Voters could be asked as soon as November to settle a long-simmering question about the Cuyahoga County sheriff: Should the position still be appointed by the county executive or return to being elected at the ballot box?
Cuyahoga County Council on Tuesday took up two rival proposals on the sheriff’s powers.
One, backed by Council Member Martin J. Sweeney, would make the sheriff an elected position beginning in 2028. Meanwhile, Cuyahoga County Executive Chris Ronayne has introduced an amendment giving the executive full power to suspend, discipline or fire the sheriff.
Ronayne’s measure would restore to the county executive a power that the office effectively lost in 2019. That’s when voters passed a charter amendment requiring a supermajority vote from County Council to fire the sheriff for cause.
The sheriff is a powerful and high-profile position in the county. Whoever holds the job oversees a staff of around 1,200 and is responsible for investigations and courthouse security. Recently the sheriff has also faced scrutiny about rising overtime costs and car chases by deputies.
Although Ronayne appointed Sheriff Harold Pretel, the two officials are now fighting in court over control of the department’s finances and human resources.
Council introduced the amendments — along with other proposed changes to the charter — at its evening meeting Tuesday. It takes eight votes out of 11 to place an amendment on the ballot. Council must vote by Sept. 4 to put the question to voters in November.
Debate over the sheriff’s powers
At a committee meeting Tuesday, Ronayne told sheriff’s office staff in the room that he appreciated working with them, and that he had recently met with the sheriff. He said it was important for the sheriff to be directly accountable to the executive, ensuring civilian control of law enforcement.
“This is no different structurally than how the governor oversees Ohio Highway Patrol or a mayor overseeing a chief of police,” Ronayne said.
Ronayne’s proposal specifies that the county executive is the sheriff’s supervisor. Council would retain its ability to fire the sheriff, too.
Asked after the meeting if he would fire Pretel if he could, Ronayne told Signal Cleveland that doing so was “not in my plans.” Pretel did not attend Tuesday’s committee meeting.
On the amendment returning the sheriff’s job to the voters, Sweeney said that he would save most of his arguments for another day. But he said that people have opinions about the sheriff and ought to have a say in the debate.
“Let’s give the people of Cuyahoga County a chance to make the decision on what they want with their sheriff, elected or not,” Sweeney said.
A 2009 government overhaul and a revolving door of sheriffs
For the last 15 years — after voters threw out the old system of county government in the wake of corruption scandals — the sheriff has been an appointed job in Cuyahoga County. In Ohio’s 87 other counties, sheriffs are elected directly by the voters.
The last elected sheriff and the longest-serving one in Cuyahoga County, Gerald McFaul, resigned in 2009 following a string of Plain Dealer stories investigating how he ran his office. State agents raided his office, seeking records on his clambake political fundraisers. He pleaded guilty the following year to theft in office. McFaul died in 2022.
As a broad federal investigation of other county officials unfolded, voters in 2009 eliminated many elected offices in favor of a new government led by the county executive and 11-member council.
Annette Tucker Sutherland of the League of Women Voters of Greater Cleveland invoked that history during the public comment session. The league still supports the reformed county government, she said.
“Our memories are still fresh of the patronage and political and fiscal abuses in some of the former independent offices,” she said.
The league also backed the 2019 amendment curtailing the executive’s power to fire the sheriff.
Cuyahoga County’s era of appointed sheriffs has seen instability of its own. A rotating cast of sheriffs has come and gone. In 2019, then-Sheriff Clifford Pinkney said that he had been left out of major decisions about the county jail. Then came the current conflict between Ronayne and Pretel.
In addition to taking away the county executive’s ability to fire the sheriff, the 2019 amendment created a set of qualifications for the job. The sheriff must have a college degree — either bachelor’s or associate’s — and certifications in running the jail.
The amendment also required council confirmation for any sheriff appointment to a four-year term. The qualifications and confirmation requirement would not change under Ronayne’s proposal.
