A rendering of the proposed Cuyahoga County Central Services Campus in Garfield Heights, as seen from Transportation Boulevard. More of the jail exists behind the tree and the publicly accessible and office-oriented portion (Cuyahoga County). CLICK IMAGES TO ENLARGE THEM.
New jail wins steering committee support
With a vote by a Justice Center steering committee today, Cuyahoga County Council got a recommendation it needed to formally and legally approve construction tomorrow on a new $894.26 million Central Services Campus corrections center in suburban Garfield Heights.
The non-binding but legally necessary recommendation came from an ad-hoc steering committee comprised of Cuyahoga County Probate Court Judge Anthony Russo, Clerk of Courts Nailah Byrd, Sheriff Harold Pretel, and former Deputy Court Administrator Christopher Russ, a designee of the Court of Common Pleas’ Presiding Judge Michael Shaughnessy.
Pretel abstained from voting. A majority vote in support of the Garfield Height jail project by the three remaining committee members was legally sufficient to advance the decision to the Cuyahoga County Council, county attorneys said.
A majority of Cuyahoga County Council members are likely to vote at 5 p.m. Tuesday in support of authorizing Cuyahoga County Executive Chris Ronayne’s administration to execute an $802.3 million design-build contract with general construction contractor Gilbane Inc.
Council had already voted to acquire land for the jail and authorize Gilbane to pursue up to $55 million in so-called Early Release Work so they could get started on site preparation including demolition and grading at 5400 Transportation Blvd. in Garfield Heights.
They are due to re-approve that Early Release Work as part of $91.95 million in pre-construction spending for the jail. That will include permitting, site preparation, insurance, consulting fees, FF&E costs (furniture, fixtures and equipment) and OS&E (operating supplies and equipment).
Site plan for the Cuyahoga County Central Services Campus corrections center with north at the top of the image. The football field at left is shown only for comparison and scale (Cuyahoga County).
The steering committee meeting was at the behest of Cuyahoga County Prosecutor Michael O’Malley who threatened to due because the project had been moving forward at the Garfield Heights site without approval by the steering committee as required by state law (Ohio Revised Code 153.36), O’Malley said.
The new Central Services Campus has been a priority for Cuyahoga County Executive Chris Ronayne since his election in November 2022. The need for a new county-based corrections center had been identified years earlier by a steering committee but no site-specific action had been taken.
In 2019, a steering committee of city and county officials recommended replacing the aging, cramped jail blocks downtown that was failing to meet state jail standards with a new consolidated corrections campus built outside of downtown. In early 2023, Ronayne toured the downtown jail.
“My lasting impression from the minute I walked in and walked the halls of the persons in our custody and the workers who worked there is that we can do better,” Ronayne said. “That’s why I’ve committed myself to this project, to work with this team, to see us to where where we our today.”
Downtown parking lot owners oppose the move to Garfield Heights because it would mean the loss of revenue from nearly 1,000 jail workers parking their cars. Some downtown law firms also opposed the move because they would have to drive to the suburbs to meet clients.
Ronayne said O’Malley is trying to stop the jail from getting built in Garfield Heights. But O’Malley said his intentions were about good government and succeeded in getting Ohio Auditor Keith Faber to look into the decision-making process of the new jail.
Exterior views of the proposed new Central Services Campus corrections center (Cuyahoga County).
“I think what we see here today is a victory for transparency and for the public,” O’Malley said of the steering committee’s meeting and the throng of media attending it. “We have representatives of the court system who are looking at evaluating a court function which is the county jail. I think this is a step in the right direction.”
“If the review by the Special Investigations Unit discloses that Cuyahoga County officials violated ORC 153.36 and caused public money to be expended illegally and in violation of Ohio law, it is possible that this office may issue, in an audit report, findings for recovery against responsible officials,” Faber wrote on April 24.
“A finding for recovery results in personal liability of the amount owed and any finding for recovery would be issued against officials who were responsible for the illegal expenditure at the time the expenditure was authorized,” Faber added.
“Certainly at some point today you will be given the opportunity to prove some of this, all of this or none of this,” O’Malley said of today’s steering committee action as it related to Faber’s claim of liability. “So that will be in your hands.”
