As they regroup to plan their next move for building a new jail, or updating the existing facility, the Lucas County Commissioners and Lucas County Sheriff John Tharp should borrow a page from Cuyahoga County.
The county government there is planning a renovation or replacement of its Justice Center.
Rather than trying to go it alone, as is happening — unsuccessfully — under the Lucas County Commissioners, the Cuyahoga County Executive is working with a task force that includes the Municipal and Common Pleas judges and others involved in law enforcement.
Lucas County voters on Nov. 6 decisively rejected the commissioners’ latest proposal of a $185 million levy to build a new jail and “solution center.”
It’s time for Lucas County to quit trying to control this decision and reach out for consensus.
Cuyahoga County Executive Armond Budish and John J. Russo, administrative and presiding judge of the Common Pleas Court, have agreed on an executive committee that included the county executive, the president of county council, the common pleas administrative judge, the county prosecutor, the county sheriff, the county public defender, the administrative judge of the Domestic Relations Court, the mayor of Cleveland, and the president of the Cleveland City Council.
Since then, Mr. Budish has proposed to expand the committee to 18 people and require approval by 75 percent of the committee members.
Lucas County could not follow this model exactly because there is no county executive or county council in Lucas County. Furthermore, the construction of a jail in Lucas County would not include new courtrooms, although there could be some synergy achieved with the county courts system.
However, a group made up of county law enforcement officials, including the suburban municipal courts, as well as representatives of the townships and municipalities, including Toledo, would would help with research, advice, and hardheaded political insight. Such a group would send a delegation to other cities and counties that have been through the same exercise.
The Lucas County Citizen Review Committee, which is a useful process for evaluating levies before the commissioners vote to put a levy on the ballot, is not up to this task by itself.
A better jail task force, loosely built on the model being crafted in Cleveland, would help assure voters that the plan is one that was thoroughly investigated and lives up to the needs and standards of Lucas County.
First Published November 30, 2018, 11:15 a.m.
