urban county funding will not be able to go to non-participating communities.

Correct. Doesn't mean Neighborhood Alliance won't be. It just means that we won't be able to allow some of that funding to help assist them like today.

Correct. How many years has this program been going on?

Very good question. I'm not certain of that, but to the best of my knowledge, we've been doing Meals on Wheels for more than 10 years.

And the CBDG is what I'm referencing, which would be part of the urban county.

Right. Well, CDBG has been around for quite some time, decades. We've been doing this for decades. Yeah, I heard it was close to 50, 50 years.

That's what I'm getting at. This is a program that's existing.

Yes. It celebrated its 50th, I think, last year. Great. Thank you. So the public knows.

Is there anything further? Mr. Moore? Aye. Mr. Gallagher? Aye. Mr. Riddell?

Aye. At 13, we're going to hold. Okay. The county interim administrator advised me that the company hasn't signed it yet, so we're waiting on it, right? Wait on the signature? Right.

Okay.

Okay. Thanks, Carmen.

Under Stormwater 14, proposed Loring County Stormwater Management Drainage District improvement to be constructed within the drainage district for Ludwig Ditch, New Russia Township. Hearing will be held Tuesday, October 13, 2026 at 4.30 p.m.

Move to approve. Second.

Discussion. Mr. Moore.

Aye.

Mr. Riddell.

Aye.

Mr. Gallagher. Aye. Children's Services 15 authorized to send various personnel in the Children's Services Department to utilize the agency's MasterCard for the year 2026, not to exceed $2,500, in compliance with the Ohio Rise Code 301.27 and their permissible policy.

Move to approve. Second.

Discussion. Commissioner Gallagher? Aye. Commissioner Moore?

Aye. Commissioner Riddell? Aye.

Domestic Relations 16, approve and enter an operating agreement between the Board of Commissioners and Aramark Correctional Services, LLC, Pennsylvania to provide food service for the detention home and facilities complex. This agreement is effective for one year, retroactive to July 1, 26, and ending June 30, 27. with four one-year renewals and contains a 60-day ring cancellation clause. The meal price is determined by the market basket CPI and will be paid from the contract services account.

So moved. Second.

Discussion? Mr. Riddell? Aye. Mr. Moore? Aye. Mr. Gallagher? Aye.

Ms. Perkins? Yes, I do want to at least draw attention to item number three under board correspondence, which outlines the HR department's county employees wellness fairs, which will be held on September 10th from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. here in the county administration building, meeting room B, I believe, and then a second fair September 15th from 6 to 8 p.m. at Marie Ridge School. So this gives the employees and our other participants in our an opportunity to meet the vendors and talk to folks about the changes in the upcoming health care benefits. And that completes my update.

So has that notice gone also to townships and other people that are in our plan?

Yes, sir. So all the outside entities and including the the townships, and all the employees, generally through the payroll clerks, but you'll also notice there's been some posters that have been put up in the building as well, trying to get the word out to as many of the employees as we can.

I look forward to hearing how well that was accepted.

It is the it is a first so attendance will be hopefully it'll be good. We're positive that the information that they can get if they come to the wellness fair will be better for the employees in order to make a good decision on how to move forward with their health care plans. And that concludes my update. Thanks. Thank you.

I have nothing more correspondence.

We have the reading of the board correspondence. Second.

Discussion. Mr. Moore? Aye. Mr. Riddell? Aye. Mr. Gallagher? Aye. New business. Request by sheriff to discuss his budget.

Good morning, Sheriff. Thanks, Tony. Thanks, Tony. Oh, thank you. I forgot about that.

Good morning. Good morning, commissioners. How are you this morning?

Good. Good. How are you?

