Collaborate to resolve dispute over 911 control

Bureaucratic turf wars should be avoided whenever possible. For proof, look no further than the dispute between the Lorain County commissioners and county Sheriff Jack Hall over how much involvement Hall should have in running the county's 911 dispatch center. The commissioners argue that 911 falls fully under their control, while Hall contends that his office should be involved. We can't say for certain who's right or wrong in this dispute, which centers on a memorandum of understanding from 2011 between the then commissioners and then-Sheriff Phil Stammitti that folded dispatching for the Sheriff's Office into the county's 911 operations. (Several other police agencies and fire departments also now dispatch out of 911.) What we do know is that collaboration between county officials is usually the better approach, especially when it comes to public safety. Ideally, county Prosecutor Tony Cillo's office should be able to serve as a mediator in such a dispute. Unfortunately, the Prosecutor's Office has a conflict because it represents both the commissioners and the sheriff. It therefore had already bowed out of the disagreement before Cillo, a Republican, assumed office after he ousted former Prosecutor J.D. Tomlinson, a Democrat, in 2024. Which means that both sides have lawyered up in what could prove to be a costly legal fight. It hasn't reached the point of a lawsuit, but if that happens the legal costs would no doubt climb quickly while the county has budget woes to worry about. Fairness demands that both sides get a lawyer, which is why it was reasonable that two out of the three commissioners voted last month to hire a lawyer to represent Hall. (The commissioners already have their own lawyer representing their interests in the dispute.) No one, however, should mistake the votes by Commissioners Jeff Riddell and Marty Gallagher to hire the Avon-based law firm of Wickens Herzer Panza for Hall as an acknowledgement that they see merit in the sheriff's position. Riddell said last month that he didn't "see the need for this." Gallagher said the whole thing didn't "sit well" with him. The third commissioner, Dave Moore, voted against hiring the law firm. "I don't see a purpose for this," he said last month. "I think it's very clear who runs 911. I think it's very clear the statute says who runs 911. I think it's clear who's in charge of the communications at 911. And I find this extremely insulting and a waste of taxpayer funds." Hall told us this week that the memorandum from 2011 called for collaboration between the sheriff and the commissioners. The word "collaborate" appears several times in that document. In some ways, this is a continuation of a fight that the commissioners, all Republicans, were having with Stammitti, a Democrat, before he left office at the end of 2024. (He opted against seeking reelection, and Hall, a Republican, was elected to replace him.) The commissioners had refused to hire a lawyer for Stammitti, who was among the police and fire leaders who clashed with the commissioners over their choice of a radio system. To represent Stammitti the county's Common Pleas judges later appointed a lawyer from a Columbus-based firm, which Hall said he wanted replaced with a local firm. Moore said last month that Stammitti's lawyer had cost the county around $40,000. Again, if Moore and the rest of the commissioners are worried about the county's finances, perhaps engaging in a protracted legal battle isn't the best use of the financial resources the county does have. Hall told us that as sheriff he should be involved in decisions about not only equipment, but also about how to run 911, including crafting standard operating procedures for dispatchers. Hall also said police and fire chiefs around the county had raised concerns about how the 911 dispatch center was performing. That includes complaints about how some of its equipment was functioning. As an example, Hall pointed to a malfunction of the county's automated emergency dispatch system that coincided with a fatal medical emergency of off-duty Sheffield Police Lt. Aaron Bober on Nov. 21. Because the automated system was down, Sheffield firefighters weren't notified in the usual way. Rather, firefighters became aware of the call through a redundancy service and contacted 911 to confirm the emergency. The call was confirmed 1 minute and 38 seconds after the 911 call was made, and firefighters responded to the scene. Sheffield Fire Chief Scott Gilles has said the 911 issue delayed that response. Hall said that the county's police and fire chiefs had created a committee to work with the commissioners to address their concerns. That seems reasonable, but then so does collaboration between the commissioners and Hall to make sure 911 is operating at peak performance to protect public safety. They should sit down and hammer out their differences before the feud gets worse and the associated legal costs climb.