Current, former sheriffs at odds over payouts for staff's unused time

County taxpayers will be footing an unknown bill to pay out unused vacation, sick time and other benefits for former employees of the Lorain County Sheriff's Office, the current sheriff said Tuesday. Newly elected Sheriff Jack Hall, a Republican, said he didn't have a total dollar figure, but at least one former Sheriff's Office employee under former Sheriff Phil Stammitti, a Democrat, will receive a six-figure payout for unused vacation, sick, holiday and compensatory time under orders from Stammitti. The elected sheriff for six terms from 2000 through the end of 2024, Stammitti left behind documents in his office ordering the payments to at least four employees. One, former county prosecutor Dennis Will, was Stammitti's administrative officer from 2020 to 2024. Hall said his recollection of the numbers was that Will will receive an estimated $80,000 payout based on his four years of service with the Sheriff's Office. Stammitti said Hall's concern is much ado about nothing, as it's the same process that has been followed for at least four decades. Retirement payouts have always been done this way, Stammitti said: An employee retires from the Sheriff's Office, which pays their unused vacation and sick time, and the office is reimbursed from a special fund line item in the county's general fund budget. There's nothing illegal about what Stammitti did, Hall and Lorain County Prosecutor Tony Cillo said, citing a legal opinion they both received. Stammitti also said he checked that there wasn't anything improper about what he did before he did it and told Hall what he was doing it after the new sheriff joined his office as a major following the November election. A subsequent message seeking comment on Stammitti's explanation of the payout system was left for Hall. According to Hall, Stammitti didn't include the payouts in the 2025 Sheriff's Office budget that Hall inherited. Hall will have to go back to the county Board of Commissioners to ask for the money, he said. Again, Stammitti said, that's how it has always worked. Hall said he only recently uncovered documents Stammitti left behind ordering the payouts after being elected in November as he analyzed Sheriff's Office finances. The documents said those employees, as non-classified or "unclassified" employees under Ohio law, were to receive "the exact same benefits that union members of certain contracts would receive," Hall said. This is sometimes called a "best-of" benefit, meaning the "best of" the benefits union members get are also offered to non-union employees. That includes payouts for unused vacation and sick time and related benefits. Hall said the payments were finalized and authorized by Stammitti on Dec. 31, 2024, a week before his term was up. Hall said, in his opinion, "I don't think public employees should be enjoying that payout." "That's always been done that way," Stammitti said. "I was there (at the Sheriff's Office) 39 years, it's always been done that way." Other retirement payouts in the Corrections Division come from the jail fund, while Drug Task Force retirements would come from that division's budget. For Hall to say Stammitti didn't include the payouts in the budget he left behind when he decided not to run for office again in 2024, "he doesn't know what he's talking about," Stammitti said. A message seeking comment on his payout was left for Will on Tuesday. Commissioner David Moore, a Republican, said he and fellow members of his board hadn't received any documents from Hall about the matter. Moore said he expected further public discussions about Sheriff's Office's finances in the coming months. Cillo did not receive a payout for his work in Stammitti's office, he said. An assistant county prosecutor under four previous administrations from 1995 to 2022, Cillo was an associate director at the Lorain County Drug Task Force from mid-2023 until he was elected prosecutor in November. Cillo said he didn't seek compensation for unused benefits for his approximately 18 months he worked on the Drug Task Force, under the control of the Sheriff's Office. Stammitti "had the full right to do what he did as an elected official, he had the right to do that, he got the legal opinion he had the right to do that," Hall said, "but it's just not something you're going to see my office doing." To pay his command staff the same benefits as their union subordinates got always made sense to Stammitti, the former sheriff said. "Why would you want to be in management if you didn't get the same payout as the union got?" he said. Hall said he was blindsided by decisions Stammitti made in 2024. County officials need to know who is retiring, so that a request for a budget appropriation can be completed. "Obviously it's a lack of communication," he said. "We knew (staff were) not staying but I can't be left holding the bag on how things were budgeted or not budgeted and encumbered. Someone has to tell the county, 'We expect reimbursement from the general fund.'" Contact Dave O'Brien at (440) 329-7129 or dobrien@chroniclet.com