I'm well, thank you. Myself and Chief Zach appreciate the opportunity to be placed on the agenda this morning to discuss our budget. I would like to start off by saying that I certainly respect the board in its exercising of its appropriation authority as which is required under Ohio law. However, we're here on somewhat tumultuous situation in regarding to correspondence that I've received, particularly from Commissioner Riddell, in regards to our budget of emails that have gone back and forth between the commissioners and my office over the course of the last couple weeks. Words such as embarrassment, disdain, which is used in those correspondences in order to discuss what we believe and disagree in regards to the budgeting process by the Board of County Commissioners and the Lorain County Sheriff's Office. As I was allowed to come up to speak and during the public comment on item number 11, we had talked about and I said I would discuss the issues regarding what the Ohio Revised Code allows for shall and may by the Board of County Commissioners. In regards to the budget, Commissioner Riddell and I have had many conversations going back and forth over the course of the last year since this board took the opportunity to approve the 2026 budget in December of 2025, and that was an appropriation which set aside two specific items. Number one, the personal items, which included salaries, benefits, et cetera, of the employees of Lorain County Sheriff's Office, and the well-known category of other, which was appropriated by the commissioners. Would like to remind the commissioners and in case I do have two books which are sitting on my desk right now here in the room That book is what is called the County Commissioners Association of Ohio handbook many of the arguments that I have raised with this board as I know Commissioner Riddell once also said a convoluted old law in regards to establishing a committee for the construction of a jail or a courthouse and That law is in those books. In regards to how we establish a budget and how we appropriate funds and what we shall pay for and what we may pay for is covered in those books. I read those books, gentlemen, to make sure that we are following all the appropriate procedures and processes. There's over 130 chapters in that book, one through 69 in the first one and 70 through 130 in the second one. Myself and the chief deputy know those two books like the back of our hand. In regards to that, we have talked about budget. And in those books, you will also learn, which is established by the O'Hare Vice Code in Chapter 57 of the O'Hare Vice Code, the taxing authority for the county is the Board of Lorain County Commissioners. As the taxing authority, the board establishes appropriations. Also, the board makes other appropriations, which are amended throughout the course of the year. And those appropriations are certified by the auditor. In the course of the budget that was provided at the beginning of the year and approved by the board given to the Lorain County Auditor for certification, one of the things that was drastically missing was appropriations for the Lorain County Jail. And as you are well aware, there's a quarter percent sales tax which is affiliated with the operation and the maintenance of the current jail. And in addition to that, multiple mandatory functions of the Lorain County Sheriff's Office, one of them which I talked about in item 11 earlier today, which was protecting the courthouse and providing security for the courthouse. With that in mind, the chief deputy who runs the budget for the sheriff's office had discussed with this board back in November in regards to the budget that the Lorain County Sheriff's Office would require for 2026. We were also warned by the board in 2025, since that was our first budget year, that 2026 would be a lean year. due to the fact of potential revenues that would be coming into the county, losses, and a matter of fact, you've communicated well to all the departments and offices in regards to making sure that our budgets were as trim as possible. The chief and I reviewed all of those and we presented a budget to this board in November of 2025 with that leniency built into the budget process in regards to focusing on what the shalls of the sheriff's office were and what the board shall provide such funding for the sheriff's office. Commissioner, well, Riddell in particular, I know you and I have had conversations in regards to where our budget was. And a matter of fact, we know that budget was passed for 26 in December of 25. We had met a couple times in January of 26. And the reason why we cannot answer all of your questions is that because by law, we don't have an appropriation fully funding what the shells and the necessities are of the Lorain County Sheriff's Office. And we still do not have that budget to this day. i believe i've come very well prepared today but i may not be totally prepared because we still don't see an appropriation for the lorain county jail that has been passed by resolution which is required by law by the board of county commissioners so therefore we had received email that had gone back and forth in regards to funding and that we had four and a half months to bring into target and that we were invited by commissioner riddell to review the budget numbers and the budget documents for the Lorain County and we did that and again as I said when I had brought up item number 11 on the budget there are things that the commissioners shall pay for and there are things that the commissioners may pay for I also take reference to Commissioner Moore you had brought up item 790 that was brought up earlier today in regards to borrowed funds to purchase land for a sewer treatment plant in I believe that's Brownhound Township Would like to note also that under the Ohio Vice Code, in order for the board to participate in community development and other things like that, the board may participate in those matters. It doesn't say that the board shall participate in those matters. But this board has elected to participate, which is at their discretion to do that. The discretion is a very important word here because discretion is a very distinct identifier in the Ohio Vice Code regarding mandated expenditures and funding and those that are identified as expenditures that may be done because you guys want to do them. They are discretionary spending at that point in time. So in particular, when we had submitted the budget in 2025, we had also done an employment study in regards to our calls for service. This is not preventative patrol, this is the actual calls that our deputy responds to. I had made a mistake over the course of the past couple weeks saying that we were 43 deputies short in responding to our current load that we have right now from the calls coming