MAHONING COUNTY Race for space creates conflict

Commissioners aren't sure which side wins in the tug of war over office space.
By BOB JACKSON
VINDICATOR COURTHOUSE REPORTER
YOUNGSTOWN -- Prosecutor Paul Gains will probably be asked to play tie-breaker in a judicial fight over who gets to take over the space Gains and his staff will soon vacate in the Mahoning County Courthouse.
The general division common pleas court judges put on an entry Dec. 23, ordering commissioners to hand the space to them.
Four days later, Judge Beth A. Smith of domestic relations court followed with an order of her own, saying she wants part of her operation there from the basement.
"I guess we'll have to ask our prosecutor how to resolve conflicting court orders," said county Administrator Gary Kubic.
The prosecutors' offices occupy most of the space on the third floor. The criminal division is in the southeast corner and the civil division is in the northwest corner.
The jury office, grand jury room, victim witness office, court reporters' offices and Judge James C. Evans' courtroom are also on the third floor.
To move soon
Gains and his staff are to move out of the courthouse soon into renovated space on the sixth floor of the county administration building, which is located directly behind the courthouse.
With about half their administrative offices already on the third floor, the general division judges want to bring the rest of them to the third floor from other parts of the building for a consolidated operation. They've staked their claim to the prosecutor's space.
Judge Smith said she's entitled to a piece of the pie as well, and has said she intends to claim the space now occupied by the prosecutor's civil division, the grand jury room and victim witness.
Linda Cappelli, victim witness coordinator, said last week she had no idea she was being moved out and didn't know where she'll go.
Judge Evans, administrative judge, said he thought victim witness would move to the administration building with Gains and his staff. But Gains said Ohio law requires the victim witness office to be "separate and apart" from his offices, so it will have to stay in the courthouse.
Opinion not asked for
Gains said none of the judges asked him for a legal opinion about who rules the roost in the courthouse before they imposed their orders on commissioners.
"And they have yet to ask me for one," Gains said Tuesday.
Gains said he has not had his staff research the matter yet because an opinion still has not been requested.
Kubic said commissioners will do that in concert with calling a meeting of judges to try to resolve the space odyssey peacefully.
He said commissioners have developed two or three space allocation plans in the past five years, but none has been mutually accepted. There is also a space allocation committee made up of elected officials or their appointees, but it was not consulted before the judges imposed their orders, Kubic said.
bjackson@vindy.com