CSB given temporary budget
By Kathleen Folkerth
DOWNTOWN AKRON — Summit County Council adopted a temporary budget for the Children Services Board (CSB) at its final meeting of the year Dec. 18, providing the agency with operating funds for three months.
The amended substitute resolution
was discussed during the Human Services Committee
meeting that night. The resolution
also included a temporary budget for the Department
of Job and Family Services (JFS), also for a three-month
period but with half of a year’s funding for the
purchased services line
item.
Two speakers who appeared before
the committee criticized the temporary CSB budget.
Elizabeth Bartz, a member of
the Social Services Advisory Board, said she supported
CSB getting its full funding for the year, “so
CSB can operate at its fullest capacity and not with
its hands tied behind its back.”
Bartz said former director Connie
Humble told the advisory board in May that 50 positions
would be eliminated from the agency’s budget in
2008. Then in September, with Humble gone, the board
was told the plan for layoffs had been accelerated.
“We understand there have
been concerns,” Bartz told the committee. “It
has been very tense in our meetings with CSB.”
“A temporary spending measure
could jeopardize ... the delivery of services,”
said Kathleen Storey-Wagner, president of the American
Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees
(AFSCME) Local 2696, which represents CSB’s bargaining
employees.
The question as to whether Council
has the authority to reduce line items in the CSB budget
raised some concerns and led Council President Clair
Dickinson (D-at large) to vote
against the legislation.
“I support the idea of
giving CSB a quarter of their budget,” Dickinson
said in the committee meeting. “I don’t
support the part of the amendment that changes line
items.”
But Pete Crossland (D-District
4) defended the change.
“We are trying to thwart
CSB from doing these detrimental layoffs,” Crossland
said. “I would urge you to go ahead and adopt
this.”
The temporary JFS budget was
introduced because committee chair Paula Prentice (D-District
8) said there was never a budget hearing scheduled for
the agency. After discussion with Richard Owens, assistant
director of administration and finance of JFS, Prentice
proposed giving the agency 50 percent of its budget
for purchased services and planned to discuss the budget
in full in January.
In the same piece of legislation
that gave CSB and JFS temporary budgets, full operating
budgets were awarded to the Alcohol, Drug Addiction
and Mental Health Services Board and the Board of Mental
Retardation and Developmental Disabilities. Council
adopted the budgets by a vote of 9-1, with one abstention.
In other legislation, Council
voted to give temporary budgets to all other
county departments with the exception of the above and
County Council, Department of Environmental Services
— Sewer Fund, Engineer and Consumer Affairs.
During the Council meeting, Council
approved legislation that allowed the Board of Elections
to reallocate $60,000 of its budget to cover personnel
costs for the remainder of the year.
In other business:
• Council’s Public
Works Committee recommended adoption of new fees for
the Summit County Metropolitan Sewer District. The amended
ordinance reflected changes that allow for staggered
increases in fees after concerns were raised by the
Home Builders Association Serving Portage and Summit
Counties. At its Council meeting later in the evening,
Council passed the legislation by a vote of 8-3.
• Council adopted legislation
authorizing an agreement between the county and the
city of Akron for the county to perform the duties of
the Weights and Measures Division. [See
related News & Notes item on Page
3.]
• Council adopted legislation
that repeals the county’s smoking regulations
that were to take effect at the first of the year. With
the state’s law banning smoking in most indoor
public places now in effect,
Tim Crawford (D-District 7) introduced the legislation
“to avoid conflict in the two laws,” he
said.
• During the Council meeting,
departing members of Council were honored. Paul Gallagher
(D-at large) was honored for his 22 years as a member
of Council. Gallagher was sworn in Dec. 19 as a Summit
County Common Pleas Court judge.
Dickinson was honored for his
two stints on Council. In November, he was elected to
the 9th District Court of Appeals, where he served before
his current term on Council.
Also honored was Michael Callahan
(R-at large), who was appointed to Council in 2001 and
was then elected. Callahan did not win re-election in
November.
Callahan, who has been a judge
and prosecutor in the county, praised the county’s
employees.
“I want to thank the men
and women who work for Summit County,” he said.
“You are truly what is good and right about Summit
County government.”
• Council also approved
a motion regarding its schedule of meetings for 2007.
The organizational meeting for 2007 is scheduled for
Jan. 2 at 4 p.m., with committee meetings to follow.
The meetings take place in Council
Chambers on the seventh floor of the Ohio Building,
175 S. Main St.
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