in. And that number is actually 65 as the chief had reminded me today of this isn't preventative patrol. This is just maintaining the calls for service to respond to the preservation of the peace in the county. So in keeping in mind and in working with the request that you had made as a board of not only my office, but all the other elected officials and the directors of the departments underneath your direction in the county. The chief and I said, what could we do with the absolute minimum? But as you recall, we said we are going to have to address the issue of how this sheriff's office responds. I would like to thank Karen in making the statement that she said in regards to distinguishing between what the last sheriff's administration did and what this sheriff's administration does, making sure that we fulfill our statutory responsibilities to the people of Lorain County. So with that in mind, the chief can go into specific numbers. This meeting can go as long or as short as you would like it. But for the record, as I have specifically requested, I need to ask you for a few very important things. Number one is that I do need a current annual appropriation measure that is certified by the board and that was sent to the county officer and all amendments and supplemental appropriations to the county's auditor's office, which is required by 5705, 39 of the Ohio Revised Code. This will allow the chief and I to go through all of the appropriations, not only of our office, but of the county to be able to look at the distinguishment between the shall expenditures and the may expenditures. And so with that in mind, one of the things that concern me that I wanted to bring to the attention of this particular board today is that this board took action on March 13th of 2026. THAT PARTICULAR ACTION THAT THE BOARD TOOK WAS A RESOLUTION THAT WAS PASSED IN REGARDS TO STORM WATER MANAGEMENT. AND THIS WAS BROUGHT UP BY MR. FROM THE STORM WATER MANAGEMENT FOR LORRAINE COUNTY. And that particular resolution was to be able to lend money to Creekwood Development LLC for facilitating development of necessary public improvements for land near their development in the North Ridgeville, Eaton Township, Columbia Station border area of Route and Sprague Road. In researching that, a $900,000 fund and expenditure was made, and shall I note, interest-free. Gentlemen, we have scrapped, we have cut, we have done everything we can. About 6% on $900,000 is $54,000 in interest that we let go. Creekside Development is a limited liability company whose primary officer is Tom Oster. Mr. Riddell, I think you're familiar with Mr. Oster. And they were given $900,000 interest-free. Now, there's a difference between what the county's money is. Out of the general fund, Mr. Moore made a distinction to make sure that Mr. Saunders updated the report in a loan that we made in regards to the other item that was brought up on the agenda today that came out from a grant or a loan. and not the county general funds. Therefore, in looking at that and as also it being purchase of property and that we were supposed to expedite that purchase of property, a mortgage was filed and recorded with the Lorain County Recorder's Office. Of particular note with that mortgage that was required, according to the resolution, that $900,000 is to be paid back to the county of Lorain by Creekside Development no later than the close of business day Monday, is that they are paid the county back $900,000. As of yesterday, I checked with the auditor's office. There have been no records in the name of Creekside Development. There have been no $900,000 cash-ins, any type of deposits that have been made with the county. So I'm asking the three of you today, are we going to ensure that that $900,000 is going to be reimbursed as was passed by resolution? no later than the end of business day on Monday due to the fact that the recorded document with the Lorain County Recorder's Office conveniently left that blank when they were supposed to return the money. That's 900 grand coming back in into red funds that was borrowed from the state of Ohio, maybe not county general fund money, but still as a taxpayer of the state of Ohio, that's my money, that's the chief's money, that's all the money of everybody that sits in this room today. So therefore, I bring this up because, again, I said this started with a tumultuous email chain going back and forth between myself and Mr. Riddell. I take certain exceptions to that because I see the way the three of you have spent money on the maize that have to be done and not the shells that should be spent. Mr. Riddell, you also started your email off by stating that you were upset that the quarter percent sales tax that was put on as issue one in the prior election did not receive support from my office. My office was the only one engaging in public speaking engagements. My office was the only one going out to meetings to talk about issue one. My corrections officers banded together to make sure that they went door to door. They put in signs. They put up billboards. They talked to the community. And a matter of fact, though, it was generally myself, a few corrections officers, and very generously yourself, Mr. Riddell, that supported the Issue 1 initiative when we were attempting to pass that quarter percent sales tax. So when I look at these issues in regards to why Issue 1 didn't pass, it comes down to the fact is that we heard from many of the voters that they look at how the money is being spent in Lorain County. And many people have told us, Sheriff, we love what the office is doing, but we don't trust Lorain County commissioners. gentlemen when i look at these expenditures that have been made by this board over the course of the last year especially when every department and office in this county was asked by the three of you to tighten our belts and to make sure that we fit within the appropriations it disturbs me and i share that sentiment with the voters of their trust of what happened with the expenditures of the money in the budget so therefore what we will be providing after today is written correspondence to the board of a very succinct line item request of our budget being fulfilled as we had submitted it in november of 2025. you will get that probably by wednesday or thursday at the latest of next week to make that former appropriation if you wish to discuss any of them now in regards to what the statutory duties and requirements are of the sheriff I'm sure myself and the Chief Deputy will be more than happy to answer any of those questions, but you may want to wait until we give it to you in writing so you have the opportunity to digest it. Either way, we're prepared to do either. That's our statement we have under new business at this time, and I welcome any interaction with the three of you.

