Commissioners, tourism officials react to proposed bill

Nov. 10—JEFFERSON — The Ashtabula County Board of Commissioners was recently informed that State Sen. Sandy O'Brien would be introducing a bill to allow the county to use its bed tax funds to build a new county jail.

According to a press release from the commissioners, the trio had a meeting with Sheriff William Niemi on Tuesday, and O'Brien attended the meeting. It was suggested at the meeting that the county's two-percent bed tax, which are paid by overnight visitors to the county and total around $700,00 per year, could be used to pay for jail construction. The money funds the county's Convention Facilities Authority.

Until recently, the CFA paid a significant amount of those funds to the debt on the Lodge at Geneva-on-the-Lake, but the county recently received funds from the state to pay for the debt.

The county has a total of a five-percent bed tax, with some municipalities in the county having additional bed taxes of their own.

According to the release, the commissioners stated that jail construction would not be among the permissible uses for bed tax funds, at which point O'Brien stated she would be introducing legislation soon that would expand the permitted uses of bed tax funding to include jail construction.

"While we appreciate the Senator's efforts to find creative ways and sources to help move this project forward which is so critical to the residents and businesses of Ashtabula County, as well as our public safety and judiciary partners, we are concerned and disappointed that we were completely unaware of any such effort being pursued and not able to discuss it with our partners in tourism at the Ashtabula County [Convention and] Visitors Bureau or the [Convention Facilities Authority] and consider all options and how such a decision may impact each of them as well as our county as a whole," the release states.

The commissioners have worked to improve their relationship with the CFA and ACCVB, and they informed the two groups and want to let the community know in order to work collectively on the best solution.

Holly Mayernick, president of the CFA board, said she is working as she has been directed by her board, to find ways to benefit the tourism industry with bed tax funds being collected by the CFA.

"We've been working with legal counsel to make sure that we don't violate any of the parameters of the law, and yet, we continue to feed the tourism industry county-wide," she said. "That doesn't mean that any of us think law enforcement or a jail is not important, it's that it doesn't fit the letter of the law.

"We would rather work with the commissioners than a shotgun approach from a legislator to manage the process legally."

Mayernick said she is looking forward to an upcoming meeting with the commissioners, to continue the discussions.

The commissioners have been seeking funding for the construction of a new jail for some time. In 2021, a proposed .5-percent sales tax modification was proposed by the commissioners to pay for a new jail, but voters rejected the measure.

The ACCVB released a statement advocating against the move, stating that the county has demonstrated how proper investment of the bed tax can create an economic engine to improve communities and create jobs. The statement goes on to say jeopardizing those dollars demonstrates a lack of understanding of basic economics.

"I cannot overstate how disappointed I am to find ourselves in the same position that we were two years ago," ACCVB Executive Director Stephanie Siegel said in the statement. "Once again, our elected officials are making sweeping decisions without any communication with local stakeholders. The move to redirect CFA bed tax is shortsighted and will prevent the opportunity for the next transformation project in the County.

"It is unfortunate that our Commissioners are being painted into a corner and asked to choose between public safety and tourism. Any reasonable person recognizes that these are not mutually exclusive and it is unfair to suggest otherwise."

The statement claims that in 2021, county officials said they had no intention of using CFA funds to pay for capital projects.

The CVB has had an open dialogue from the commissioners, and they were blindsided by the O'Brien's plan, according to the statement.

Jim Hockaday, Conneaut city manager and vice president of the ACCVB board, was vehemently opposed to the proposal.

"This is an absolute betrayal on the part of our state reps and senators, who have continued to make dramatic changes or attempt to make dramatic changes to the tourism industry in Ashtabula County with zero consultation with the tourism industry, the businesses that are directly affected by this, and do it with ill regard to what's going on here," he said.

Tourism is one of the county's largest industries, and is the fastest growing in the county, Hockaday said.

"To even think of taking money from tourism in order to pay for something else is going to be tantamount to throwing a wet blanket over the fire that is the economic engine of this county," he said. "I think it's ill-advised at best, and foolish at worst."

The tourism industry agreed to tax itself to support it's own growth, Hockaday said.

"Tourism as an industry said, 'We want to grow and we're going to generate the revenue of our own growth,' and they agreed to tax themselves," he said. "That same logic should extend to the public and public safety. As a rule of thumb, any time we have the ability to take a tax and tie it back to a specific service, we do that. We try and restrict funding and what it goes for, so the wishes and the will of the taxpayer is known.

"This suggestion of stealing these agreed-upon tax payments from the lodging community and then applying them to some other, albeit public safety, some other service is absolutely abhorrent, and it doesn't match the goal."

The county commissioners could vote to raise taxes to pay for the construction of a jail, Hockaday said.

"The jail has been in absolutely abysmal condition since I started managing communities in the county in 2009," he said.

The conditions of the jail need to be addressed.

"Month after month, year after year, the state of Ohio says, 'Oh, jeez, our cup runneth over. The rainy day fund is bigger than it's ever been. We're still throwing off more cash than we really know what to do with,' and then to say, 'Hey, public safety isn't a priority,' that's absolutely ridiculous," Hockaday said.

Hockaday said elected officials need to understand that their personal agendas are not always correct.

"Anything in terms of the strides that would have been made by the debt of the lodge being relieved, is simply being substituted for another debt," he said. "Even if it's made lawful by the state, the commissioners don't have to do it."

Hockaday said Niemi is right that there needs to be more resources for public safety, but there are other solutions.

"Tourism believes in public safety, tourism believes clean, green and safe are key elements for great tourism, but it also doesn't mean that tourism should exclusively pay for the public safety of this county," he said.

A new jail has been needed for years.

He said the commissioners could vote to raise taxes to pay for a new jail without a vote of the public.

"They need to just do it," he said.

He called for the commissioners to address the issue.

"They had no problems raising water and sewer rates 40, 50 percent around the county, but they won't do the same for public safety, so is public safety less important than water," Hockaday said.

Taxpayers have an obligation to keep the community safe.

"I, for one, as a community leader, and two, as a taxpayer myself, I have no problems paying for a jail, and if the commissioners were to change the sales tax or whatever, happily so," Hockaday said. "It needs to be done. It's been a problem for 15 years. It's been overflowing, where we're trying to figure out which violent offender to turn out on the street because we don't have the jail space for it.

"It's a ridiculous proposition, it needs to end, but it doesn't start by stealing somebody else's lunch. They wouldn't walk over to the manufacturing community and say we're going to levy a special tax on manufacturing just to pay for jails."

He said something like this has never been done before in the state.

"No other county, out of 88, has ever considered stripping money away from tourism to pay for a jail," Hockaday said.

O'Brien could not be reached for comment.