Strong Public Safety Support

Jul 1

The Heart of the Matter

Our first responders are running on empty, and it's putting Lawrence County families at risk. Volunteer fire departments are patching together aging equipment. EMS crews are stretched past the breaking point. Law enforcement is understaffed. And we keep losing our best, most experienced people to departments that can pay them what they're worth.

As a first responder for more than twenty years, I know exactly what that costs — in burnout, in response times, in lives. I also served as chaplain — the one they called when the run went bad, when a family needed prayer, or when a first responder needed someone to talk to. I've seen this from every side, including the spiritual one.

We don't need to raise taxes to fix this. We need to fix our priorities.

Frontline-first budgeting. Take the savings a state performance audit uncovers and send them to the people doing the work, not the overhead around them.

Equip the team. Updated vehicles, protective gear, modern rescue technology, and communication systems that actually work in our terrain.

Stop the talent drain. Make competitive pay and benefits a budget priority, so the people this county trains stay in this county.

Fix the dead zones. Push the county's 911 Planning Committee toward real-time GPS tracking for dispatch, a fully funded VHF fallback for the deep valleys where digital signal drops, and protected tristate patching for large-scale mutual aid.

Fund it without new taxes. Ask LEDC's grant-writing experts to pursue chasing state, federal, and Appalachian regional dollars for equipment — not property owners' pockets.

Our people show up for us every day. It's time this county showed up for them.

No Strings. No Secrets. No Standing By.

[Read the Full Public Safety Plan ↓]

The Full Plan

The Problem

Our frontline first responders are underfunded, and it's putting Lawrence County families at risk. Volunteer fire departments are struggling to maintain aging equipment. EMS services are stretched to the breaking point. Law enforcement is understaffed. We're asking brave men and women to do life-saving work without the basic resources the job demands.

This isn't just unfair to the people doing it — it's dangerous for everyone else. When equipment fails, response times suffer. When response times suffer, burnout follows. And we keep losing our best, most experienced local personnel to outside departments offering better resources and better pay.

The Solution

As a 20-plus-year first responder, I know exactly what it takes to protect a community. We don't need to raise taxes to fix this. We need to fix our budget priorities.

Frontline-First Budgeting. Use some of the savings identified by our state performance audit to cut administrative overhead and send those dollars straight to the frontline.

Equipping the Team. Make sure fire, EMS, and law enforcement have the updated equipment, protective gear, and specialized training required to come home safe at the end of every shift.

Stopping the Talent Drain. Build sustainable, long-term funding strategies to retain the people this county already trained — so the experience we paid for stays here.

My Action Plan

Step 1 — Audit Current Public Safety Spending. Identify the real gaps in funding, gear, and staffing across our emergency systems. We need to know exactly where the money is going before we can fix where it should go.

Step 2 — Direct County Resources to Essential Equipment.

Fire departments: partner our grant writing on trucks, protective turnout gear, and modern rescue technology.
EMS services: upgrade ambulances, medical equipment, and communication systems.
Law enforcement: reliable patrol vehicles, field technology.

Step 3 — Make Competitive Pay a Budget Priority. Chronic burnout and turnover cost taxpayers more than retention ever would. I'll fight for it every budget cycle — keeping experienced personnel is the smarter investment, not the more expensive one.

Step 4 — Secure Ongoing Training and Professional Development. Advanced firefighter certifications, paramedic continuing education, tactical specializations, leadership development — an investment in the people, not just the equipment.

Step 5 — Maximize Emergency Technology and Ensure Total Terrain Coverage. Build on the county's recent 911 dispatch upgrade instead of letting it sit half-used. The Ohio MARCS digital system gives us vital multi-agency interoperability, but our mountainous terrain still creates real communication dead zones. So:

Push the county's 911 Planning Committee toward real-time GPS tracking so dispatch can see exactly where every unit is during a crisis.
Fully fund and maintain our legacy VHF radio infrastructure as the fallback when digital signal drops in the valleys.
Protect our dispatch center's ability to patch local and neighboring out-of-state frequencies together for seamless mutual aid across county and state lines.

