TOLEDO, Ohio — Lucas County Sheriff Michael Navarre asked county commissioners on Tuesday, October 27, for $47.9 million in general-fund money for 2027, $3.75 million more than his office received this year, even as the board pressed county offices to cut spending by 13 percent. According to Lake Erie Inquiry’s account of the hearing, built from the commissioners’ live-stream recording and the sheriff’s 2027 budget presentation, the request is 8.5 percent above this year’s $44.1 million, and commissioners sought the cuts to address a projected $27 million shortfall. No 2027 budget has been approved.
Navarre warned that meeting the target would cut about $5.7 million from this year’s budget and, in his slides as reported by Lake Erie Inquiry, would bring 44 layoffs, the loss of 10 vacant positions and the closing of one jail floor. The slides cited the fifth floor, which now holds 98 inmates, and said capacity would fall from 403 to 305. Those are the sheriff’s projections, not a board decision to close a floor.
The proposal budgets 20 fewer positions, but Navarre told commissioners higher wages drive most of the increase, Lake Erie Inquiry reported. A 6 percent raise the commissioners approved after a fact-finding hearing is the main reason, His slides also include a possible new 6 percent raise, higher food and medical contract costs, and a jail camera upgrade. Navarre said his employees are “still grossly underpaid,” in remarks reported by Lake Erie Inquiry, pointing to slides putting a new deputy at $27.25 an hour, versus $32.51 for a new Toledo officer.
Commissioners pushed back. Commissioner Pete Gerken said he understood a 13 percent cut was hard but told Navarre, “I don’t see any attempts toward that,” in remarks reported by Lake Erie Inquiry. Gerken warned other county offices could be asked to backfill the sheriff’s request, while Commissioner Anita Lopez said the board had not made that decision, according to Lake Erie Inquiry.
The sharpest exchange concerned patrol contracts with Springfield and Monclova townships, which pay for added patrols. Gerken said those payments leave the countywide budget covering part of the cost, and County Administrator Jessica M. Ford put the disputed amount at about $840,000 using 2026 wages, according to Lake Erie Inquiry. Navarre disputed that, said the townships pay assigned deputies’ full 2027 wages and health care, and warned that if both contracts fall through the county would lose $3.3 million. Neither revised deal has been approved.
Navarre is not alone: the prosecutor, coroner and other offices also missed the target, Lake Erie Inquiry reported. The sheriff’s request and the board’s target remain about $9.5 million apart, and the outcome will shape jail capacity and township patrols in 2027. Commissioners must still approve a budget, and Navarre said he will submit the township contracts for approval anyway — so the layoffs and jail-floor closing remain projections, not county actions.
Photo: MrJacon000, CC BY-SA 4.0