ASHLAND — Ashland County Common Pleas Court judge Ron Forsthoefel successfully prodded the Board of County Commissioners on Thursday to accept $450,000 of state grant money that will essentially replace the court’s probation services.
After an hour-long presentation, the commissioners approved a motion 2-1 to approve of the funding. Commissioner president Jim Justice dissented.
The money will come from the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction in quarterly installments for the next year in order to allow Forsthoefel, and future judges, to hire additional probation officers.
Additional probation officers will allow the the two full-time and one part-time Adult Parole Authority officers to refocus their time and attention on high-level offenders so that another tragedy that left Reagan Tokes dead in February 2017 doesn’t happen again.
Brian Golsby, a registered sex offender, was released from state prison in November 2016 and given a GPS tracking device as part of his re-entry program. Neither the program nor his parole officer actively tracked him. He committed six robberies before robbing, raping and killing Tokes in Grove City.
“There was legislation that resulted from that whole thing,” Forsthoefel said, addressing the commissioners.
Part of the legislation dealt with revising post-release supervision requirements, staffing levels of the state’s APA, requiring closer monitoring of parole officer case loads.
The state’s APA employs parole officers that some county courts also use for probation programs. Ashland County is one such court.
One of the major moves stemming from the legislation involved the creation of funding that allows courts like Ashland County to hire additional probation officers in order to free up parole officers to better manage case loads of high-level offenders.
But that’s all old news. Forsthoefel came to the Board of Commissioners on Thursday urging them to make a decision immediately, before the $450,000 went elsewhere in the state.
The opportunity for the funding was first presented to the commissioners in April 2019 as part of the judge’s 2020 budget proposal.
At the time, county commissioners didn’t know much about the new funding and what that money’s availability into the future would be. So the money went unallocated.
On Jan. 21, ORDC’s Chief of Bureau of Community Sanctions Chris Galli sent Ashland County Court of Common Pleas’ Court Administrator Tina Carpenter a letter asking if the court planned to move forward with accepting the grant money.
Forsthoefel said he was under the impression the grant would be accepted by the commissioners, but still awaited a formal response through February.
So, on Thursday, Forsthoefel decided to confront the commissioners himself. He came with Galli and Cynthia Mausser, the ORDC’s deputy director of the Division of Parole and Community Service to make them available for any questions commissioners might have.
Board of Commissioners President Jim Justice’s concern revolved around the possibility the program’s funding dries up in years to come, leaving the county with a program it now had to fund.
“But the hiring is another part, being able to get good staff and pay them enough money to do that. And the other part is I can’t bear to think of going out for a levy for money to fund this again,” Justice said.
Still, Forsthoefel demanded the commissioners answer, either way.
“The state has other places they can send that money, if we’re not going to take a half-million dollars. And I’m sorry guys, but anybody that says, you know ‘I’m really concerned about the future,’ well, so am I. And that’s why I’m pushing this program,” the judge said.
Forsthoefel, who announced he will not run for another term in July, said he didn’t need to push the program because he’s moving toward retirement.
Ashland County Assistant Prosecutor Victor Perez and local attorney and assistant law director for the City of Ashland David Stimpert both announced their bids for the seat last summer.
“But you can ‘what if?’ it all day long, and you just have to react. ‘Well, I don’t know if we can hire good people.’ Well, that’s my problem. Not yours. And I think I can meet that challenge. So let me do my job, but at least give these guys an answer today, please,” Forsthoefel said.
Commissioner Denny Bittle said he is in favor of adopting the program, along with the state money, because it effectively shifts power back to the county court system.
“If we can get local control (of how the court manages probation), I’m willing to take the risk of the financing going forward. I do trust our judge, and whoever that would be elected,” he said.
Ultimately, Bittle made the motion to accept the ODRC’s $450,000 grant. Justice dissented because he still had concerns about future funding.
Forsthoefel thanked the commissioners for approving the grant money, which is expected to be allocated as soon as April, Galli said.
