Prosecutor: Commissioners didn't follow the law in new county jail planning process

The planning process for a new multimillion-dollar Lorain County Jail is changing after a legal opinion from the county Prosecutor's Office found the process so far violated state law. The opinion, written by Billie Jo Belcher, chief of staff in Prosecutor Tony Cillo's office, cites Ohio Revised Code 153.36, which says decisions about the future of the jail have to include a group of elected Lorain County officials beyond the commissioners. That wasn't done. Commissioners on Friday said they disagreed with the opinion and had done everything right so far in planning the estimated $100 million-plus construction project. The law says if the estimated cost of building, adding to, altering or improving a courthouse or jail is $75,000 or more, a majority of a group of elected county officials including the clerk of Common Pleas Court, the sheriff, the county Probate Court judge and a person to be appointed by the Common Pleas Court has to approve it. Consequences aren't clear. Belcher wrote that courts have "reached various conclusions" when considering whether contracts are binding and valid if they were made in violation of state law. Contracts approved so far could be declared void by a Common Pleas judge or civil lawsuits could result, she wrote. "The failure to comply with (state law) in the construction of the Lorain County Jail is not a mere procedural oversight," Belcher wrote. "It is a violation of mandatory statutory requirements" which are "the only lawful path forward for public improvement projects." Sheriff Jack Hall said he requested an opinion Jan. 13 after finding the section of state law while researching another matter. He got it the following day and said he hand-delivered a paper copy to commissioners. He said a meeting of the officials who are supposed to be part of the process could happen as soon as Feb. 26. Cillo had little to add: "All we do is write an opinion based on what the law says," he said. County commissioners David Moore and Jeff Riddell discussed the letter at their meeting Friday. Commissioner Marty Gallagher was not present for family reasons. "We disagree with the opinion," Riddell said, calling it "incomplete." Moore said he believes his board has "engaged everybody" in the process. He said a meeting with the jail architect, consultant, his board and the other elected officials to sit down and vote to accept the design and cost of the new jail should happen in the next two weeks, and should be public. Riddell said the planning work commissioners have done in recent years to get the jail project moving was "taking the attitude that we're not going to kick cans down the road anymore" — meaning, not leave the problem of an aging jail for the next board. Meetings were held with the courts, Cillo's office and mental health and addiction experts to make sure inmates are properly served. Commissioners voted last year to pay DLZ Architecture Inc. of Columbus nearly $1.7 million for design work related to the new jail. It is proposed for a site north and west of the existing jail on Murray Ridge Road in Elyria, behind the office of Lorain County Public Health. The board also voted last year to spend more than $200,000 in site development and preconstruction services. Built in the 1970s and renovated in the late 1990s, the current jail has heating, cooling, ventilation and drainage problems and an "obsolete" floor plan, Riddell said. It is sometimes over capacity with inmates, Hall said last week. The estimated cost to replace the jail is $95 million to $110 million. That cost goes up an estimated $4 million to $5 million each year due to increased supply and materials costs, Riddell said. Commissioners have not decided how to pay for the new jail. Options include a bond issue, loans or a temporary tax increase. Former commissioners Michelle Hung and Matt Lundy voted to set aside $20 million toward the cost in 2022. Moore, the only commissioner remaining from that board, voted against the measure. "We hope to be able to move that to the next step shortly, our goal being to be ready to put a shovel in the ground when we can figure out the financing of the jail and eliminate the safety concerns that are there for our staff as well as the inmates and protect the rights of the taxpayers by seeing to it that the project is something we can afford to pay for," Riddell said Friday. Contact Dave O'Brien at (440) 329-7129 or dobrien@chroniclet.com.