Mahoning sheriff announces proposes layoffs March 28

YOUNGSTOWN — Because of Mahoning County’s budget shortfall, layoff notices were mailed today to 101 employees of the Mahoning County Sheriff’s Department, Sheriff Randall A. Wellington announced.

The layoffs of about one-third of the sheriff’s staff are scheduled to take effect at 7 a.m. March 28 and are to coincide with the closing of the 96-bed minimum security misdemeanor jail as an overnight facility and the closing of about half of the main jail, the sheriff said.

“The recession that everyone is facing should probably be called a depression, as it certainly is one around here. The county is in a financial freefall,” the sheriff said.

The layoffs and closings will require the permission of the federal court that has been overseeing jail operations as part of a three-year consent decree that settled a jail inmates’ lawsuit concerning jail crowding, Wellington said.

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