MAHONING COUNTY Officials try to head off hearing
Commissioners want to overhaul door locks in all courthouse offices.
By BOB JACKSON
VINDICATOR COURTHOUSE REPORTER
YOUNGSTOWN -- Mahoning County commissioners have been called before a judge to explain why they did not immediately follow his order to hire a locksmith.
Their action Thursday to do what the judge wanted might have kept them from having to go.
Last week, Judge Timothy P. Maloney of probate court ordered that commissioners Ed Reese and David Ludt and county Administrator Gary Kubic appear before him at 9 a.m. Dec. 29.
Commissioner Vicki Allen Sherlock is not mentioned because she was off work for several weeks because of illness.
Commissioners approved the judge's purchase request Thursday, which Reese and Ludt said makes next Friday's hearing a moot point. Prosecutor Paul Gains filed a motion Friday asking that the order be dropped or that the hearing be postponed because Kubic has another commitment.
Judge Maloney could not be reached to comment.
What happened: In October, Judge Maloney issued an order that commissioners hire Jensen Lock and Alarm Co. of Belmont Avenue to install a high-security lock system on all doors in the probate court offices at a cost of $3,392.
The cost is to be paid with a courtroom security grant from the Ohio Supreme Court.
Kubic sent back a letter Dec. 4 asking the judge to reconsider and to consolidate the probate court into a plan to install new door locks throughout the courthouse and adjacent administration building, which he said is long overdue.
Kubic said that over the years, elected officials have independently ordered their door lock systems, and they are not all from the same vendor or of the same type.
"It's a nightmare when you try to find out who has the keys to all these locks," he said.
With such a hodgepodge of locks, the courthouse security and facilities staff sometimes has problems getting into certain areas of the building during emergencies, such as a fire in the courthouse attic in 1996 and a recent waterline break, Kubic said.
Commissioners hired Ace Lock & amp; Security Supply of Akron to provide new locks for the administration building and courthouse, excluding the probate court, at a cost of $33,000. The locks will be installed by county facilities workers. Ace was selected through the state purchasing program.
"The issue here is not who got what because of a court order," Kubic said. "The commissioners' point always has been to find a better way to secure the offices."
He said commissioners did not realize they were under a time limit because the judge's order did not give a deadline for compliance.
James Dwyer, probate court administrator, said during a commissioners' meeting this week that Judge Maloney prefers to go with his own vendor because that's with whom he is comfortable. Under Ohio law, the probate judge is personally liable for the security of certain records that are "highly confidential," he said.
Strong feeling: "Judge Maloney feels very strongly that he must better control the ingress and egress throughout the court," and having his own security system will allow him to do that, Dwyer said.
Kubic said he was disappointed that Judge Maloney would not meet with the commissioners' lock company.
"I believe we could have resolved this without having a fragmented system," he said.
bjackson@vindy.com