With passage of an ordinance specifying how revenue from a 0.25% sales tax can be spent, Cuyahoga County is one step closer to paying for a new jail in Garfield Heights. But the county prosecutor has again raised concerns about the process approving the jail.
Councilmembers voted 8-3 at a special meeting Monday to limit the use of funding from the sales tax to paying back debt, maintenance and operating costs from building a new jail and courthouse. The sales tax currently pays off debt from several other facilities, like Rocket Arena.
The original legislation included provisions allowing the county executive to spend revenues on any criminal justice expenses, but that was removed by council. An attempt by Councilmember Sunny Simon to further restrict spending by removing operations as an approved use was voted down Monday.
鈥淚t was originally, at least explained to the voters way back, that this was only going to be for building of these two structures and repairing the Justice Center and we're changing that," Simon said. "I think it's important to go back to what we originally had intended."
The county is also considering issuing $984.5 million in bonds to pay for construction of a new jail and introduced legislation to borrow another $73.2 million to begin paying for repairs at the courthouse building in Downtown Cleveland.
A vote on the bonds is stalled until at least April 28, in part because of a dispute between the county executive and county prosecutor.
In a March letter to Executive Chris Ronayne and members of county council, Prosecutor Michael O鈥橫alley insisted that the county was breaking state law by moving forward with the jail project without proper approval.
In a letter sent to Ohio Auditor Keith Faber on Monday, O鈥橫alley requested an investigation by the auditor鈥檚 public integrity unit.
鈥淭he Project proponents have failed to heed my demand based on my personal observations that the construction work is proceeding unabated as recently as April 16, 2026,鈥� O鈥橫alley wrote. 鈥淭o date, Cuyahoga County has not obtained the necessary approvals of the plans for the jail.鈥�
At council鈥檚 meeting on April 14, Ronayne鈥檚 Chief of Staff Erik Janas told council that Ronayne planned to seek those approvals but did not provide additional details.
During Monday's special meeting, County Council went into executive session with their attorneys to discuss O鈥橫alley鈥檚 argument that spending money on the new jail violates state law. It鈥檚 unclear what advice they received, but Councilmember Patrick O'Malley remained uncomfortable taking any votes on the jail.
鈥淲ith this letter today from Prosecutor O'Malley, I think it's not wise to vote on anything until we know that's been taken care of,鈥� Kelly said.
If council moves ahead as planned, nearly $1 billion from the bond issuance will be in hand by the first week of June, with construction to follow.
Currently, only site preparation work is being done at the 72-acre site in Garfield Heights.
