TOLEDO, Ohio — Lucas County Sheriff Michael Navarre asked county commissioners on Tuesday, October 27, for $47.9 million in general-fund money for 2027, $3.75 million more than his office received this year, even as the board pressed county offices to cut spending by 13 percent. According to Lake Erie Inquiry’s account of the hearing, built from the commissioners’ live-stream recording and the sheriff’s 2027 budget presentation, the request is 8.5 percent above this year’s $44.1 million, and commissioners sought the cuts to address a projected $27 million shortfall. No 2027 budget has been approved.
Navarre warned that meeting the target would cut about $5.7 million from this year’s budget and, in his slides as reported by Lake Erie Inquiry, would bring 44 layoffs, the loss of 10 vacant positions and the closing of one jail floor. The slides cited the fifth floor, which now holds 98 inmates, and said capacity would fall from 403 to 305. Those are the sheriff’s projections, not a board decision to close a floor.
The proposal budgets 20 fewer positions, but Navarre told commissioners higher wages drive most of the increase, Lake Erie Inquiry reported. A 6 percent raise the commissioners approved after a fact-finding hearing is the main reason, His slides also include a possible new 6 percent raise, higher food and medical contract costs, and a jail camera upgrade. Navarre said his employees are “still grossly underpaid,” in remarks reported by Lake Erie Inquiry, pointing to slides putting a new deputy at $27.25 an hour, versus $32.51 for a new Toledo officer…