DEFIANCE — The board of directors for the Corrections Center of Northwest Ohio (CCNO) recently approved a new medical provider vendor.
CCNO Executive Director Dennis Sullivan explained the current vendor is no longer going to provide services to the jail and the agreement expires on Jan. 21. A new provider needs to be in place prior to that and requests for proposals were sent out, with four coming back.
The main issues discussed by the board was that the proposals came back more than was budgeted for next year and how to pay for the extra cost.
The vendor Sullivan proposed going with had a cost of $3.5 million, while the board budgeted $2.7 million.
CCNO Fiscal Officer Tonya Justice said the excess could be paid for through unused funds, which would keep each member’s per diem rate at $69.93, or the budget for 2026 could be increased which would raise the per diem rate for member jurisdictions to $76.37.
Board member and Fulton County Commissioner Jeff Rupp suggested a third option, which would combine the other two. He said just looking at Fulton County, increasing the per diem rate to $76.37 would cost his county about $82,000 more in the year.
Pete Gerken, also a board member and Lucas County commissioner, pointed out his county already passed the budget for 2026 and is facing dire financial circumstances.
“We projected a $12 million operating deficit,” Gerken said. “To go back and recalculate that just increases my debt.”
He advocated for using the unused funds.
“We have money here to do it,” Gerken said. “Is it going to take us down lower than we like? Probably. Not a great answer, but I can’t really go back at this point and vote for something that would increase our per diem.”
In October, the board approved using $1 million of unused funds in part to lower the per diem rate to $69.93, which Sullivan said was the lowest rate since 2009.
Rupp cautioned against using just unused funds to help pay for the medical provider as that could result in a jump in per diem rates for 2027.
Sullivan also said revenue for next year likely will be lower due to the FCC changing regulations regarding fees that can be charged to inmates for video calls. CCNO contracts with a company for those services but receives a commission on the fees.
“So whatever we have left probably will have to be used to offset that cost,” Sullivan said.
Justice said she wouldn’t know precisely how much will be left in the unused funds until February, and the board voted to use the unused funds but will revisit the discussion in February and possibly adjust the per diem rates in July if needed.
