Sheriff: No outside investigation needed

Sheriff: No outside investigation needed

compiling cost analysis of free surplus equipment program

By RENEE FOX

Tribune Chronicle

WARREN ä Trumbull County Sheriff Tom Altiere said he will not be asking another law enforcement agency to conduct an external investigation into alleged misuse of equipment acquired mostly for free in a federal surplus program.

The program allows law enforcement agencies across the country to browse through items government no longer needs, that have already been paid for with federal tax dollars, and select equipment they can justify a need for. Law enforcement agencies need only to pay the cost to transport items like trucks, guns, cold weather clothing, ATVs, boats, tools and bucket trucks from military bases in the region. The office has estimated the value of the free stuff at $2 million.

Altiere said Major Tom Stewartás internal investigation, in addition to uncovering any wrong doing, will oversee a financial analysis of the program and perhaps create a database detailing the state of the equipment. Some have criticized the sheriffás acquisition of vehicles that do not work, but maintenance workers are allowed to, under the program, use parts from other free tools and trucks to fix the items.

Craig Batzer is the Columbus liaison in charge of the monitoring the program for the Ohio Department of Public Safety, he conducted a surprise audit on the sheriff's office use, storage and record keeping of free stuff in August.

His audit uncovered no wrongdoing from the programás perspective.

âWhile there are certain qualifications used to regulate the distribution of the equipment, the discretion of the use of it is up to the department that signs for it,ã Batzer said.

His office does not have the authority to launch an investigation, although another audit has been scheduled for this month, at the request of the sheriffás office.

Warren council member John Brown, D-3rd Ward, said he accompanied deputy Ty Kata, the man who has led the officeás acquisition of about 1,000 items, on a trip to pick up numerous vehicles in a late January trip.

Brown said he, Zachary Svette, operations director of Trumbull County MetroParks, Kata and another deputy left for the Navy base in Norfolk, Va. at 9:30 p.m. to pick up four trucks and an ATV. They traveled all night, Brown said, and stopped only to get the vehicles and eat a fast food lunch, even though a blizzard was raging on the way back.

âI said, hey, Kata, lets stop and get a hotel, it is really coming down out there,ã Brown said. âBut Kata said, àno, we gotta get back.á He was all business.ã

The group returned at 9:30 p.m. the next night, Brown said.

Altiere said that if Stewartás investigation turns up any fishy activity on Kataás part, âhe will receive an appropriate punishment for it, just like anyone else would.ã

Stewart was off sick last week, but, Altiere said, if Stewart is uncomfortable with any aspect of the program, he will invite an outside look.

Altiere said he will make a list of any other deputies that went on the 44 trips since 2011, to pickup equipment and how much money those trips cost; including labor, fuel, tolls, food and even the associated costs to repair some stuff they received that wasnát in working condition.

When asked if the sheriff plans to keep Humvees that no longer have much of a use, because the department now has many all wheel drive vehicles, Altiere said he is considering transfering two or three of the four to the Meigs County Sheriffás Office, but wants to keep at least one.

âWe donát use our guns everyday, and we pray we donát have to,ã Altiere said.

Altiere said deputies have to practice using equipment they havenát used before, and that is an acceptable use of the items.

Kata has admitted to working on a construction vehicle at his farm, something Batzer said is perfectly alright with his office.

Altiere said some of the construction equipment would have been nice to have around back in the 90s when they had to exhume bodies, âIt would have saved us a lot of time if weád had that to use.ã

Now, the backhoe and other construction vehicles will be used to help clean up environmental crimes.

âWe just had someone dump a huge pile of tires over on Griswold Avenue,ã Altiere said. âWe will use some surplus items to help in that pickupã

Some trucks, Kata said, are used as undercover vehicles by the TAG Law Enforcement Task Force, formed by Altiere and the Mahoning County Sheriffás Office in 2001.

Batzer said the office can use the equipment any way it wants to, throughout the county, as long as they retain ownership and storage records.

rfox@tribtoday.com