May I? Yeah. Okay. I appreciate that, Sheriff, that... Not always are our email exchanges cordial. However, to address a couple of things, as long as we both have the public microphone, I didn't assign blame for what happened with the lease cars, but it was embarrassing for everybody in Lorain County. Every citizen, every public official, and certainly your office and my office should be embarrassed over that kind of a lapse of operational success. Secondly, I want to take off the table, you know, issue one is a dead horse. If you say your staff did all that stuff, that's fine. But we established a fund. I contributed to it. And the fund was supposed to grow and it was supposed to take payroll deduction. It was supposed to do a lot of things so that we could get the word out to the people. So I apologize, but I got no report from the sheriff's office on how many sheriffs went out, how many deputies went out, how many houses they called on, what they did. All I know is what we didn't do that is normally done in a successful levy campaign. But the community spoke. So 70-30 and not passing in any precinct, not one, not the one you live in, not the one I live in, no precinct passed. We take that, we took that information and went into all the requests in November for the budget, and we pulled that back and said, and everybody came in, including yourselves, voluntarily, here's what we can do. you know i took it i i regret using the word easily but i'll use word voluntarily we could do this after those voluntary budgets were presented by all of the other officials and departments we were still we were still short revenue and we had to make adjustments and i believe that i believe that's what we were expected to do So as we go forward, I've sent several emails out during the year taking personal responsibility for seeing to it that expenditures stay on track so that we don't end up with a crisis at the end of the year as we did last year. And in this case, I believe that the crisis could be much larger than a $13,000 lease car payment. So as we do that, We've been monitoring the revenues and the expenses and the budgets that we did pass. And I understand that there's a discrepancy between the budget you asked for and the budget that we passed. And we made it clear at that time we had to get within our revenue. And you're not the only department that received a budget cut. However, we felt it was reasonable in that when you came to office and you discovered the ineptitude of the previous sheriff's administration and you worked overtime, both of you who are standing here today, to correct those things, and I think the sentiment of the Board of Commissioners was well taken when you came in and asked for $600,000 in order to pick up the bills for some things that the previous sheriff had neglected to include in the budget. So in the year 2025, we gave you everything you needed to clean house. At the end of 25, we said, okay, here's where we were for the 25 budget. Here's what we think we have available for 26. And at the end of the day, we've been monitoring that all year long, trying to see to it that we don't have problems at the end of the year because we know that it was a sizable, and we stuck our necks out. The auditor gave us an estimate of $86 million. The request for $94 million. This board agreed to, on a leap of faith, that the economy would be robust enough to do so. We approved a $90 million budget. As to the cuts in the sheriff's office, we also indicated at the time that one of the issues that concerned us was how much work was left to be done to get things in line in that the sheriff's budget, not the tax, the sales tax, quarter percent, has a little growth in it when the economy is up, it has a little growth of its own in it. But from the general fund, We have to look at what we're doing and monitor sales tax, revenue from transfers, real estate taxes, all that kind of stuff. And the sheriff's budget had grown under Sheriff's Dometi from about 12% of the general fund budget to 21%, excuse me, about 15% of the general fund budget to 21% in a short number of years. And it was our expectation that you would continue to go back to the table and figure out how to get that kind of growth stopped. And we discussed that at our January meeting. We didn't sit down and it's not our business to take a look at your line items except that whatever the auditor has in the account, we can look at the history and see which line items are being overspent and which ones aren't. But how much money goes into each of those line items is not the duty of the commissioners. It's the duty of the elected official. And so all we kept asking for was, we're cutting this much money, and where do you want to take it from so that we can monitor it? We never got those numbers. All we got was, no, the budget we gave you is what we want. And I'm trying to avoid a problem at the end of the year because if it comes to the end of the year and revenue doesn't grow enough to be able to return some of those cuts to some of the departments, we have to stay with the budget we have. And you're currently about 4% over where you should be at the end of seven months. We have end of July is the last is the last full month that we have meetings for and all we're saying is how are we going to get that back in? That was the purpose of the letter was to avoid another embarrassment getting to the month of December and not having money to cover the bills that need to be killed. So that's my response and I appreciate it and I would agree with the community. This is not about the work of you and the staff in the community. The significant improvements are unquestioned. This is merely about the expenditures and the budget. And we have a role to play in that. And while you may think that all of them are, are shells and none of them are maze, I would, I would say present that to us because that's not, that's not the information we get from that same CCL handbook, which says, for instance, you get to run the jail with the amount of money we appropriate. And, and, There are, there are other duties. You have, you don't have a duty to road patrol, but you do have a duty to respond. We're not getting involved in how you manage the staff on a day-to-day basis, except that we can afford this much. We don't print money and we can't run a deficit. Thank you.