Cuyahoga County lawyers advised the steering committees that they would not be held liable for past actions of the county administration or council members. While Sheriff Pretel said he was comforted by that, he still abstained from voting.
“My position is not opposition to the project,” Pretel said. “I just want to ensure, as we proceed in full compliance with the law, we remain ready to move forward once these issues are clearly resolved but I cannot vote until they are resolved.”
Renderings of what the publicly accessible areas of the new county jail in Garfield Heights is proposed to look like (Cuyahoga County).
“My high hope is that we will see this project through for the betterment of the people of Cuyahoga County, for the betterment of the persons who work in the jail facility, for the betterment of the people in our custody and most importantly for the benefit of people, the taxpayers, our citizens of Cuyahoga County,” Ronayne said.
According to Ronayne’s spokesperson Kelly Woodard, the corrections center’s construction cost figure doesn’t include $38.7 million the county paid in October 2023 from the Justice Center Capital Projects Fund for 72 acres of land bounded by Transportation, Granger Road and Interstate 480.
Adding in the property costs, the jail project represents a total of $932.95 million — the largest-ever construction project sponsored by the county government in dollar terms.
That doesn’t take into account recent and pending public- and private-sector megaprojects by the Northeast Ohio Regional Sewer District, Sherwin-Williams, Cleveland Clinic, Haslam Sports Group, or City of Cleveland’s Division of Port Control which are financially larger.
Project consultant Jeff Appelbaum, of Project Management Consultants, said county council needs to vote this week on the design-build contract because if it doesn’t, it will miss a time- and cost-constrained contractual window on sitework such as driving pilings into the hillside to support the jail facility.
Proposed facilities for corrections officers, deputies and other workers at the new jail (Cuyahoga County).
He was asked by Russ if the site has similar geotechnical issues like the partially abandoned City View shopping center built 20 years ago south of Interstate 480. City View was built on a former landfill that was unstable and leaking methane gas.
“Needless to say, we had geotechnical studies done,” Appelbaum said. “We had the site evaluated. And the answer is we don’t have any of those conditions on this site. This foundation is on basically rock. If anything, it’s a challenge because we have to drill into rock. But it’s a solid foundation. This is a very clean, buildable site.”
Today’s steering committee vote followed a statement issued late Sunday by the Court of Common Pleas to address the appearance of an improper deal to win support from the court’s judges for the jail.
The court distanced itself from an April 14 statement that Ronayne, County Council, and the court’s administrative and presiding Judge Michael Shaughnessy reached a tentative agreement on funding $150 million worth of capital improvements to county courthouse facilities downtown.
“While the court, the county council, and the administration continue to discuss a collaborative plan for the court’s facilities, the court has withdrawn its proposed tentative agreement to allow the discussions surrounding the jail to move forward without any suggestion that the future of the Justice Center is connected to that discussion,” the court’s Sunday statement read.
Renderings of facilities for inmates and visitors at the proposed new jail (Cuyahoga County).
The court further distanced itself from the goings-on at today’s steering committee meeting. Instead of Shaughnessy attending, the court designated Russ to attend on its behalf.
“The court has not had any discussions with its designee nor has it directed him regarding his fulfillment of this role, deferring to his professional judgment,” the court said in its statement.
“When I was asked by the administrative Judge Mike Shaughnessy through court administration (to be on this committee), I have not been given any marching orders, I have not been given any mandate to vote one way or the other,” Russ said. “I am voting based on my 28 years of public service in this county.”
He also said he “went back and forth all weekend and really deliberated over this” matter before supporting the new jail complex. He said it was based on his experience with home construction contractors who have to schedule sub-contractors and workers. Russ said if you can’t get them scheduled now, they’ll cost more later.
“We’re at 800-plus million (dollars),” he said. “If we don’t start doing anything soon, is that going to be $1 billion? This is not McDonald’s hamburgers we’re talking about. We’re talking taxpayer dollars. It could be $1 billion. If we wait any longer it could be $1.2 billion. It could be $1.5 billion. I mean those are staggering numbers.”
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