CONNEAUT, Ohio — A hiring freeze in Conneaut is raising public safety concerns as the city works to address a budget shortfall.
In August, Conneaut Police received a letter from the city saying Conneaut's government was more than $167,000 in the red at the end of July — a deficit not seen since the 2008 financial crisis.
It comes as Conneaut Police had been working to fill three patrol officer openings and one detective opening after years of understaffing.
Wade Stitt, the president of Conneaut FOP Lodge 51, said the department had started closing in on qualified candidates to hire before being notified last month of the freeze.
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"It's been a challenge trying to find good quality, high character applicants," Stitt said. "We were making progress. We were all optimistic and this was a shock to us."
Stitt told News 5 the department is typically budgeted to have 20 officers, including the police chief and two School Resource Officers. It currently has 12 officers out on the road, as opposed to the budgeted 15.
Stitt said the staffing shortage is already affecting how officers respond to calls.
"You can have a domestic where the two staffed officers on a weekend are handling, a lot of times we get another disturbance, an accident and another domestic. Now we're waiting for North Kingsville to come," Stitt said.
City Manager Nick Sanford and Finance Director John Williams said the city's finances have since returned to the black, but the hiring freeze remains in place.
"We need to really watch the finances," Williams said.
"We don't want to be in a position where these positions had been vacant and been budgeted for and we proceed in a hire and we find ourselves in a bind in 2027 or beyond where we have to make the unfortunate decision to layoff," Sanford said. "There's an absolute human factor to all of that and we do not want to be in that position on the behalf of anybody."
City officials point to rising costs as a key driver of the problem including a police budget that has doubled since 2003, while healthcare plan costs and new squad car expenses have each tripled over the same period.
At the same time, the city is taking in less revenue.
"Is it less money from the state?," News 5 asked.
"Yes, absolutely," both responded. "They eliminated the personal property tax, they eliminated the inheritance tax, they've frozen local government."
Among the solutions the city is considering to close the gap: updating or replacing levies, reducing the income tax credit, ending certain health insurance benefits, and adding speed cameras to I-90.
"Not a popular decision or choice but it has the least financial impact on Conneaut residents," Williams said of possible speed cameras.
None of those options have been decided, but it has plenty wondering what's the "cost" to keep it all going.
"We're not asking for anything additional, we're just asking for the same staffing we've had for years," Stitt said.
"We need to have an honest conversation that the structure of how our revenues are operated, not just in Conneaut, but all of these communities in northeast Ohio — need to be truly evaluated," Sanford said.
Clay LePard is the Ashtabula, Geauga and Portage counties reporter at News 5 Cleveland. Follow him on X @ClayLePard, on Facebook ClayLePardTV or email him at Clay.LePard@wews.com.