May I respond, Mr. President?

Yeah.

OK. Mr. Riddell, I appreciate that. And as I said in the beginning when we opened this, that this office particularly recognizes the authority of this board to appropriate the funding for the budget. To address a few of the issues in regards to the lease, lease payments are made monthly. And we had nothing in January to show that there was an appropriation for the lease. We just had a category that said other. And we had shown nothing. in a line item amount until literally the day of that issue had taken place in January that there was a deposit or a transfer of funds that had taken place within Oracle to pay for that. We appreciate things like the $600,000 and the other amounts of money that have been used to be able to make up shortfalls, those particularly with the jail last year. And again, when we talk about maize and shells, that is a shell. And there are other issues, too, that when we have to transport inmates to another county jail, for example, that is a shell that has been supported by this county prosecutor's office. It's been supported by the Ohio attorney general and opinion of ours that those bills are the responsibility of the commissioners however i also take it as the responsibility of my office and the chief deputy takes it very seriously that we are managing our money in the best way that we can with that though also i would like to remind the board that this office had also used restricted funds seized assets and monies from people who have committed crimes and that the court has ordered monies deposited into restricted funds that we have i think we have utilized more restricted funds and we have actually come to this board because you had a duty and shall pay for a b c and d we had to come to the board legally to say even though you shall do it we can take this burden off of you and you had to pass a resolution to do that in order for us to use the restricted funds when we talk about the growth and when you had had that conversation in january in regards to where we could cut back Well, we are significantly under of committing and fulfilling our statutory obligations right now. But the chief and I are attempting to curb that growth. The men and women that work for the Lorain County Sheriff's Office right now, both in corrections, road patrol, civil courts administration. We have a lot of people that are working beyond their capabilities and we've expanded what even thought they could do to make sure that we could fit into the budget that this board has allocated in order for us to serve the 323,000 residents of Lorain County the one thing though Mr. Riddell I will challenge you on though is when we talk about individual line items the Chief and I will be happy to go over that you're right we don't have to break down every single line item But there are specific statutory line items that we have to bring before this board in which we've had these discussions that we saw no appropriations for that you do by law have to appropriate when it comes to the specific functions of the sheriff's office. and we have just recently been meeting with kc saunders and his staff to be able to do that to be able to make sure that we have the actual appropriate uh either amendments to appropriations that were done at the beginning of the year but under the 57 chapter the revised code there are very specific things such as the jail the carrying concealed weapons fund the sex offenders registrations and things like that, which was all included in the chief spreadsheet and budget request when we had brought that forward in November of 2025. Again, I apologize if we assumed that you knew that that was supposed to be done or in there. We have come to realize that We've had to have stronger communications with Mr. Saunders' office to be able to do that, but we have had the numbers the whole time, and we've had those documented on the spreadsheet of what the responsibility of this board was to make sure that the appropriations were made. Again, we do not take away from you the authority of this board of what the amount of money is. But also you put a challenge out to us and we'll we'll take up the challenge. Mr Riddell We will go through the maze and we will put that list together for you in regards to The other spending that was done in the County of the Chief and I do that on a weekly basis So, thank you very much.

You're welcome And and we do as I said with the budget, you know, we're monitoring this we're not trying to be punitive in any way shape or form and But I look forward to a spirited conversation over what you believe is a shall and a may and what we believe is a shall and a may. And hopefully we can come to a resolution so that, you know, and we have used that in other budgets. And we thought we had yours right. maybe we didn't but I would also for the record you know I started I started you know this conversation in May looking as we approached the first half of the year completion and the trends we were on I thought that was my duty not to just sit here in December at the end and say yep I knew it was going to happen and and to sound the bell and and and I appreciate that you didn't like the budget we had versus the budget you requested, but by the time I sounded the first bell in May, we had already had five months, and spending would indicate that we were over the budget we approved, which is our job, and if there was a conversation about the budget, this conversation could have occurred between January and May.

And in regards to that spirited conversation, we shall have that.

Thank you for taking the time and also for cooperating by making this a public conversation. Thank you. Thank you.

Well, I do respect your operational independence, but not your financial independence. just to put everybody on notice county-wide there's about not only yours but three other elected officials or departments offices depending on what you want to define that are also over budget the sheriff had a robust conversation with emails with jeff and they both agreed that we should do this in the public arena which is fine But looking at the numbers, it will force us for next year not to do an annual appropriation. We will do a quarterly for next year so that in December of next year or in August of this next year, we're not sitting here screaming and figuring out how to make payroll. It looks like we'll be going into executive session to discuss certain issues and regarding funding and money and lawsuits and all that kind of stuff. to see how are we going to move forward and how are we going to make ends meet. The people continue to speak that they don't want any more taxes. I still think the property tax issue is going to be an issue. It's going to hurt all of us. I was hoping, working with you, you and I went to the Tea Party, and we even had a 71% approval rating at the Tea Party when we went there and discussed the sales tax. I was shocked at how bad it got beat down, but... i think it was the appropriate decision on your office and ours to not put the sales tax on for the jail and maybe let the people get a little bit more educated than that not educated i should say um yeah i'll just advise them comfortable so that they feel comfortable with where the money's going i hope that i hope that happens um So who knows? We really don't know what next year's going to be, but it looks like I believe they're going to have the signatures. But that's a debate for next year. But for December of this year, I expect to do quarterlies, not annuals. And I expect to be sued some more from the judges. I expect to be sued by other elected officials. But right now, out of the... There's four that are over budget, and I appreciate you coming in in the public arena and doing it instead of talking to us behind the scenes. Unfortunately, the judges have the power to take. And unfortunately, that's what we're up against. And when they take from us, that means they're taking from someone else. And we're going to have to figure out who that person or that elected officials we're going to have to reduce. So I've said it before, and I said it's going to get uglier and uglier unless some other form of funding comes up where our economy takes off. How's our economy going to take off? And that's through development, through wastewater treatment plants, bringing businesses here bringing homes new families and new businesses i'm telling you right now that's since the people say no to sales tax no to taxes then that leaves us with one option that's to grow our economy grow our base get more people to live here so that we can make more money off the sales tax of property tax and etc and more jobs and that's kind of what we're focused on right now I have to correct Commissioner Riddell. You said it was 15. It was basically the general fund, which is what funds like if you're short on the jail or anywhere else, we use our general fund. Casey was supposed to give me that paper and I don't have it in front of me. He only gave me the other two. So but the history shows 15% of the general fund would go to your office. That's what history shows. And then it was what last you got it right there. I don't know if you'd like to get a copy. You might want to get a copy of it if you don't have it.

