CLEVELAND, Ohio – Cuyahoga County Sheriff Harold Pretel is suing Executive Chris Ronayne for his independence, following weeks of disputes over the sheriff’s authority to manage his own fiscal office.
The lawsuit, filed Tuesday in county court, accuses Ronayne of improperly attempting to exert “oversight, authority and control” over the sheriff department, despite state law and the county charter, which it says guarantees the sheriff’s autonomy.
It argues that Ronayne “has wrongly asserted that he has ‘superior administrative authority’ over the Sheriff’s Department” by taking over the sheriff’s human resources department, dictating decisions about sheriff’s employees and attempting to take control of the sheriff’s fiscal operations, including payroll…