The Stark County Jail may not be able to take on more inmates from North Canton if Issue 29 doesn’t pass, said at Monday night’s City Council meeting.
The jail could go from 501 beds to 122, meaning many people who should be jailed might not be.
“When we have a violent offender, there’s no guarantee we’ll be able to book that person into jail,” Wilder said. “We’re summonsing people as much as possible because of the jail population rate.”
North Canton City Council members drafted a resolution of support to be sent to the Stark County Commissioners. In it, members say they support Issue 29 because of the decreased revenue in county government and more expected cuts to the jail, courts and prosecutor’s office.
They said the sales tax rate in Stark County is 5.75 percent, while 5.5 percent goes to the state and .25 percent goes to Stark Area Regional Transit Authority. That means none goes to Stark County government.
If Issue 29 passed, Stark County still would have the lowest sales tax rate in Ohio.
All members signed the resolution of support but , who was absent.
said the sales tax increase would benefit more than criminal justice services; it could be used for road improvements and other services all country residents benefit from.
“I certainly support this because if we let the county go down, it absolutely will affect us,” he said.
After all, these guys are receiving mind blowing sums of $ from this broken system of having taxpayers pay them two or three times over in the form of revolving door retire/rehire. These guys have the same # of hours in a day as the rest of us and these public labor union jobs with all there provisions are like lotto prizes to those who got into them. Stop taxpayer abuse in the form of these labor union contract goodies and then come and ask for more tax $. I’m voting NO on more taxes until this warped system is modified.
The paper uses the excuse that Stark County pays the lowest sales tax in the state. I have to ask "So what?" What kind of excuse is that to try to squeeze more money out of taxpayers...and even when you do, does that men it will stop? Of course not, Sheriff Swanson will just go back to running the jail the way he's used to...jailing women that fail to signal a lane change, home schooling Mothers, & crime VICTIMS! Then abusing them under the "color of law", which brings lawsuits that have cost the county millions. Even the county prosecutor Ferrero couldn't see anything wrong with three teen girls, who were first time offenders, that were never convicted of ANYTHING, being strip searched on a "tour" of the juvenile facility. That abuse alone cost $300,000 in a settlement to the girls & who knows how much in legal fees. The county's insurance alone has risen to over $16,000 a month!! But here was the solution all along, just throw more money at the problem. Let's not take the initiative to get rid of the problems at the county first, like Sheriff Swanson, Deputy Mike McDonald, Deputy Perez, & John Ferrero. Once these people are GONE, then reforms can be instituted & expenses examined.
He is bluntly threatening lose of all law and order if we do not pass the tax and continue to perpetuate this tax payer abusive system where he is personally profiting immensely from in the form of collecting the benefits of 2-3 people. Voting NO to more taxes is our only and best way to communicate we do not like what is going on.
We can have, and should have what you are praising without double dipping, gold health care plans and retirement plans that are not fairly contributed to by the public employees, union overtime rules where high ranking police are making 90K plus with overtime. For what the taxpayer is paying in NC we should have 5 police on patrol for the cost of what we pay for the top three.
The Sheriff, the state BCI investigator's, & the FBI covered up a LOT of stuff that never made it to the news about these lawsuits/abuses. Why did the Grand Jury never convict the deputies? Because they were never given enough information, and there was plenty there to get convictions, let alone enough for a trial. When I contacted the investigators I asked a few questions to see just how through this investigation was. I asked of any of the other 5 women had been interviewed to show a pattern of abuse at the jail? ANS: NO Did you examine the camera that magically fixes itself, or see if it had ever failed before or after this case. ANS: NO Did you polygraph anyone to verify the TRUTH of their statements? ANS: NO Did you go over all the jail policies concerning a “suicide prevention”? ANS: NO Do you have ANY evidence that a doctor put Steffey on suicide watch? ANS: NO How can someone be TOO suicidal for a suit DESIGNED for the purpose? ANS: None, no answer at all…NO ONE I have ever contacted could answer this question. Really a through "investigation" huh?
If the County commissioners are worried about jail finances, why don't they just cut back more on their expenses, so that the jail can have enough? That's what they claim the priority is...keeping violent criminals in jail...so WHY AREN'T THEY?!?! Go through the list of county expenses, see if any of it is more important to the county commissioners than keeping violent criminals in jail. Then you'll finally see this push for more taxes for the charade that it is.