Hiram takes control of Mantua’s police department, dispatch center

Mantua Village Council on Dec. 16 unanimously approved a $170,000 contract handing Hiram Village control of its police department and dispatch center. Hiram’s village council has already authorized the contract.

Hiram Police Chief James Clemens has been doubling as Mantua’s acting police chief since Mantua Mayor Tammy Meyer put former Police Chief Joseph Urso on administrative leave Oct. 6. He was fired on Oct. 22 after a 12-hour hearing but has appealed the decision.

Meyer said the $170,000 contract cost is $20,000 less than the village council had appropriated to operate the Mantua Police Department, including benefits and the dispatch center, for nine months of 2026. No city services or programs will be impacted, she said.

“$170,000 seems like a lot, but if you break it down to what it would cost per hour, it makes sense, and we can keep dispatch,” Meyer said.

The year-long contract takes effect Jan. 1, 2026. Mantua will pay an additional $6,986 to cover Hiram’s services for the remainder of this year.

When council ousted Urso, they freed up $3,000 to reimburse Hiram for Clemens’ services, specifying $47 an hour (including benefits) for up to 16 hours a week. On Nov. 18, council added $5,085 to that sum to reimburse Hiram until the end of the year.

Meyer said both of those sums will roll into the $170,000 contract.

“This is a good solution,” Mantua Council Member Steve Thorn said. “This money that we're spending is going to get us to a better place. We're not intending to merge with anybody else. We have no intention of going down that road, ever.”

About a dozen audience members disagreed.

“This is a sweetheart deal for the Village of Hiram and, quite frankly, the village got played,” said Kevin Maloney, who resigned from his council seat in protest after his former colleagues fired Urso in October. Marty Fergus has been appointed to replace Maloney.

Heeding Meyer’s instructions to provide solutions, as well as complaints, Maloney urged council to reject the contract and hire a police chief.

Clemens stated that he’d interviewed a likely police chief candidate who accepted employment elsewhere and had considered another who turned out not to be acceptable.

“I want a good police department for the Village of Mantua. That’s all I want,” Clemens told the packed council chamber crowd. “My concern now is to build this department back up. Personnel is an issue, and that’s what I’m trying to work on. I want a professional, fully staffed police department.”

Responding to residents’ comments that he cannot adequately serve two communities, Clemens said a single police chief serves entire cities all over the country. Together, Hiram and Mantua amount to two square miles and 2,500 people.

“It’s manageable,” he assured the packed council chamber crowd.

People remained unconvinced.

“I don’t want my tax dollars going over to Hiram. What you're doing and what you have done is totally wrong,” resident Robert Ganglion told council members.

Chuck Peterson remarked that Mantua seems to have money to send to Hiram, but none to pay Mantua officers higher wages. Meyer responded that money is not the problem. Finding acceptable, qualified employees is.

Former Mantua Mayor Linda Clark was blunt.

“I don’t agree with us flushing $170,000 down the toilet to have Hiram manage our department,” she said.

While Urso handled administrative duties and road patrols, Clemens currently limits his Mantua PD involvement to administrative tasks, Meyer said. That will be his focus in Hiram, as well, as Clemens reduces his own road patrol shifts there, Hiram Mayor Anne Haynam stated in an email to The Portager.

Under the terms of the contract, Hiram will:

• Hire and train Mantua’s new and existing staff

• Schedule MPD or HPD officers so that Mantua has 24/7 coverage at least 90% of the time

• Manage MPD appropriations, payroll, reports and operations

• Make court appearances as needed on behalf of MPD

• Have Clemens present status reports at Mantua Village Council’s monthly safety meetings and have HPD’s or MPD’s sergeant or a higher-ranking officer attend Mantua’s monthly council meetings

• Have Clemens and other HPD staff mentor MPD staff regarding community policing, policies and procedures, and ethics

• Manage MPD’s dispatch services, including managing, hiring, scheduling, training and supervising its personnel

Either village can terminate the contract after six months, with 90 days written notice. It automatically renews for successive six-month terms unless either party terminates it in writing. The only other way it could be nullified is if the court orders Mantua to reinstate Urso.

Urso has filed an administrative appeal in Portage County Common Pleas Court, which could take up to five months to be resolved.

Excepting wages Hiram pays its own officers, Mantua will be responsible for all expenses either village incurs to operate MPD.

The contract allows either village to discontinue Hiram’s oversight of MPD’s dispatch center after June 30, 2026, with at least 30 days written notice. If Mantua closes its police dispatch center altogether, the contract will be reduced to $150,000 a year.

Meyer said staffing issues, antiquated equipment that can no longer be repaired and possible nonrenewal of MPD’s dispatch contract with the Mantua-Shalersville Fire District could all contribute to the dispatch center’s closure.

As it is now, Meyer said the center is so understaffed that dispatchers racked up $33,358 in overtime wages alone by the end of November. Clemens is overseeing the dispatch center, where he and two MPD sergeants are conducting interviews to hire more staff.

Hiram’s three full-time and six part-time officers (four of whom are regularly scheduled) have already been responding to Mantua village calls, but on what Meyer characterized as “a reactive, not proactive basis.” The contract will increase road patrols and allow Hiram’s certified trainers to ready new Mantua recruits for work, she said.

“We lose Hiram’s support, where do we go?’” Meyer asked. “I’ve got officers I can't train, and I still have to hire a chief and get a chief here. We have to build from the ground up. How do we do that? We've got to get the training, we’ve got to get people hired, so how do we do that?”

Meyer denied the end game is to merge Mantua’s police department with Hiram’s or to have the Portage County Sheriff’s Office assume responsibility for Mantua’s security. The contract specifically prohibits Mantua from trying to hire or actually hiring Clemens or any of his successors as long as the initial contract or any renewals are in effect and for three years after those terms expire.

Should Mantua do so, or even try to, the contract allows Hiram to immediately terminate the agreement, collect $170,000 and pursue a number of legal actions.

Ideally, Meyer said Mantua will begin its search for a police chief about six weeks before ending the contract and will hire the new chief while two weeks remain in the agreement. That, she said, will provide the critical overlap time necessary for successful onboarding.

“This is what our contract gives us: a chance to build our department back,” she said.

How many recruits it will take to fully staff MPD depends on how many full-time employees can be found and how often part-timers can fill shifts, Meyer said. The department currently has five part-time officers, two full-time and two part-time dispatchers, and a school resource officer who is slated to start next week. SROs are full-time employees who take on road patrol duties when school is not in session, she explained.

Miranda Brothers, MPD’s only full-time road patrol officer after Urso was ousted, resigned Nov. 30, having obtained full-time employment elsewhere. She, like all of MPD’s remaining road officers, now covers MPD dispatch and road patrol duties on a part-time basis.

Haynam stated that additional HPD officers will be scheduled to cover Hiram’s road patrols. The village, she wrote, will have “the same, if not more coverage, than prior to the contract.” 

All funds associated with the contract will go toward HPD’s operational costs, including equipment needs and improving village compensation packages that will help the village “continue to recruit and retain officers,” she stated.