How is it that the City of Kent has been providing free dispatching service for Brimfield Township fire and EMS for years?
In September 2022, Kent and Brimfield officials agreed to a three-year, $44,000 annual contract whereby Kent Police would handle dispatching duties for Brimfield Fire and EMS. Before that, the township had contracted with Kent State University Police; the Sept. 1, 2021 through Aug. 31, 2022 cost was $31,491.
Brimfield Fire Chief Craig Mullaly on April 20 told the township trustees that payments for 2023 and 2024 to Kent City Police were missing. Township Fiscal Officer Jasmine Golden, though, told The Portager that none of the contract was paid.
Though Brimfield continues to owe Kent about $132,000, the city and township somehow agreed to an almost identical fire/EMS contract effective September 2025 through August 2028.
Kent Police Chief Nicholas Shearer said KPD never sent invoices to Brimfield because payment dates were spelled out in the contract. That contract only states that Brimfield would pay Kent on Sept. 1 of each year.
“During this three-year period, I was under the impression that the township was sending payment as specified in the contract to our budget and finance department,” he said. “Through conversation with our finance director, I have learned that this was not happening as it was supposed to.”
Shearer said KPD and Brimfield are working out a repayment deal so “we did not provide free services.” KPD has also taken steps to ensure that the township pays on time from here on in, he said. The first of three installments on the new contract has been paid, Golden said.
Township Trustee Kevin Scott still has questions.
“I’d like to know how so many people on both sides dropped the ball, and how the first payment in 2025 didn’t throw red flags all around,” he said.
How it didn't happen
Having become aware of Brimfield’s outstanding debt, Shearer said he spoke with Mullaly, who doubled as Brimfield’s township administrator from 2018 until May 6, 2022. Mullaly, he said, had relayed his belief that the township’s fiscal officer was paying the bills on time.
Mullaly did not respond to The Portager’s multiple requests for comment, and John Dalziel, who was the township’s fiscal officer at the time, said he did not recall processing any payments to Kent for dispatching services.
Standard procedure was for department heads — in this case, Mullaly — to submit a purchase order to township trustees, who ultimately approve and authorize payments, Dalziel explained in an email to The Portager.
“My office operated strictly within this framework at all times,” he stated. “I was never aware of any arrangement where payments would be made without invoicing or outside of this established procedure.”
Former Brimfield Township Trustee Mike Kostensky said he couldn’t recall why the bills weren’t paid, or why the township switched its fire/EMS dispatching contract from Kent State University police to Kent Police in September 2022. Scott noted that the new contract was more expensive and that KSU police continue to dispatch for Brimfield Police.
Next steps
Scott also said Mullaly will have to figure out how to pay the bill — however much it turns out to be — out of his own funds. Acknowledging that his is one of three votes, Scott said he will not approve additional funds for the fire department and that includes hiring personnel.
Trustees Sue Fields and Nic Coia did not return The Portager’s request for comment.
Former Brimfield Police Chief turned township Administrator Roy Mosley echoed Scott’s comments and said the trustees and Golden will have to determine where dollars can be found. Where Brimfield, already in financial straits, will find the money is anyone’s guess.
“We don’t have it,” Scott said. “We’re going to keep cutting costs wherever we can. We’re going to look at every expense.”
Scott's savings
Since taking office in January, Scott has also identified tens of thousands of dollars the township has been paying annually in unnecessary property taxes. (Turns out the township never filed for property tax exemptions on 17 properties it owns.) Scott has also flagged the township website’s annual fee and Brimfield’s mowing, propane provider and trash hauler contracts.
The approximately $68,000 in annual savings that he’s already found — and a potential $100,000 to $130,000 property tax reimbursement from the Ohio Department of Taxation — may help restore Brimfield’s finances, Scott said.
In a previous interview with The Portager, though, Matt Adelman, real estate appraisal supervisor with the county auditor’s office, said there is no telling how much the state will actually refund. Reimbursement, if any, could take more than a year, he said.
Golden said the fire department’s balance now stands at just over $400,000, but it cannot withstand an $88,000 to $100,000 hit that hasn’t been budgeted.
Complicating matters is a pending agreement Brimfield has with the City of Streetsboro to purchase a used 2000 E-One fire engine. Streetsboro City Council authorized the $30,000 purchase on April 13, 2026, reasoning that the city didn’t need it anymore since it had purchased a newer model.
Scott said that purchase is on hold until Brimfield and Tallmadge reach an agreement as to how money in the two communities’ JEDD M&I (Joint Economic Development District Maintenance and Improvement) fund can be spent. Brimfield used about $150,000 from the fund to purchase police and fire vehicles, but the state auditor flagged the expense, saying the M&I fund could only be used for capital improvements or maintenance.
Brimfield reimbursed the M&I fund $426,298 late last year (other debits were also ruled improper), gutting the township’s general and police and fire special levy funds.
The township is now hoping to retroactively change the JEDD agreement’s verbiage to make the purchases allowable. If Tallmadge agrees, Brimfield’s coffers will swell again, and the township will have the money to purchase Streetsboro’s fire engine.
Township trustees approved Brimfield’s current EMS dispatching contract with Kent Police on Sept. 3, 2025. It covers dispatching services through August 2028 at an annual cost of $44,044, with the first year being paid from the Kent-Brimfield JEDD M&I Fund.
Under the terms of the JEDD agreement, Brimfield provides police and fire protection, EMS, and street services and planning for the JEDD, which includes Karg Industrial Park off Tallmadge Road, the Sunnybrook/Forge Road area and the land around the I-76/state Route 18 interchange.
The contract, which runs from September to September, extends through August 2028. Golden told The Portager that the township did pay Kent for the first year. She stated that Mullaly had submitted a purchase order to her, and she processed it accordingly, paying it in September 2025.
KSU’s Police Department, as it has long done, handles dispatching services for Brimfield Police. Those contracts are not in question and have been routinely paid from police department funds.
Neither Scott nor Mosely could say if the state auditor’s office will count fire/EMS dispatching services as an allowable expense when it audits Brimfield’s books next year.
The next dispatching bill comes due in September. The money, Golden said, will be deducted from the fire department’s budget.
Wendy DiAlesandro
Wendy DiAlesandro is a former Record Publishing Co. reporter and contributing writer for The Portager.