Since 2020, the Portage County sheriff’s annual budget has increased by $8 million, and Sheriff Bruce Zuchowski is asking for an additional $4 million increase this year.
But the county’s board of commissioners, which approves budget requests from the county’s officers, is pushing back this time on the grounds of fiscal responsibility. They say the sheriff’s office hasn’t been clear about why it needs more money, and they argue that shifting money to law enforcement will reduce funding elsewhere.
Portage County Commissioner Tony Badalamenti said he championed increased funding for the sheriff’s budget in 2021, 2022 and 2023 because he believed the office needed to catch up from lean years in the past. The commissioners weren’t even fazed when Zuchowski asked for additional funds every few months, Badalamenti said.
Zuchowski took office in January 2021. The Portage County Sheriff’s Office 2020 budget was $15.6 million. In 2021, the commissioners approved almost $18 million, and in 2022 they gave collective nods to $20.7 million. In 2023, the sheriff’s office received almost $22.5 million — $22,493,079.43, to be exact.
The days of unbridled spending are done, Badalamenti said. The commissioners have already ratcheted down Zuchowski’s 2024 budget request from $26.4 million to $23,679,815.
This year, his asks included:
- A 15% hike in administrative salaries. This was denied; the commissioners approved an across-the-board 1.25% wage hike for 2024.
- A 27% increase in the sheriff’s office gasoline budget: denied. Based on prior year expenses, the commissioners approved a 9% increase.
- A $250,000 increase in the budget’s “automobiles” line: also denied. Because the sheriff’s office line item that supports vehicle costs is titled “leases,” the commissioners determined that “the separate automobiles budget was deemed unnecessary,” said Jaclyn Petty, director of the county department of budget and financial management. Leased cars are upgraded and rotated on a regular basis, she added.
Since many sheriff’s office personnel are unionized, and 2024 is a contract negotiation year, these requests are in limbo:
- A 4% increase in corrections salaries
- An 18% increase in detective bureau salaries
- A 27% increase in road deputies’ salaries
- A 6% increase in dispatch salaries
- Benefits packages
Pending the completion of those negotiations, the commissioners will reassess the budget during the second quarter of 2024, Badalamenti said.
“They’re very vague when they tell us what they want,” Badalamenti said. “For some reason, the thought is they don’t need to explain to the board of commissioners what exactly they want to use the money for. … The ‘we need’ or ‘we want’ is there. But you’re going to need to have a pretty good case of explaining why you need things.”
Badalamenti said the sheriff’s demeanor changed in 2023.
“As soon as we said, ‘Hey, we can’t continue this,’ the attitude changed severely. That was the start of, ‘We’re not going to tell you anything.’ OK. That’s your choice as an elected official, to believe that you’re on your own desert island. It doesn’t usually work very well,” Badalamenti said.
Zuchowski did not respond to The Portager’s request for an interview.
His chief deputy, Ralph Spidalieri, said he doesn’t know what Badalamenti is talking about. Citing rising crime stats and costs, he said the sheriff’s office can and has justified every request it has made, and added that county residents want a sheriff that can do his job.
“We tried to explain to them that we needed additional funding for some additional manpower, additional needs that we have here because of the increase in crime, the increases in drug overdoses … everything that’s going on, but we cannot seem to be able to get any additional dollars,” Spidalieri said.
The result is a standoff. Two commissioners — Badalamenti and Sabrina Christian-Bennett — say the county can’t afford Zuchowski’s multi-million dollar increases anymore. Spidalieri says the commissioners have the money but choose to spend it elsewhere.
Newly seated Commissioner Mike Tinlin said he isn’t happy with his colleagues’ decision but knows he is just one vote on a three-person panel.
“I ran on a stronghold of safety and security for our county, and I personally think the sheriff is doing a good job,” Tinlin said.
Spidalieri said Badalamenti and Christian-Bennett are being less than truthful.
“They’re trying to make us look bad,” Spidalieri said. “They cut our [car] budget from $250,000 to zero. How do you run your household if you had a budget for your car, and you went from having $2,500 to having nothing. How would you be able to function? How do they think we’re going to run?”
