Conneaut police officers are sometimes covering almost 27 square miles with only two people on duty, the result of a citywide hiring freeze that has left the department short three patrol officers and a detective for the past two years. City Manager Nicholas Sanford says there is currently no end date for the freeze, which has stopped hiring across every municipal department as the city works to close a budget deficit.
The department is typically budgeted for 20 officers, including a police chief and two school resource officers, but has struggled to reach its standard 19-person roster for two years, according to cleveland19.com. Of the 15 budgeted patrol positions, 12 are filled, leaving three patrol vacancies; the department also has an open detective position. Wade Stitt, president of Conneaut FOP Lodge 51, said the shortage is affecting how officers respond to calls. “We had to stop the hiring process because of the city's financial situation,” Stitt told the station, which reported that qualified candidates were passed over after the freeze took effect.
According to News 5 Cleveland, the department had worked to fill three patrol officer openings and one detective opening and had started closing in on qualified candidates before the freeze stopped that process. Stitt told the outlet the department was making progress and that the freeze came as a shock, adding that the department is simply seeking the same staffing levels it has maintained for years.
Thin Coverage, Overlapping Calls
The operational consequences are most apparent during overlapping calls. Cleveland19.com reports that Conneaut sometimes has only two officers covering nearly 27 square miles; on some weekends, those officers have handled domestic calls while other disturbances and crashes were occurring. When calls overlap, the department has waited for assistance from North Kingsville, according to the station.
The staffing decision comes against a budget picture that deteriorated sharply before improving. News 5 Cleveland reported that Conneaut's General Fund deficit exceeded $167,000 at the end of July, the city's largest cited deficit since the 2008 financial crisis. Cleveland19.com reported a July shortfall of more than $160,000 that narrowed to $22,000 by August, and said the city's finances later returned to the black. The hiring freeze, however, remains in place across municipal departments.
A longer fiscal history
A 2013 Ohio Auditor of State report said Conneaut's fund balances had been improving since 2008, while warning that the city would need continued cost controls and new revenue to maintain that progress. That earlier account centered on rebuilding municipal finances; the current episode is defined by a hiring freeze with no end date and police vacancies, even after the recently reported deficit narrowed and the city's finances returned to the black.
Rising Costs Squeeze a Shrinking Budget
City officials point to a mix of rising expenses and falling revenue as the root of the crunch. The Conneaut police budget has doubled since 2003, while squad car expenses and healthcare plan costs have both tripled over the same period, per News 5 Cleveland. Finance Director John Williams has said the city needs to closely monitor its finances as costs climb and revenue comes in lower.
Sanford has said Conneaut and other northeast Ohio communities need to evaluate how their revenues are structured, pointing to state-level changes that have squeezed local budgets. Ohio eliminated the personal property tax and the inheritance tax and froze local government funding, according to the same News 5 Cleveland report, changes cited as contributing to the fiscal pressure facing the city.
Council Weighs Fixes, None Chosen Yet
Conneaut has not settled on any of the proposed budget-gap solutions under discussion. Options include updating or replacing levies, reducing the income tax credit, ending certain health insurance benefits, and adding speed cameras to Interstate 90, per News 5 Cleveland's reporting. Williams has said the possible speed cameras would have the least financial impact on Conneaut residents compared with the other options on the table.
Separately, cleveland19.com reports the city is weighing a long-term traffic-enforcement program as another deficit-reduction measure. Sanford has cautioned that hiring for vacant budgeted positions now, only to face financial difficulty later, could force the city into layoffs down the road — a risk that helps explain why the freeze has no end date even as the department works to close out its staffing gaps.
