Staff photo / Dan Pompili From left, Austintown fire Chief David Schertzer, Austintown Trustee Chairman Bruce Shepas, Township Administrator Mark D’Apolito and police Chief Robert Gavalier, hosted a news conference Tuesday to address concerns about Austintown’s budget, particularly as it relates to police services and staffing.

AUSTINTOWN — Officials are working to tighten the township’s belt and find additional revenue, but the financial picture may be more bleak than what trustees and administrators can overcome.

Harder times and harder choices could be on the horizon, despite the township’s best efforts, was the message at a Tuesday afternoon press conference, necessitated by concerns Austintown patrol officers voiced after an internal email about cost-cutting measures reached them unintentionally.

Township Administrator Mark D’Apolito opened his statements with an apology.

“I apologize that we’re having this conversation at a press conference. I probably would have rather had it with the (police) union directly,” he said. “Unfortunately, we were not afforded that opportunity because before we could sit down, our information was shared publicly.”

D’Apolito made it clear that the email in question was a public record but was not something the township was necessarily ready to share beyond the eyes of trustees and department heads.

Police Chief Robert Gavalier took the blame. He said he shared an email — between D’Apolito and himself that discussed ideas about hard-line plans to minimize overtime and cut costs — department-wide because it also contained information about scheduling that he wanted to make available for emergency service dispatchers before the March schedule was made.

Officials at the conference, which also included Trustee Chairman Bruce Shepas and fire Chief David Schertzer, said the release of the email led to a rapid-fire spread of conjecture on social media, largely among the department’s Ohio Patrolmen’s Benevolent Association membership.

The primary concern voiced by patrolmen at the conference had to do with how shifts would be covered.

The “safe staffing” portion of the township’s collective bargaining agreement with the union mandates a minimum of five patrol officers on duty at all times.

“The contract has some provisions that allow the township to go below five, but we’re going to uphold our side of the obligations until we can’t do that,” D’Apolito said.

Under regular conditions and terms, if someone calls off, the contract requires that officer to find someone to cover the shift, or the lowest ranking officer still on duty from the preceding shift will have to be held over, using overtime hours, to maintain five officers on duty.

The contract also states that the holdover officer is not allowed to refuse the shift without discipline. But officers said the email in question seemed to imply that the officer may not be disciplined going forward, which may at times leave Austintown with fewer than five officers on duty, in violation of the collective bargaining agreement.

D’Apolito said the township will review the contract and intends to abide by the safe staffing terms. As long as officers abide by the CBA as well, he said, then no shifts should be lacking personnel.

The exchange grew tense and most of the patrol officers in attendance left the conference, seemingly unsatisfied with the township’s position.

BUDGET WOES

D’Apolito and Shepas said the township is still trying to reconcile the failure of a 2.4-mill police levy in November. That levy would have generated another $2.26 million for the department. They also said they may have to bring it back to the ballot.

“We took that levy as the voters directing us here at the township to more closely examine our costs and our expenditures,” D’Apolito said. “Ultimately, we may need to ask the voters to reconsider their position. However, before we do so, we as department heads and trustees, as the management team for Austintown Township, must prove to the residents that we’ve been good stewards of their tax dollars.”

Even before the levy was placed on the ballot, trustees worked with Gavalier to cut $200,000 from the police budget by minimizing training programs, changing the way the department staffs shifts and deferring some vehicle replacement costs. The township did not buy any new police cruisers last year, although that $150,000 cost may be unavoidable in 2025, given the high rate of wear and tear on police cruisers that run 24/7.

Earlier this month, at an emergency meeting, D’Apolito and trustees announced that after a cost analysis of the dispatch center, which handles emergency calls for Austintown and 23 other communities across Mahoning County, they are reopening negotiations with those other communities to increase the rates they pay.

D’Apolito and Fiscal Officer Laurie Wolfe found that, based on the dispatch center’s total 2024 operating cost of $2,544,826 to handle 86,703 calls, the cost per call was $29.35. However, Austintown Fire paid $40.28 per call for its 5,164 calls and Austintown Police paid $38.31 per call for its 21,714 calls.

Compared to other communities Austintown’s dispatch center serves, like Springfield ($8.18 per call for 7,951 calls and even Beaver Township ($26.88 per call for 9,300 calls), the township is paying disproportionately more to serve Austintown residents.

“We are not going to waste Austintown tax-paying dollars for other communities that aren’t paying their fair share,” Shepas said Tuesday. “But we are in talks with them.”

Beaver and Springfield are the only two still under contract, and their agreements will be reopened later this year. Meanwhile, the township is negotiating to bring all the others up to a rate more in line with last year’s average, to be in effect for 2025.

“We are optimistic that we will be able to increase those revenues in 2025 and further in 2026 and we are also optimistic that those revenues will help to offset the police department’s reliance on the general fund,” D’Apolito said.

The department in 2024 used money from the general fund — $670,000 — and he expects Austintown to transfer anywhere from $1.1 million to $1.4 million in 2025 from the general fund to the police budget.

“But that’s fluid,” he said. “If we can increase receivables from dispatch, that will reduce it, as will reducing overtime. But if we have to buy new cruisers, then that will increase that draw on the general fund.”

D’Apolito and Shepas noted that the road department also will be a bigger draw on the general fund this year because of the hard winter, as salt and road repair costs are expected to increase.

The township’s zoning department also runs entirely on the general fund and is expected to draw $325,000 from it this year. The parks department, with only three employees, is operating at a $100,000 deficit and has not had the benefit of a levy since the mid-1980s.

D’Apolito said he expects the general fund to have about $875,000 left at the end of this year unless departments perform better than expected.

On Tuesday, D’Apolito filed paperwork with the Mahoning County Board of Elections to certify a ballot measure for the renewal of the general fund levy, which originated in 1976 and has been renewed every five years since. He said the Mahoning County Auditor’s Office estimates the renewal will generate $166,000 in 2026.

Without a substantial positive change in the overall financial picture, though, hard days may be on the horizon, at least for the police department.

“Without a doubt if revenues don’t increase, going into future years, there’s a very distinct possibility of staffing changes,” D’Apolito said.

Gavalier said other considerations could be made before layoffs. For example, Austintown is a member of the Mahoning County Drug Task Force and Mahoning County Human Trafficking Task Force, and contributes officers’ time to participate in those operations.

“All we’re doing is trying to avoid layoffs,” he said. “There’s going to come a time when we’re not able to provide the same level of service we have because of less resources. At that time, if we have to, we’ll look at bringing people back from the task forces to work the road or take detectives out of the detective division and put them on the road. So, we have that option available to us, but right now we’re trying to do cost savings so we don’t have to go to that.”

For now, Gavalier said the township will do its best to maintain staffing levels to provide essential service.

“With non-emergency calls, it may take us a little bit longer to get there, but we should still be able to provide the same quality of service,” he said.