Badalamenti is adamant that the county’s checkbook can no longer support the sheriff’s office’s growth.
“They’ve grown a lot and have had a significant amount of investment put into them, but now their attitude is it’s not enough,” he said. “They believe, and unfortunately in public continue to say, that the board of commissioners is defunding the police.”
Spidalieri defended the defunding comments, saying the sheriff is exercising his First Amendment right to speak freely.
How the sheriff can reach that conclusion after an $8 million investment in three years is beyond Badalamenti. He noted that he and his colleagues spent two and half years acceding to Zuchowski’s requests.
“We didn’t defund,” Badalamenti said. “We stopped excessive spending past the budget. Nothing more, nothing less. ‘This is your budget. You must stay within it.’ Apparently he didn’t like that.”
The commissioners, Spidalieri countered, have a duty to understand that the sheriff is bound to protect county residents.
“To do that, we’ve got to have manpower and equipment,” he said. “Our job is to request that to be able to do that job. If they were responsible commissioners, they would put their own political agenda to the side and do the right thing and make the right decision.”
Christian-Bennett said the sheriff has “plenty of money” to hold him over until union negotiations are complete. Zuchowski’s defunding allegations simply indicate that he doesn’t know what the term means, she said.
“He was asking for astronomical increases for his administrative staff, and he asked for an additional $250,000 for cars,” she said. “We said it was not justified. We’ve given him 85 cars since he’s taken office. It just doesn’t end. They want more and more cars, but we’re restricted as to how much we can afford.”
The commissioners must see the big picture and know that every budgetary decision they make ultimately affects everybody, she said. Increasing funding in one place means other departments’ projects may have to be scaled back or put on hold.
“We fund the entire county. We have to prioritize,” she said. “If we increase the sheriff’s operations, it’s a domino effect. Then we have to increase funding in practically the entire judicial system, probation, the courts. We can’t bulk him up and then say to the other ones, ‘Sorry, we gave it all to him. We don’t have the money, and your staff is just going to have to work harder.’ You can’t operate in a silo.”
Spidalieri is unimpressed. How, he asked, can the commissioners spend $2 million on the Portage County Regional Airport, but have no funds to protect county residents? If they’ve got the money to cover one, they’ve got the money to fund the other, he said.
That $2 million was set aside in 2019, long before Zuchowski took office, Christian-Bennett said. By using the money on Jan. 1, 2024, to effectively take control of the airport operations and fund long overdue repairs, the county sidestepped possible payback requests for over $10 million that the now-defunct Portage County Regional Airport Authority had received in FAA grants.
Portage County’s residents want safety, not an airport, Spidalieri said.
“The public is up in arms, and they want a change. That’s the reality. They want answers, and they want their tax dollars to go to what makes sense,” he said. “People are very upset. We’re hearing every day from people. They’re scared. They’re afraid for their kids, they’re afraid for themselves, and they know that our crime statistics have jumped.”
The Portage County prosecutor’s annual reports note that in 2023, the criminal division handled
more than 6,000 misdemeanor and traffic cases, including 823 OVI and 269 misdemeanor domestic violence cases. In 2022, it cited the same overall figure, specifying 891 OVI and 323 misdemeanor DV cases.
The 2023 report details 1,774 felony reports from the county’s 16 police agencies, down from 1,833 felony reports in 2022.
From year to year, homicide or attempted homicide cases rose from three to six, aggravated vehicular homicides rose from four to 10 and felonious assault cases rose from 91 to 103. Robbery cases rose from 15 to 16 and felony drug-related cases rose from 1,026 to 1,061. Felony domestic violence cases fell from 84 to 74, special victim unit cases remained steady at 83, felony burglary cases fell from 81 to 74, felony theft cases fell from 159 to 95 and receiving stolen property cases fell from 72 to 50.
The 2022 report did not note strangulation cases; the 2023 report cited 29 of them.
Wendy DiAlesandro is a former Record Publishing Co. reporter and contributing writer for The Portager.