ELYRIA — Two laid-off Lorain County Sheriff’s deputies were back on the streets Thursday, knocking on doors in an effort to convince voters to leave in place a 0.5 percent sales tax hike imposed by county commissioners earlier this year.
Dan Strohsack quickly won the support of Bud Shuster on Pinewood Drive in Elyria after he explained what he and his fellow deputies did for the cities — running the jail, keeping track of sex offenders and serving warrants.
“I think they deserve it,” Shuster said after Strohsack finished his pitch.
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Not everyone has been so easily sold, Strohsack said, but most are willing to listen, and many of those have promised to vote for Issue 4 when they cast their ballots next month.
Citing dwindling revenue, the commissioners slashed $6 million across county government late last year, a move that led to more than 75 county workers, including 12 full-time deputies and eight part-time deputies, losing their jobs.
Two of the laid-off deputies have returned to work thanks to funding from the Lorain County Solid Waste Management District, but others have been forced to take work where they can.
Strohsack is working as a corrections officer in the county jail and picking up a few shifts with Kipton police. Ryan Sayers, another laid-off deputy who was knocking on doors with Strohsack on Thursday afternoon, worked as a Lorain County Metro Parks ranger over the summer and is now working at the jail.
But Strohsack said if the sales tax fails at the polls, a wing at the jail could be closed, and he and Sayers could be out of work again. Besides, he said, he doesn’t want to be a corrections officer, he wants to be a cop.
“You could pay me the same to go dig a ditch, but I want to be back out there doing what I love,” Strohsack told Roger Vanek, another Pinewood Drive resident.
Vanek said he wasn’t convinced. He said he is opposed to the 0.5 percent income tax hike that the city of Elyria is trying to get passed because he fears it will simply lead to city workers taking home more money.
“I have a problem with the police and fire here in town, with this longevity pay,” he said.
Vanek said government workers need to be willing to sacrifice.
“Some of these people had it good for a long time,” he said. “But there’s a lot of people who don’t know where the next slice of bread is coming from.”
Vanek also said he wants to see immediate results if he does vote to keep the county sales tax increase in place, something Strohsack said will definitely happen. If the sales tax does pass, he said, he and his fellow laid-off deputies will be back on the job within a week.
Strohsack said he believes the sales tax is the fairest way to raise money for the county because everyone will end up paying a little to put the deputies back on the road.
“The drug dealer who buys his $200 pair of shoes is going to be paying it,” he told Vanek. “He’s actually going to pay for us to go out and get him.”
Sayers said he’s been telling people that the commissioners aren’t bluffing when they say the county needs the money and more cuts will happen if the sales tax increase doesn’t pass.
“They really need it,” he said. “This is reality.”
Sheriff’s Capt. Dennis Cavanaugh, commander of the Lorain County Drug Task Force, said he has been coordinating the deputies’ door-to-door campaign.
Right now, he said, the deputies are focusing on Elyria and Carlisle and Elyria townships, but they also plan to hit Lorain and other areas of the county in the coming weeks. About 30 deputies are expected to knock on doors Saturday, he said.
And the deputies won’t be alone, Cavanaugh said. Assistant county prosecutors and other county workers who have taken pay cuts or seen coworkers lose their jobs also will be campaigning for the tax over the next month.
Contact Brad Dicken at 329-7147 or bdicken@chroniclet.com.