Oh, you got it?

Casey's got a copy of it for you. Dave, if you want to get a copy of it. Okay. It's like it jumped up 6%. Well, in the last two years it's jumped 6%. Well, 6% of $90 million is quite a bit. Am I wrong on those numbers or no? Because I trust your numbers. Well, if you look back at it, $1.8 million was removed from that budget that was actually No, no, no, I'm just talking about percentages, 15%. Yeah. So the 3% from the first year and the budget that we gave you was a 3% increase, which is less than I believe is counting why it's been given to most employees. What am I looking at that? I'm looking at the actual cost of the general fund going from us to you. That's all I was looking at. The actual... No, no, no, no, no, no. I'm just trying to take a look at everyone's financial history since 2018 and how much of the general fund are they using. Because really, the general fund back then was $78 million. Now it's like $90 plus. So the only way to actually analyze is to take a look how much was the actual cost on an annual basis was being used from general fund to there. And it's like, even though it's up about $5.8 million, it's really, you're only short about $2 million that we think unless we work this thing out, OK? So that's what I'm doing. I'm trying, okay, even though, which means, you know, some of the inflationary numbers, everything else is all in there, but we're still, we're just still trying to crunch those numbers. I'm glad we're doing it today instead of December 10th, you know?

Yeah, I think so.

Yeah. I mean, Cuyahoga County, I mean, it's not just Lorain County. It isn't just us. It's statewide. Every county's, I mean, and the problem with Cleveland, they have an elected executive who's pretty much telling everybody he's going to cut all the departments and all the offices, he's going to cut everybody. Well, he doesn't have the authority to do that, and certain elected officials have a, they just, judges are great. They just go, you know, I want some more money. Take it. And then we have to deal with it. And so we're trying to fight for the taxpayers. The turning point issue has gotten way out of hand. It's going to cost just as much money to fight it than they could have got funding on it. And at the end of the day, they're suing us, but we get blamed for it. And all we're doing is trying to watch the dollars. That's it. You know, and I'm glad you guys came in in public. I do. I do prefer public discussions, you know, and I do appreciate you coming in a fair week. I know it's tough. You guys are doing a great job out there. You're everywhere. And I know it's tough for you to come in.

So we do appreciate the announcement of the quarterly just as probably the prosecutor's office or maybe Mr. Saunders is. Can tell you is is that we appreciate that because that creates a legal mandate that 30 days prior to any changes in assessments For that are going to be made that that has to be discussed with the office holder So we welcome that since that's the legal requirement to do that.

So the only problem with the quarterly is that Not everybody's expenses occur at 8% per month for 12 months. There are times that expenses for software, licenses, all those kinds of things. So there is a little bit of hardship that comes with a quarterly budget because your expenses for the year may be loaded more into that quarter than they are the other quarters. So that creates some hard work.

thought in july you guys have more expenses because people cash in more that's compensatory time yeah right right so i don't know if that that's why i didn't know if that if that's what happened or not that's why i was part of why right but um commissioner riddell to address that i should be able to um anticipate when those bills come because of last year's bills so i should be able to bring to you in every quarter

what that's going to cost. So if you're keeping track of your budget, you're definitely aware of, I know that the software for this is due in June. I know the software for this is due in April, et cetera. So you should have that in front of you. And it may not be the same number every time. And that's because of those anticipatory assessments.

I agree. And in response to your thing, we understand that everybody for their 26 budget, even though our goal was to keep it flat, that raises were already counted in, okay? But you control the number of people. The contract controls the raise. We control the total number of dollars. And if it is necessary to trim staff to make budget, that's under your control to do so. And so the mays and the shalls are, it's not as simple as everybody thinks it is because you may have the number of people that you have, it's not a shall to have the number of people that you have. And so at the end of the day, Just a little heads up, 27 is looking just about as flat as 26 did, and we've got another round of raises to come up, and we've got to learn how to deal with those raises while, in my world, the price of the finished product isn't going up, but my costs are going up. I've got to look at other avenues to meet that budget. So I appreciate what you were saying, and I hope that... we still can get where we need to go by the end of the year because quite frankly we don't have other places to get money for and we're we're resisting those efforts there are a number of departments that have said well this came up and i need to do this or you cut this and i need it back and the reality is is that the budget is the budget and to give you more money at this point in the game we would have to take it from somewhere else and that's a decision that we were trying hard not to do, especially when your budget is total with the jail. I realize sales tax is part of that. But your total taxpayer dollars are $30 million, of which about $17 or $18 million is general fund, making you one of the largest pieces. And it's our general opinion at the board that trying trying to take $200,000 out of somebody who has a million and a half dollar budget is more perilous to their mission than taking that million dollars out of a $30 million budget. So that's the rationale for how we got here. And and I look forward to the months going ahead. But again, Good job with what you're doing. I hear good remarks everywhere. Thank you.

