WARREN — Trumbull County is projected to spend less on providing public defenders for low-income individuals requiring legal support, thanks to the state covering approximately 88% of the cost for the Ohio Public Defender’s Office.

Commissioners voted 3-0 on Wednesday to approve a 2025-26 contract with the Ohio Public Defender’s Office that will cost $478,844 over the next year.

“It is a decrease of what the county will be responsible for,” said Laura O. Berzonski, director of the agency’s Trumbull office, during the commissioners’ workshop Tuesday.

During the current contract, which ends in June, the annual cost of providing legal representation to indigent defendants in Trumbull County was approximately $2.8 million. However, Trumbull County paid $613,923 while the state covered the remaining 83%.

Next year’s contract will be reduced by $315,644.

Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine’s 2026-27 budget is projected to provide a higher rate of investment in indigent defense, which, if passed, will allow the county to pay 12 cents for every dollar spent.

The agency has been contracted to provide service in Trumbull County since 1984, according to Berzonski. Contracts are renewed each year.

“The Office of Public Defenders currently provides legal services in 10 Ohio counties,” she said.

Trumbull is the only county in Northeast Ohio to contract with the Office of Public Defenders. The other nine are in southern Ohio.

Indigent defendants in Mahoning County are assigned court-appointed counsel by judges. Those in Ashtabula, Geauga, Portage and Stark counties are provided legal representation through a combination of court-appointed attorneys and county-based public defender’s offices.

Attorney Patrick T. Clark, the agency’s regional director of trial service, said contracting with the Office of Public Defenders allows counties to pay their share of the costs quarterly instead of waiting months after the services are provided.

Commissioner Denny Malloy asked why Trumbull County has not established its own public defender’s office.

“It is honestly the preference of each county,” Berzonski said.

Trumbull County Assistant Prosecutor Bill Danso said there was talk five to six years ago about establishing a county public defender’s office. Berzonski said Trumbull County did attempt to make changes in 2019 or 2020.

“Our office was removed from the common pleas court,” she said. “It resulted in the county receiving 5.5% less in reimbursements. It cost the county more money.”

Under the contract with the county, the Ohio Public Defender’s Office not only provides indigent representation to county defendants, but to communities such as Lordstown, Warren, Girard and others.

Shara Taylor, the commissioners’ accounts payable clerk, said the county has not been reimbursed for the services provided to these communities by the public defender’s office for several years because of questions by Lordstown officials about how they were being billed.

“We were getting some funds back, but now we are not getting anything from any of the municipalities,” she said. “For years, it was a flat rate. We made agreements with each municipality and they would pay us directly. We were told not to do any agreements with anyone because of Lordstown.”

At the time, Lordstown questioned what it was paying and sought an itemized bill before paying.

“We need a contract with the municipalities,” Commissioner Rick Hernandez said. “These communities are getting services that they are not reimbursing us for.”

Malloy said the commissioners need to develop a fair formula for the municipalities to pay for public defender services, which can be itemized.

Berzonski said the Trumbull office has 19 staff members, including herself as the director, two supervising attorneys, eight full-time assistant public defenders, two full-time investigators, six core support staff and 24 contract attorneys.

“We handle six municipal courts, which are all the municipal courts in the county, juvenile court and all of the common pleas courts,” she said.

Because of the projected savings, Berzonski told the commissioners her office is restructuring services, including eliminating four contract attorneys so it can hire two full-time public defenders in municipal courts, as well as adding a social worker to its staff. The social worker will be able to help its public defender clients incarcerated in Trumbull County to more effectively transition from the jail to a community-based corrections facility.

“Given the average estimated cost of a jail day in Trumbull County is $105, a social worker is cost-neutral if they save 120 cumulative days of jail over the course of a year,” Berzonski said.

“We anticipate that the addition of a social worker to our staff, along with our modest municipal court restructure, will save far more than 120 jail days in any given year.”