ASHLAND — The Ashland County Prosecutor’s Office is asking for a smaller budget in 2026.
Chris Tunnell, the county’s prosecutor, emphasized his office is asking for $30,781 less than was approved for his office in 2025 during his budget proposal on Thursday.
“So yeah, we’re asking for less money. Don’t know if that’s happened to you this year. I doubt it,” Tunnell said.
Commissioners appropriated $1,259,559 to the prosecutor’s office in 2025.
The reason behind the decrease is the prosecutor’s office not refilling a position through its Ashland County Department of Jobs and Family Services attorney.
Historically, JFS employed the position. Tunnell said the position was part of the state and county’s fight against the opioid crisis that led to a swollen number of children in custody.
“At one point we had two attorneys in here to do that line of work,” he said. “But we’ve worked our way through that and we’re on the backside of that now.”
Moving forward, the attorney working those cases will be employed by the JFS department, Tunnell said.
Despite the smaller ask, Tunnell said the 2026 budget for the prosecutor’s office includes 3% pay bumps for salaries and about $11,000 more to cover costs associated with contract services.
The bulk of that contract service cost comes from the Ashland Police Department’s upgraded technology for downloading cell phone data — technology that is shared with the prosecutor’s office, Tunnell said.
Still busy
Tunnell said the decrease in his office’s budget does not denote a less busy workload.
“We’re busy up there,” he said.
He estimates the office will have filed around 200 felony indictments by the end of the year, which signals a decrease. There were 176 at the end of November. The office filed 320 in 2024 and 346 in 2023.
Tunnell attributes that decrease to a drug enforcement unit that has “gelled.”
“They’ve been together for a couple years and are up and running, and it’s absolutely making a difference,” he said.
Tunnell also noted that Ashland County Common Pleas Judge Dave Stimpert’s sentencing structure seemingly helps deter crime.
While indictments are down, the number of victims his office helped this year is up. He said the office helped 536 victims, the second highest number his office has ever served.
Tunnell said more victims could be explained by an uptick in overdose manslaughter cases, which results in more victims because families are involved. His office has also prosecuted more serious sex crimes recently.
The office has had 11 jury trials in 2025, which is high, but not as high as 14 one year under former prosecutor Gary Bishop, Tunnell said.
Tunnell said there have been 17 appeals this year, and most of them are sentencing appeals. Those have increased since 2023, when the office saw 13. In 2024 there were 15.
On the juvenile side, the office reviewed 386 cases and filed 135 complaints. There were 129 court hearings and 121 meetings with victims, the prosecutor said.
The office’s civil side filed 173 opinions, reviewed 83 contracts and processed 17 public records requests. The civil side of the office also litigated six zoning lawsuits and had two zoning appeals.
Last year, the office only litigated two zoning lawsuits and had zero zoning appeals, Tunnell said.
“Those are all time consuming,” he said. “… So I think the criminal justice system is firing on all cylinders at this point.”
Ashland County commissioners didn’t take action on Thursday’s request; the board is accepting requests from department heads until commissioners ratify budgets in late December.