WARREN — Trumbull County commissioners on Wednesday delayed a vote awarding a two-year contract with Inmate Calling Solutions Inc. LLC to provide inmate telephones and financial transaction device equipment in the county jail because of questions brought by Commissioner Niki Frenchko.

According to a resolution before commissioners, the county was scheduled to receive an 80% commission on the total gross revenue of all telephone calls made by the inmates in the jail.

Frenchko said the wording of the contract states the county receives 70% of the gross revenue.

Sheriff’s office Sheriff Major Dan Mason said the request for proposal states 80% and that’s what they will be bound to provide.

Frenchko disagreed, stating once the board approved Wednesday’s agenda item, the company would be required to fulfill the terms of the contract as it is written, including providing 70% of the gross revenue from phone calls, instead of the 80% stated on the agenda item.

“I had a team that reviewed the contract and it was selected based on the percentage,” Mason said.

Because the contract, if passed, would be effective Oct. 26, Frenchko suggested commissioners delay the vote to give the sheriff’s and prosecutor’s offices time to review all of the related documents.

Under the proposed contract, Inmate Calling Solutions LLC would be required to provide 56 inmate phones, 26 inmate kiosks, 24 visitation phones, one booking kiosk and one lobby kiosk.

Four other companies submitted bids to provide telephone services in the jail — VIA Path / Global TelLink of Reston, Virginia, Combined Public Communications LLC of Cold Springs, Kentucky, Stellar Services LLC of Stoughton, Wisconsin, and Smart Communications of Seminole, Florida.

Via Path offered a 75% commission that would be provided to the county. The other bids either were incomplete or submitted too late for consideration.

Through September, there were 240,015 inmate calls, according to Mason. In 2023, there were 274,547 inmate calls made in the jail.

While the percentage the county received was one aspect of why Inmate Calling Solutions was chosen, Mason said there were other aspects of the contract proposal that may help the sheriff’s office in its investigations.

In other action, commissioners:

•Approved the sheriff’s office to provide school resource officers for Mathews Local Schools and Southington Local Schools for $70,377 per deputy. Commissioners Denny Malloy and Mauro Cantalamessa agreed and Frenchko abstained because, she said, the proposed contracts do not take into account the cost of the depreciation for the office’s vehicles when the deputies are located at the schools.

•Approved a $5,700 American Rescue Plan request from Gustavus to do a survey of its cemetery

•Approved the satisfaction of mortgages for Anthony W. and Debra A. Rice, Joann Stoutamire, Teyonna McQueen and Vasilios Makridis because each completed payments on either a five- or 10-year mortgage loan in which they received assistance through the county HOME programs designed to assist low-income residents update their homes.

Malloy and Cantalamessa agreed. Frenchko either abstained or voted no on the four items, saying the contract forms were not done correctly or were incomplete.

•Approved a memorandum of understanding to provide ARP funds for the Maplewood Park Sanitary Sewer Engineering Study, $250,000; Trumbull County Sanitary Lateral Assistance Program, $600,000; Crain Drive Sanitary Sewer Design Engineering project, $350,000; and the Blueprint, Phase 2, Water Improvements Design Engineering Project, $435,000.

•Awarded Frank Martuccio Asphalt & Paving Inc. of Hermitage, Pa., a $112,850 contract to do emergency repairs of a 6,700-foot section of Bradley Brownlee Road.