I want to have a little bit of a comment. One of the things, and I'll make it brief, with our budget cuts, wouldn't have these conversations like we are right now the taxpayers spoke they don't want to give us more money we have to live within our means and you know if it comes down to letting things uh go a little longer in some cases like for example um uh I if I have a uniform and you can't replace them as often, you know, I'm not saying that specific to you guys I'm just saying something like that or you might run a tire longer on a bicycle if you were to say or a car but Instead of replacing that 80% you might go to 70 when the law says 60 I'm not saying to break any rules that would be Catastrophic, but we have to really look at our budgets and what we're spending them on and it's not to you, it's to everybody in this county. And for us to have to cut it, you know, an $11 million budget, it's just a percentage gain at that point. If we have an 80%, budget compared to last year we got to cut twenty and it's going to have to be unilaterally and find ways to do it we are here as commissioners uh... you know we're doing health care to save us money uh... these things don't come out uh... we're we're changing the health care to standards in the state we have a gold gold play uh... pattern uh... health care coverage or i'm sorry a diamond and we're going down to a gold standard uh... which is very good very good health benefits you start looking at that we're looking at prescription drugs we're looking at our expenses internally we made budget cuts it really comes down to is we all are in this together and i'm not going to blame anyone out here for our budget cuts i'm not going to blame them and uh to be attacked for it that's what's going that's what's naturally going to happen because we're controlling the the money and uh hopefully you guys can understand it this is nothing personal but if we were flush with money we'd be there you know shelling it out to the areas that we need improvement. And safety forces is one of them. I can say that. I've campaigned on it. Safety forces are very important. Just all I ask you is look internally and see where you can save, where you don't need this rather than the shall or may. And it's not even the shall or may. In some of the shalls, we can find better ways to save money. That's what it really comes down to. more efficient with it. Rebid out contractors that we've been using. If you see it in the meetings here, I'm constantly going after contractors. And I believe you guys are doing it. And I believe it. But we have to do more. And it's an unfortunate thing that I have to say that. Until we get more cash in, then we can go back and we can look at the areas that got cut. You know, these services. And the lawsuits are hurting us. We need to avoid them. And that's what it comes down to. Let's sit at a table and discuss them. That's all I have to say. Thank you.

One last comment because we have the public that wants to be heard from. But you mentioned some other things like buying the land for a sewer plant being a may instead of a shall. But our second duty, Sheriff, is our first duty is balance the budget, live within our means. As part of that budget, we have to invest some money into the future. Because as the Commissioner Moore pointed out, if we're not going to get new money and costs are going to go up, the only way we can serve you and your employees and all the others is to grow the tax base. And growing the tax base will see to it that we get enough money to take care and we don't need this argument going down the road. But to just say all we're going to do is worry about today is very short-sighted. And very early in my career, I attended a seminar and the individual proctoring that seminar said, if you don't spend 10% of your time working on your future, you won't have one.

that's what we do up here so some of those expenditures that you're comparing that you that money should go to you instead serve the greater good of the community of which you're part of are you good are we all good okay thank you thanks um public comment we're going to call up an order this way it speeds it up william zerman then gerald phillips and then brian baker Good afternoon, William. Haven't seen you in a while, so I figured I'd let you go first. Good morning. Good morning. That is morning.

Hold on, I've got to start my timer. I'll start it for you. There you go. This way I can see it. I have one over here that I can see.

Okay. Thank you. Good morning.

So I'd like to talk about a few things. I'd like to thank the sheriff for his wonderful presentation. I thought it was very informative and professionally presented. So I'd also like to talk real quick since Mr. Gallagher was the one bringing up ideas and calling about the annexation, not being ready to move forward and everything. And then you vote with present. You're a coward.

You call me a coward again or anyone to name in here, I'm having you removed. I'm going to have you removed.

My first amendment right allows me to say it.

Mr. Zimmerman? Just understand that. Not to call names. It does.

I can say anything. no you can't no you cannot sheriff can you can you back me on that sheriff i can't remove them for a first amendment thank you you're a coward oh wow so let's go back now to what i really wanted to talk about and that was a billboard i saw of mr ridet he's talking about putting citizens first So are these your supporters and donors that you're worrying about putting them first?

I'm offended at that accusation.

This is not the back and forth.

This is public comment. You are not allowed to... Back and forth.

Robert's rule says there is no back and forth.

I would rather take the fight, Mr. President, over his rejection. He is not allowed to make criminal accusations without basis. Nobody said it was criminal.

All I said was, are these your donors? What was criminal about that?

Because that would... You're ridiculous.

