LISBON — Jobs, the jail and drugs were among the issues addressed by the candidates running for Columbiana County commissioner in the Nov. 6 general election.

The race features incumbent Mike Halleck, a Republican, who is opposed in his bid for a third consecutive term by Democrat Ray Wagner Jr., a retired Columbiana teacher and administrator.

Wagner, 63, joined the race in early August after being appointed by the county Democratic Party to replace nominee Keith Merriman, who withdrew. Wagner said he had been asked in July by party officials if he was interested in running for commissioner should Merriman decide to step down.

“I thought ‘I complain about the way things are going, I should get involved,'” he said.

Wagner was employed by the Columbiana school district, starting as an elementary school teacher in 1976. He also served as Columbiana Middle School principal from 1999-2006 before retiring in 2011. A widower, Wagner lives in Fairfield Township and has two sons and several grandchildren.

Halleck, 65, served a term as commissioner in the 1990s before losing his 1998 re-election bid. He ran again in 2010 and won and was re-elected four years later. A former Perry Township trustee, Halleck also operates a private consulting business. He and his wife live in Perry Township and have a daughter.

This is what they had to say about some of the issues:

County Jail

The facility is run by a private company hired by commissioners, starting in 1998, when Halleck was commissioner. In fact, Halleck was the architect of privatization, a decision he stands by 20 years later because of the estimated $20 million-plus he claims it has saved the county over the years.

But the jail has come under increased scrutiny in recent years after it went through six wardens between the fall of 2015 and November 2017. During the first several months of 2018 the jail was the subject of well-publicized reports about operational problems at the facility.

Wagner noted the contract expires at the end of 2019, and he would push for creation of a task force to study jail operations and “to figure out a game plan on where we go from here, whether we go back to county control or continue with a different company with a better track record.”

In his original campaign platform, Wagner said he intended to scrap privatization, but he realizes now that was a rash decision. He changed his mind on the issue and decided to take a more deliberative approach after speaking with other people about jail operations.

“I kind of jumped the gun on that. I admit that,” he said.

Halleck responded to the jail problems by coming up with a plan that included a significant pay raise for corrections officers and the addition of a body scanner and new security camera system, which commissioners were able to purchase with $250,000 secured through the state legislature. He also began hosting weekly meetings with the jail warden and a representative from the county sheriff’s office.

“We identified the problem and put together an eight-point plan, and I would argue that the jail is being operated better than it ever has,” Halleck said.

Wagner would disagree. “You know, it seems like something happens out there we put a Band-Aid on it,” which is why a task force is needed to review jail operation, he said.

He believes the problems persist, adding “I think a lot of it’s being covered up.”

Wagner also questioned whether privatization has saved as much money as Halleck contends. “You can fudge numbers, but I’d like to see how much it is really saving us” by having the finances reviewed by the task force, he said.

A story in June noted the company operating the jail pays the utility bills, which totaled about $450,000 alone in 2017. That is an expense the county would resume paying if it took over jail operations.

Wagner said money should not be the sole consideration, noting having the county sheriff’s office operate the jail again would result in better trained staff. “We not only have to look out for the safety of us, the citizens of this county, but the safety of the prisoners out there too,” he said.

“All jails – I don’t care who’s running them — have problems. The key is to identify the problems and correct the problems, and that’s what we’ve done,” Halleck said.

He said commissioners are willing to consider any plan to operate the jail, provided it can be run in a manner that is affordable and complies with the law, but no one has produced such a plan yet. Halleck noted every board of commissioners, even when Democrats were on the board, voted to renew the contract.

Jobs

Wagner was critical of Halleck for pointing out at public appearances that the unemployment has declined from nearly 15 percent to 5 percent since he took office.

“That’s ridiculous. Twelve years ago we almost had a depression, and we’ve been digging out of it ever since,” Wagner said.

The county jobless rate hit a high of 14.8 percent in January 2010 and was 12.1 percent when Halleck took office 12 months later. It was 5 percent in August.

Halleck said commissioners have played a role in bringing jobs to the county. “I’ve always said commissioners don’t create jobs. We create the environment to foster jobs,” he said.

Halleck noted commissioners approved enterprise zone agreements in the county that resulted in $40 million in commercial development and the creation of more than 50 manufacturing jobs. They recently renewed those agreements, which will resulted in the creation of another 45 jobs.

