City files its response to traffic camera lawsuit

The city says a woman challenging the system has other remedies at law.
By ED RUNYAN
VINDICATOR TRUMBULL STAFF
WARREN -- Girard is telling an appellate court that its traffic camera speed enforcement system doesn't violate Ohio law.
Lawyers for Girard city have filed their response to a class-action lawsuit filed in the 11th District Court of Appeals last month. That lawsuit asks the court to stop the city's camera traffic enforcement system.
The city's response, filed Thursday, outlines what parts of the lawsuit the city denies and also those parts that it agrees are true.
The class-action suit was filed by Julie Sferra through her lawyers Brian P. Kish and David J. Betras of Canfield. The appeals court granted Sferra's request to stop hearings against her in her speeding case, but the order applied only to Sferra's hearing, not the rest of the class.
The city denies that Girard's camera system fails to comply with Ohio traffic laws in the manner in which violators are notified of their violation. It denies that the system employs a hearing officer to handle the cases who is not a judge or magistrate elected or appointed according to the Ohio Constitution.
The city also denies that the city's ordinance creating the Automated Traffic Enforcement Division is unconstitutional and violates equal protection, due process, confrontation and separation of powers parts of the Ohio Constitution.
Girard also says the system doesn't violate Ohio law requiring that courts assess points for a violation of any law or ordinance pertaining to speed.
Other remedies
The city's response states that Sferra's suit fails to state a claim upon which relief can be granted and that the appeals court lacks jurisdiction. Girard adds that Sferra possesses other remedies at law, specifically a lawsuit filed in Trumbull County Common Pleas Court by Dan Moadus of Girard.
Moadus filed suit in August, attempting to overturn the city's then 2-month-old traffic ordinance that allows a camera to be used to catch speeders in the city. Those cited are sent tickets in the mail but aren't assessed no points on their licenses.
Moadus' suit says the system is contrary to law. It says taxpayers and citizens of Girard, as well as other drivers and citizens, will suffer irreparable harm if the system is not stopped. It says a municipality may not create a noncriminal or civil offense for speeding, as the city has done. It can only create a civil offense for stopping, standing, parking, regulating traffic flow or speed in parks, the suit says.
runyan@vindy.com