Back and forth. There is no back and forth. Robert's rules. You abided by it and now you don't want to. Let him flatline. Unbelievable. So, again, or are these the JFS people that you don't care about? Because they don't get a dollar raise and can't move forward. And we're still sitting around with people on strike.

are these the people who don't have skin in the game like amherst did it when you made a presentation there okay you got you're pretty much just your two minutes please wrap it up oh i i wait a minute i should have been able to recapture more time because you guys interrupted me the entire time i am okay thank you you're at two two minutes and 15 seconds you're done thank you oh that's mr zimmer or mr phillips would you like to come up gerald or no you guys are nothing but clowns thank you for your honest opinion Sorry Brian should had you gone up here quicker. Sorry for missing that last last Tuesday Gerald.

I didn't see it on there so Gerald Phillips annexation. Section 6 they met. I have a case that says you don't even have to provide any services, so you're wrong. Mr. Gallagher says the map's wrong. Well, he's not an engineer. He's not a surveyor. Your own assistant prosecutor said that was correct. The map and legal description was correct. Your own engineer from the county. So, Mr. Gallagher, you're saying that they're liars or incorrect or incompetent? and you have more knowledge than them, I doubt it. Number seven says, if the road is divided. The road's not divided. So you, once again, you're talking about budgets and you're talking about lawsuits. Now you're getting another lawsuit, okay, when you can avoid it. So when you talk about budgetary control, you know, why don't you, rather than talk the talk, why don't you walk the talk, okay? As far as development, any good planner will tell you residential development doesn't bring any more revenues than the cost of services. So you need to bring in industrial and commercial. I also understand there's a legal opinion from Le Pew that basically says that the annexation met all the conditions. So eventually that opinion will come out. in discovery, in a lawsuit, and when they do get the writ of mandamus, they're gonna make a request for bad faith and recover attorney's fees from the developer, okay? Is that good fiscal management? And I'm making a taxpayer demand on behalf of the taxpayers of Lorain County to have the prosecutor immediately bring legal action to collect the $900,000 that's delinquent. It's overdue, and I expect that demand to be honored. If not, I will bring the taxpayer suit to get the money for the county.

Thanks, Gerald. Brian?

Brian Baker, Brown Home Township. I've heard a lot about the development. And you guys all know I come out of the construction side, so we're very interested in it. So you even talked about the land sale today. So we've spent about five approved or requisitions for about $5.8 million to $6 million on this west side sewage treatment plant. is there any way that we could have someone come in here and give an update on all this i think shook's money is about done the next phase is getting ready to get probably some more done we just talked about i think it i couldn't read it from where i was sitting that probably should have my glasses on 1.4 million or 1.6 for the property that we're going to purchase on sunny side Kay McCartan is about $3.4 million. And then last week, which I will say Karen and Mr. Clyburn did clarify what the, I think it's Chagrin Valley, what we had to do there. And I understand it a little bit better now. It's ODOT property we're trying to do. But I will say there's a lot of misnomers out there. And I would ask that you would at least maybe make a presentation, at least some of these people give us an update here with about $6 million in expenditures. The second one, Dave, you made a comment last week about frivolous lawsuits. The one thing about that is, and I think we've all been in this industry, I've gone through them where I say they're frivolous, but there must be some kind of standing there with the federal judge on these frivolous lawsuits it's been in effect since 2022 we're in 2026 four years down the road federal judges don't work that's you know that well i get it but in all reality is you guys told us numerous times in here we're all going to get dismissed yep and you can go back and you can look in here and we're four years down the road expending a lot of money so when do we cut our losses And what I would say is that's the same example of when you say frivolous, same as make affordable groceries again, and we see how that turned out. So I would just say, you know, we got to be careful what we do, that we're not just going into lawsuits after lawsuits after lawsuits to expend, because I know our insurance only covers up to a certain amount. So with that, I'd say thank you. But I would ask if somehow we could get an update on that to the public, because I think you guys are losing the message out there, because I attended Brownham Township Tuesday night after I left here. People have a whole misnomer about what's going on out there because nobody's telling anybody what's going on. And I would say for your own self, you should start talking to people about it if you want them to trust you. Because right now there's not a lot of trust with what sits on here. Okay, thanks, Brian.

Thanks, Brian. Okay. Here we go. In the future, fill out your forms. If they're not filled out properly, I'm not going to call you up for public comment. Thanks, Brian. Yours was filled out completely. You're the only one. Okay, I make a motion to go into executive session. Second.

Discussion. Oh, wait a minute. I think our form was filled out properly.

Oh, I told you you wanted to come up and talk at, you came in at number 11. yeah i know he did yeah i know he wants but did you want to go oh i'm sorry okay okay i would like to personally thank jack hall for checking every box and and i know he couldn't have done it without his chief i would rather give so we have a first and a second so now we have to retract that no no no all right so jack didn't want to speak he just wanted to be recognized as good as his paperwork yeah

Mr. Moore. Aye. Yeah, he's just making it funny. Aye.

Mr. Riddell.

Aye.

Thank you. Commissioners have reconvened from executive session.

We are adjourned.