CCNO Budget Approved But Cloudy Future Remains Due To Toledo’s Outstanding Bill

A $16.77 Mil­lion 2016 oper­at­ing bud­get was approved dur­ing Wednesday’s meet­ing of the Cor­rec­tions Com­mis­sion of North­west Ohio with 9 votes in favor. Both mem­bers from the City of Toledo, as well as Williams County Sher­iff Steve Towns, abstained, and the Toledo City Law Direc­tor said while he felt it was a good bud­get, that city con­tin­ues to object to financ­ing 228 beds that it views as the respon­si­bil­ity of Lucas County. Lucas County Com­mis­sioner Pete Gerken was at yesterday’s meet­ing, and he said that if the City of Toledo fails to pay the rest of its 2015 bill total­ing $299,920, offi­cials will have to plan for the worst. Toledo is a 35 per­cent con­trib­u­tor to CCNO finances. Com­mis­sion mem­bers yes­ter­day, also unan­i­mously approved the 2016 Elec­tronic Mon­i­tor­ing bud­get total­ing $606,680 which is funded by the Ohio Depart­ment of Reha­bil­i­ta­tion and Cor­rec­tion as well as fees charged to par­tic­i­pants. The pro­gram aver­ages 100 to 120 par­tic­i­pants per day, includ­ing pre­trial offend­ers from the City of Toledo. Exec­u­tive Direc­tor Jim Den­nis said the inmate pop­u­la­tion has con­tin­ued to increase over the past months. The August pop­u­la­tion aver­aged 581 or 91 per­cent; Sep­tem­ber aver­aged 597 or 94 per­cent; and Wednesday’s pop­u­la­tion stood at 589 or 92 percent.