Commissioners have obtained more than $100,000 in state and federal grants directly related to economic development, and the TID board they created recently obtained a $500,000 state grant to further study turning U.S. Route 30 into a freeway, which would open that corridor to development.

Commissioners also moved the development department and the port authority into the same building to create a single place for businesses to go when considering locating in the county or wanting to expand.

“Anyone who doesn’t think commissioners have anything to do with job creation doesn’t understand the job,” he said.

As commissioner, Wagner said he would work hard to attract businesses and companies that pay a living wage and good benefits. He was very impressed after touring the New Castle School of Trades in East Liverpool and learned 60 percent of its graduates have found jobs in the county.

He would work to encourage high school guidance counselors to develop a closer relationship with the NCST and like for the NCST to open a second school in the northern part of the county.

Drugs

Through the County Commissioners Association of Ohio, Wagner said he would lobby the state legislature to change the rules for drug rehab grants so counties would have more flexibility on how the money can be spent, which he believes would be a more effective approach.

Halleck said commissioners continue to provide matching funds of $10,000 or $20,000 to help police departments that assign an officer to the county drug task force, with the total amount spent beginning to exceed the $100,000 annually originally pledged.

Finances

Wagner was critical of commissioners for failing to provide the Veterans Services Commission with the amount of money it requested, resulting in a lawsuit in one instance and nearly in another. He said the VSC is entitled by law to significantly more money than it requests from commissioners. “I don’t understand why you play games with that. I won’t do that … unless they (VSC) agree to take less, which they have both years,” he said.

Halleck said the VSC was never shorted any funding.

“We gave them what they asked for. We just didn’t give it to them all at once. That’s called managing the budget,” he said.

Wagner said he is familiar with budgets from his time as a school administrator. “I had to make budgets. I had to make cuts when we were in financial difficulty. So I know about budgets, and I can hit the ground running,” he said.

“If he wants to accuse me of micromanaging the budget, then I plead guilty. But I would point out we’ve had eight successful years” financially, Halleck said.

He said the county has one of the lowest, if not the lowest, in terms of per capita spending of any county in Ohio. “We’ve given the taxpayers of this county a bang for their buck,” he said.

Wagner did say commissioners have done a good job of managing the budget in the face of an estimated $2.1 million per year loss in sales tax revenue due to elimination of the sales tax on Medicaid service providers.

Meetings

“I have a real problem with how they run their meetings because I used to run school board meetings, so I know how meetings are supposed to run,” Wagner said.

For starters, he would propose moving the weekly meetings from 9 a.m. every Wednesday to sometime in the evening “because the people that work 7 to 3 or all night, it’s very difficult for citizens to come to those meetings.”

Halleck said that was done once but quickly abandoned when the attendance was not any better for evening meetings then when the meetings were held at 9 a.m.

“I don’t care,” Wagner said, adding the meetings need to be moved to better accommodate the people they serve.

Wagner also has a problem with the small agendas and the fact that many meetings last less than 10-15 minutes. He said they need to run more business items through the meeting, take a bit more time explaining what they are voting on and also ask those in attendance if they have business before the board. He said it’s not enough to advise the reporters what is going on, “but (commissioners) need to let the public know. We’re paying the bills, right? So we need to know. That’s the bottom line.”

Halleck said much of their meeting agendas is determined by what is brought before them to act on. “We just can’t create an agenda and drag out a meeting for the sake of dragging out a meeting. That is not very productive,” he said.

Wagner said he also has a problem that the commissioner meeting minutes are not posted on their website a timely manner. Copies of the minutes can still be viewed or obtained by stopping by the office. “They need to be online,” he said.

Miscellaneous

Wagner said he has learned over the years the three qualities to be a good leader are open communication, collaboration and cooperation, and he believes he possesses all three.

“Cooperation is the last part. That’s where you work across the aisle or party lines to get things done. You have to listen to all points of view,” he said.

Halleck said he is proud of the land bank program they began several years ago with $3.2 million in federal grant money used to demolish dilapidated and abandoned homes in East Liverpool, Salem and Wellsville. “We’ve been able to tear down more than 100 homes so far … and that’s having an impact not only on neighborhoods but has given some of those communities a second chance at life,” he said,

Halleck said they have also spent $2 million in recent years on improvements to the county courthouse and other county buildings, with restoration of the courthouse tower being the most recent project. This also includes expansion of the county dog pound to make room for more kennels, office space and a community room to show dogs being considered for adoption.

Wagner is endorsed by the Western Reserve Building Trades Council, which represents 21 local unions.