Some county councilmembers want to end jail contract with Cleveland, saying city breached deal

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CLEVELAND (WJW) – The Fox 8 I-Team obtained a copy of a letter three Cuyahoga County Councilmembers sent to prosecutors seeking legal action to end the jail contract with Cleveland.

“We are writing to request that you take legal action to terminate or declare void the Agreement between the City of Cleveland (“City”) and Cuyahoga County (“County”) for the Cuyahoga County Sheriff’s Department to House and Provide Services for City Prisoners (“Agreement”),” the letter states. “This Agreement, established as part of the County’s acquisition of the former City jail and police headquarters, was intended to foster a cooperative and mutually beneficial arrangement for the management of incarcerated individuals. However, based on information provided by your office, it is apparent that the City has repeatedly and flagrantly failed to adhere to its contractual obligations, and is therefore in substantial and on-going breach of material terms of the Agreement. This breach has not only created operational inefficiencies and undue burdens on County resources but has also exposed the county to an unacceptable level of liability.”

Council members Sunny Simon, Michael J. Gallagher, and Pernel Jones, Jr. signed the letter.

The I-Team reached out to all three council members asking exactly what part of the agreement they believe the city breached. Simon and Jones did not respond.

Gallagher did not answer specific questions but sent the following response.

“We have been working with this and the last administration to deal with the jail contract to no end,” Gallagher said. “While giving this administration and the new Cleveland administration a year to find a middle point we are left with no other reasonable avenue. Time and again the county has tried to partner with Cleveland to only find itself alone footing the bills. We, as representatives of the entire county, are obligated to provide fair and balanced services to all our communities and this situation has not been either of those from the start. It must be mentioned that we do not have this issue with the other communities that we serve. We look forward to resolve in the future.”

We reached out to Cleveland officials and were told they were just made aware of the letter and are reviewing it.

Cuyahoga County officials, however, said the letter from the council members does not reflect the county administration’s position.

“The 2017 agreement needs to be modified and the administration is currently engaged in a good faith discussion with the City of Cleveland to make changes we believe are critical to the long term success of our justice system,” press secretary Jennifer Ciaccia said.

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