News / Articles

Prosecutor Flaiz Reports No Geaugans Were 

Forced Out of Their Homes Due to Tax Foreclosure Since 2021

Budget Commission Meeting – May 4, 2026

Meeting Details: The Geauga County Budget Commission met in Regular Session on Monday, May 4, 2026 at 10:00 am in the Auditor's Conference Room, 215 Main Street, Chardon, Ohio. The meeting was in person with a virtual attendance option via MS Teams. To attend Budget Commission meetings virtually via MS Teams, email an invitation request to Pam McMahan at PMcMahan@geauga.oh.gov.  

Meeting Attendance: Prosecutor Jim Flaiz, Treasurer Chris Hitchcock, and Auditor Chuck Walder. 

Staff Attendance: Deputy Auditors Tina Kloski, Kristen Sinatra and Jennifer Hess, Auditor’s Office Chief Operations Officer Pam McMahan, ADP (Automatic Data Processing) Chief Deputy Administrator Frank Antenucci, and Assistant Prosecuting Attorney Kristen Rine (virtual).  

County Staff: Geauga County Budget and Finance Manager Adrian Gorton (virtual) and Geauga Public Health Finance Director Katie Taylor (virtual).

Members of the Public: This LWV Geauga Observer (virtual). 

The meeting was called to order at 10:03 am.

Minutes: Minutes for the Budget Commission meetings on April 6, 2026, and April 20, 2026, were both approved. Budget Commission Minutes can be found here when posted. 

Revenue Certificates: No revenue certificates were presented for approval.

Other Business:

• The following Geauga Trumbull Solid Waste Supplemental Appropriation was accepted by the Budget Commission:

  • $300,000 appropriation in Fund 6007 (solid waste) for contract professional services

• Update on entities with missing permanent appropriations. Observer Note: Please see the April 6, 2026 Budget Commission LWVG Observer Report for more information. It was noted that permanent appropriations for the year have still not been received from Geauga Park District (GPD) and Russell 1545 Park District. Mr. Walder said that by law “... no appropriation measure shall become effective until the County Auditor files with the appropriating authority a certificate with the total appropriations for each fund, taken together with all of their outstanding appropriations do not exceed such certificate. So we have not provided them a certificate that their permanent appropriations are in excess or not in excess of their certificate, because we don't have their permanence.” He asked if the Budget Commission should notify these entities of the situation and noted that the entities may be in permanence and just have not notified his office that this is the case. They agreed to notify “whoever their budget person is” as a courtesy. There was uncertainty about who this person might be for Geauga Park District, so the decision was made to contact Executive Director John Oros asking who the GPD budget person is and informing him that the Auditor has not received GPD’s permanent appropriations. Mr. Walder noted that they don’t necessarily have to have an entity’s permanent appropriations, but they are required before any supplemental appropriations can occur.    

Discussion:

Mr. Walder noted that Budget Commissioners often have to go above and beyond their normal duties, and he wanted to provide an award for one such Budget Commissioner. He awarded Mr. Flaiz the “Outstanding County Architect of the Year” trophy due to his work on his office renovation. Everyone was very amused with the award. Mr. Flaiz noted that the trophy was a “rip off of the World Cup,” and Mr. Walder said it was “authentic gold plastic made from the finest known petroleum.” 

Public Comment:

• Mr. Walder reminded all that there would be a Special Budget Commission Meeting that night (May 4) at 6:30 pm at the Claridon Township Administration Building for the purpose of providing a property tax education session for the public.

• This Observer asked if the information regarding the number of recent foreclosures in Geauga County was available for the public yet. Observer Note: Please see the March 16, 2026 Budget Commission LWVG Observer Report for background information on the foreclosure information request. Mr. Flaiz said he had the information and would email it to this Observer. Observer Note: This information was received via email on May 11, 2026. Mr. Flaiz provided the following chart detailing his office’s foreclosure cases from 2021-2025:

 

Mr. Flaiz’s email provided the following additional information about these numbers:

Of the 60 cases filed, 16 cases involved vacant land, 43 residential, and 1 commercial property.  4 cases currently do not have a resolution due to unique aspects of those particular cases.

In 39 cases, the case was resolved with payment in full of the delinquency or the property owner entered into an agreement with a payment plan to get the tax delinquency resolved.

Of the 15 cases resulting in property sold via tax foreclosure, 6 were vacant land cases and 9 were residential property cases. 

In all 15 cases where property was sold, there was no participation in the case by the property owner.  In 7 of the 15 cases, we know that the property owners were deceased.  Of the remaining 8 cases, we suspect the property owners may have been deceased, or they had at least abandoned efforts to keep or maintain the property since they were properly served but had no response or participation in the litigation.  We cannot find any instance where someone was forced out of their home as a result of a tax foreclosure during this period we analyzed.

• This Observer also requested a copy of all materials from this meeting, which were received via email May 4, 2026. 

• Mr. Antenucci showed the Budget Commissioners a first draft of a map of Geauga’s fire districts, and discussion ensued regarding how to improve it. There were several suggestions for more detailed information to include, such as the amount of levy money each district has, the total number of homes/households/parcels in the fire district, whether it is a government/public or private fire district, and the fire district’s makeup as far as equipment and personnel.  

• Mr Hitchcock told the Budget Commissioners about a Wall Street Journal article regarding a levy campaign in Massachusetts. Observer Note: The article is available here, but it is behind a paywall for non-subscribers. He said that in South Hadley, Massachusetts, there were two levies on the ballot equating to about 1.35% of the average home value, and both were rejected by the voters. Mr. Hitchcock stated “the (increases in) real estate valuation is not just an Ohio anomaly, it's all over the country.” He went on to opine that “Geauga, we're another great example of being a wealthy but not overly taxed entity, because if you look at Cuyahoga County and their average taxes, they have some local municipalities where the average real estate tax is three and a half percent of value. We aren't anywhere close to that.” Mr. Flaiz estimated that real estate taxes are closer to 1.75% of home value, and Mr. Hitchcock said it is 2.7% in the western part of the county and that it decreases as you go farther east. 

The meeting was adjourned at 10:25 am.

Next Meeting: The next Budget Commission Meeting will be a Regular Meeting on Monday, May 18, 2026 at 10:00 am in the Auditor's Conference Room, 215 Main Street, Chardon. Virtual attendance for Budget Commission meetings is available via Microsoft Teams by emailing an invitation request to Ms. McMahan at PMcMahan@geauga.oh.gov.  

Observer: Sarah McGlone

Editor: Rooney Moy

Reviewer: Gail Roussey

Submitted: May 11, 2026

The League of Women Voters of Geauga is a 501(c)(3) nonpartisan political organization that encourages informed and active participation in government, works to increase understanding of major public policy issues, and influences public policy through education and advocacy. They do not support or oppose individual candidates or parties. Learn more about the LWVG at www.lwvgeauga.org.