Sheriff Deputies Narrowly Keep away from Getting 41 Squad Automobiles Repo’d By Enterprise Over Unpaid Lease Funds

Even the cops cannot cover from the repo man. In keeping with a press launch, the Lorain County Sheriff’s Workplace in Ohio was making ready for repossession of 41 police cruisers by “eradicating gear, tools, and private gadgets” from the automobiles due to some unpaid payments. The Lorain County Deputies Affiliation acknowledged concerning the repossession:

It has come to our consideration that the Lorain County Commissioners have defaulted on our automobile fleet mortgage with Enterprise Fleet Administration. The commissioners, the “good stewards” of taxpayers’ cash, didn’t pay over $57,000 in lease funds to Enterprise as a part of the contract. That implies that 41 of our Police Cruisers are set to be repossessed on Monday.

These are some robust phrases for the county commissioners, rightfully harsh although, if these claims are true. Nonetheless, commissioners had some robust phrases of their very own in return, denying that the repo would occur. From Information 5 Cleveland:

The Lorain County Board of Commissioners has been made conscious of false data being shared by the Sheriff’s Deputies Affiliation. This manufactured disaster acknowledged that the Commissioners defaulted on the county’s automobile fleet lease with Enterprise Fleet Administration and that 41 police cruisers had been set to be repossessed.

As quickly because the Commissioners had been made conscious of this challenge, our County Deputy Administrator, Karen Perkins, made a short cellphone name to Enterprise Fleet Administration to substantiate the automobiles in query weren’t going to be repossessed, nor had been they ever going to be.

So, false alarm? Possibly.

County commissioners additionally insist that blame for the late cost lies not with them, however with the Sheriff’s workplace.

The Lorain County Sheriff is an elected official and is chargeable for the administration and funds for his or her division. The Sheriff’s Workplace is chargeable for processing their very own invoices, together with Enterprise Fleet Administration. The Sheriff’s Workplace didn’t pay the total bill of $13,583.81 by December 2025, which generated an automatic discover of default to the Lorain County Sheriff’s Division.

The Board of Commissioners authorized the Sheriff’s 2026 annual finances on December 19, 2025.

It is nearly as if the 2 organizations are on totally different planets. Every entity blames the opposite for not paying their payments, and the quantities that every says the opposite was imagined to pay are fairly totally different, so it is laborious to say precisely who’s mistaken right here. What is obvious is that Lorain County has some points. The repossession drama comes throughout a time of finances cuts to companies like emergency short-term shelters. From Information 5:

“We have put all of the businesses in a troublesome place,” Commissioner Marty Gallagher mentioned final week. “Sadly, we needed to make these powerful choices. All of us must hunker down. We have now to finances our cash higher. Sadly, a few of the companies must be reduce.”

Hopefully, the commissioners are right, and the Sheriff’s Workplace won’t be shedding the 41 cruisers to a repossession. It might value an ideal deal greater than the fleet contract to name deputies all Ubers to reply to calls, because the Deputies Affiliation (sarcastically?) referenced in its assertion. They are saying, “A Lannister at all times pays his money owed,” however evidently there aren’t any Lannisters within the Lorain County authorities.