Step 6 — Collaborate with First Responder Leadership. Partner directly with our fire chiefs, EMS directors, Sheriff and other law enforcement leadership to understand what's actually needed on the ground. Real leadership listens to the people doing the work before deciding what they need.

Step 7 — Ask LEDC Grant Staff for Assistance for Non-Tax Funding. Partner with the LEDC, the grant-writing expertise is already sitting inside the LEDC to go after state, federal, and Appalachian regional dollars for capital equipment — so our first responders get what they need without a new burden on property owners.

Step 8 — Launch a Community Paramedicine Program. Train a select group of paramedics in community paramedicine — a model Ohio already authorized under ORC 4765.361. Instead of just responding to 911 calls, these paramedics would make follow-up visits to patients who frequently cycle through the ER, helping them manage chronic conditions at home and cutting those repeat visits.

Ohio's own programs prove it works. Dayton's partnership with Premier Health served over 100 patients and cut ER visits and EMS requests by 38% program-wide — with the first cohort of highest-utilizer patients seeing reductions of over 80%. Coshocton County's program dropped one patient from 67 ambulance calls to zero, replacing roughly $700 per transport with a roughly $75 per visit cost. The Sylvania/Springfield Townships HERO program cut fall-related 911 calls by 82% through home safety modifications and education. Violet Township's community paramedic now makes nearly 1,600 visits each year, and they're adding a second paramedic because demand keeps growing. Mercy Health Urbana launched a similar program with a $225,000 ODH Rural Health Pilot grant covering Champaign County.

The state just received more than $200 million from CMS under the "Emergency Care Transformation" pillar of the Rural Health Transformation initiative — and Lawrence County is listed as a focus county. Pair that with Ohio EMS Grants and local hospital partnerships, and the funding is there.

The goal: fewer repeat 911 calls, lower ambulance costs, and better outcomes for the people who need it most — without a penny from local taxpayers.

Commissioner Role in Public Safety — What the Law Says

Here's the division of responsibility people deserve to understand. The sheriff is the county's chief law enforcement officer and runs day-to-day jail operations. But under Ohio law (ORC 307.01 and 307.02), the board of county commissioners decides whether a county jail is needed and its size, style, and cost — subject to state minimum jail standards. Commissioners appropriate the funds for jail operations, inmate care, transportation, and equipment. They receive monthly cost reports from the sheriff. And they can contract for food service, medical care, and other inmate programs with the sheriff's consent.

In short: the sheriff runs operations. Commissioners control the purse strings, the facility decisions, and the overall fiscal priorities. That's exactly why a performance audit of corrections and public safety spending matters — it shows us where resources can move to the frontline without asking taxpayers for more. My approach will always respect this division of roles while making sure our first responders have what the job actually requires.

THE JAIL: FIXING IT THE RIGHT WAY

Our jail was built in 1974. The state's own inspectors have said it plainly: it can't meet basic security standards — no secure booking area, no established security perimeter — because of the age and layout of the building itself. That's not a paperwork problem. That's a building problem.

For years, we've been sending inmates to other counties' jails and paying for it. We've been lucky that the cost of inaction has stayed manageable. That luck won't hold forever. The longer we wait, the more expensive this gets — not just in dollars, but in liability, in risk, and in the burden it places on our sheriff and his staff.

In 2022, Lawrence County voters said no to a new tax for a new jail. I heard them. I stand with them. The last thing this county needs is another burden on families and property owners who are already stretched thin.

There are paths forward that don't require going back to the voters with the same ask they already rejected. I'm committed to pursuing every one of them — aggressively, transparently, and with the same fiscal discipline I've applied throughout my career.

The people of Lawrence County deserve a commissioner who heard their answer in 2022 and found a better way. That's exactly what I intend to be.