Ohio approves $1 million for 16 children abused in Vinton County

The Ohio Controlling Board unanimously approved more than $58 million in federal tax dollars to reimburse the state’s private economic development agency for expenses incurred six years ago during the COVID-19 pandemic.

In a Monday meeting, the board agreed to create a new fund that would allow the Department of Administrative Services to receive and allocate roughly $58.3 million in Federal Emergency Management Agency reimbursement funds in fiscal 2027.

In 2020, as part of the Ohio COVID-19 Task Force, JobsOhio bought $58.3 million in personal protective equipment. FEMA identified the expenditures as eligible for federal reimbursement assistance, prompting the Controlling Board vote.

State Rep. Bride Rose Sweeney, D-Westlake, expressed frustration with the reimbursement, saying lawmakers “don’t have the honor or privilege of getting to understand JobsOhio’s books,” Gongwer Ohio reported.

“It would just be nice to know what wasn’t being invested in or where specifically those funds for five years came from,” Sweeney said, per Gongwer Ohio. “What was the cost of them doing it?…I’m sure they don’t have a COVID bucket that they were preparing for. So it had to come from something I would imagine that was going to go to other purposes.”

Additionally, the board approved $1 million in emergency funding on Monday to help place and care for 16 children who were abused by their family in a Hamden home, which is located in Vinton County.

Four people — Elizabeth Ann Siders, 33; Gary Lee Siders Jr., 36; Gary Lee Siders Sr., 73; and Christina Lynn Siders, 67 — have been charged with child endangerment. WLWT-TV identified Elizabeth Ann Siders and Gary Lee Siders Jr. as the parents of the children.

The funding supports the three-county child welfare agency serving Vinton County, whose caseload doubled overnight after the children between the ages of 17 months and 18 years were removed from the home.

Joel Potts, chief government and external affairs officer for the Ohio Department of Children and Youth, said “many of them will be needing therapeutic foster care for quite some time to come” and that the county would not be able to cover the medical expenses for the children unless the state helps because the county would need to spend roughly $150 to $250 per day per child, according to Statehouse News Bureau.

“This is unprecedented – what we’ve seen – a county agency literally double the number of kids in temporary custody overnight. It is something that no community would be ready to handle if they suddenly saw their caseloads doubling,” he said, according to the news source. “The dollars are to immediately provide those resources so that the community can make the proper decisions based on the needs of the kids and not the budget.”

Potts also said the state may need to give even more money to the county, a possibility that state Rep. Brin Stewart, R-Ashville, had previously suggested.

Both Democratic and Republican lawmakers said during the board hearing that they want to know how it was possible for this abuse to go undetected for years.

“I just don’t know how anybody could say that this going on for as long as it did that our systems are working as needed,” Sweeney said, per NBC 4. “I think we’re all culpable for allowing this to happen for so long, and it’s all of our jobs to make sure it never happens again.”

Potts responded to Sweeney’s claim that the Buckeye State did not fully fund child protective services at requested levels in the previous budget by saying that “it wasn’t a cut.”

“Money is a problem, but it’s not necessarily the problem. We need to be able to say what is the expectation and are we structured to meet that expectation?” he said in response to the concerns by state Rep. Mike Dovilla, R-Berea, adding that after the hearing, more reviews are expected and that “everything is on the table.”