By CARL E. FEATHER - cfeather@starbeacon.com
Star Beacon
JEFFERSON —
An 11th-hour resolution by the Ashtabula County Board of Commissioners Tuesday afternoon appears to have settled the declaratory-judgment and injunction request taken by the board against Sheriff William Johnson earlier this month.
Nevertheless, both parties are expected to be in Ashtabula County Common Pleas Court this morning.
Following an executive session with the board’s legal counsel Tuesday afternoon, commissioners unanimously passed a resolution at their agenda meeting to dismiss its requests for injunctive relief and declaratory judgment.
The board’s counsel filed the legal action after commissioners passed resolutions July 8 requiring the sheriff to go on a quarterly budget, reducing his appropriations accordingly, and asking the court to force Johnson to comply with the new budget.
Commissioners felt that Johnson, by calling back staff to reopen the jail, was on track to overspend his appropriations by about $360,000. The board also identified problems with the coroner’s budget and placed that office on quarterly appropriations but did not file legal action against him.
The injunction/ declaratory-judgment action filed by commissioners was to have been heard this morning by Judge Fred Inderlied, a retired Geauga County Common Pleas Court judge.
However, commissioners, after meeting first with their counsel and then with the sheriff and his counsel during executive session, backed off.
“We will next week pass a resolution rescinding the quarterly spending plan for the sheriff,” said Board President Joseph Moroski.
Johnson said that he planned to make adjustments to his spending during the final couple of months of 2010 but, for the time being, needed to reopen the jail to whittle away at the long list of people waiting to serve their sentences. Commissioners felt Johnson was leading the county down a path of fiscal emergency by not adhering to his budget.
“I was a little bit dissatisfied that they portrayed me as one of these officeholders who was out of cash and going to put the county in fiscal emergency,” Johnson said.
Moroski said that a plan presented by the sheriff and his attorney during the executive session “generally” satisfied the commissioners’ concerns about his budget.
“The sheriff will have considerable savings in his unemployment appropriation and is expected to receive funds in 2010 for the services provided to Ashtabula Township, and will have additional funds available … ” states the resolution adopted by the commissioners. “These savings and additional funds should allow the sheriff to continue his current operations within the 2010 appropriations.”
Johnson said they are still going to court, however. He still wants a judge to rule on his original mandamus action, which Johnson hopes will settle the question of whether commissioners are legally bound to fund his office with sufficient funding for the sheriff to meet his “responsibilities and statutory duties.”
“We’ll go to the next step,” Johnson said. “I don’t like doing it, but somebody has got to make the decision. Can it be resolved without going through all this? I’m not saying it can, and I’m not saying it can’t.”
As of late Thursday afternoon, Inderlied, who was assigned to the case by the Ohio Supreme Court, planned to meet with counsel from both parties this morning. The hearing is scheduled for Judge Alfred Mackey’s courtroom.
Johnson doubted whether a resolution would be reached this week because depositions will have to be taken and exhibits secured.
“A lot of questions still need to be answered in regard to my responsibility and statutory duties,” Johnson said.
The sheriff said he feels the commissioners “jumped the gun” by singling out his department and the coroner for quarterly budgets.
An e-mail received by the coroner from Larry Long, executive director of the County Commissioners Association of Ohio, stated: “It should be stressed that the use of a quarterly spending plan is limited only to the County General Fund and, if it is used, must apply to all General Fund appropriations, not to selected officials or departments.”
Only the sheriff and coroner were put on quarterly appropriations.
Johnson said he’ll keep the jail open and, as he has done for every one of the 17 years he has been sheriff, make sure his department ends the year in the black.
“To me, I think we’ve wasted a lot of time,” Johnson said. “If they would have been fair in mediation, I think we could have solved a lot of these issues.”
