County Commissioner Mike Crabtree didn’t hold anything back when expressing his opinion about questions concerning how the commissioners were appropriating money. What started as West Portsmouth resident Ross Hamilton asking questions about whether money should have been taken from certain funds for various projects ended with Crabtree exploding in frustration at claims made by Scioto County Sheriff Marty Donini. Donini is running against Crabtree to be the Republican candidate for commissioner.
Crabtree explained that some of the appropriations were necessary to qualify for much larger grants. “Most of the money came from the state but they require a good faith offering of funds. What we’ve been giving those people are just trivial amounts of money.” He went on to say, “I know where this is coming from. It’s from the Sheriff. I’ll tell you this, $20,000 or $50,000 of matching money for a half-a-million-dollar improvement in our county is not $872,000 dollars additional money in somebody’s budget.” Crabtree was referring to numbers shared by Sheriff Donini in an interview.
Crabtree seemed to get angrier and angrier as he said this type of investment was necessary to create jobs. “We get a return on that investment in the form of income taxes and everything else. You can hear a lot of bull$#*! and pay attention to it. I’m just telling you that you can’t make things happen in your county if you sit around her with your finger in your #!* in the red!”
Commissioner Bryan Davis tried to calm Crabtree down a bit but he was determined to speak his mind. He said that the Scioto County Sheriff’s Office had been fully funded. “We’re not going to have someone complaining about it like the Sheriff. About 20 or 50 thousand dollars and every year asking for a million.”
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Hamilton inquired if the figures reported by the sheriff were accurate and Crabtree didn’t hold back. “Inaccurate on his figures? He’s inaccurate about a lot of things. What he’s giving you is half-truths.”
Both Davis and Crabtree insisted that the Sheriff’s Office had never been shorted but had also received additional funds in 2017, 2018, and 2019.
Davis asked, “Who was laid off? Who was let go? What cuts were made in the Sheriff’s Office or any Office? Where are those? They don’t exist.”
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You can also see our Exclusive sit down with Mr. Crabtree HERE