Panel will enter budget dispute

Commission members want to have the court order stopped.
By JOHN W. GOODWIN JR.
VINDICATOR TRUMBULL STAFF
GIRARD -- Another collective voice will likely enter the ongoing financial dispute between the city and Girard Municipal Court.
Members of city council last year appropriated $600,000 to operate the court in 2006. Judge Michael Bernard filed a writ of mandamus action last month with the 11th District Court of Appeals asking that court to order that the Girard court receive $905,454 to operate in 2006.
The judge has said the $600,000 appropriation is far below appropriations for previous years and not enough to operate the court.
The state-appointed Fiscal Oversight Commission put in place to see the city out of fiscal emergency Monday voted to file a motion in the 11th District Court of Appeals to intervene in the proceedings. Commission members said they are asking to court not to grant the judge's request because it goes against spending amounts already approved by the commission.
"The Girard Municipal Court has ordered the city to do something that is contrary to the recommendation of this commission, so we are asking the attorney general to intervene on our behalf," said Paul Marshall, Fiscal Oversight Commission chairman.
Spending problems
According to Marshall, the court is spending at a rate that would put it over its $600,000 budget long before year's end.
Marshall said this will be the first time the commission has gone to court to stop a financial order in the 27-year history of the oversight commission program.
In the court motion, the commission says the city has taken several cost-cutting measures since 2001 including: reducing police spending by 10 percent, reducing fire department spending by 5 percent, reducing general fund spending by 15 percent, and not giving any employees pay raises.
The motion says the court, also since 2001, has increased spending by 13 percent and gave pay raises to employees. The motion says the cost per case for the court was $64 in 2001, but increased to $116 in 2005.
"If we could get the court to live within its appropriations we could get this city out of fiscal emergency by next year," said Marshall.
Judge Bernard also issued a court order in November of 2005 to force the city to pay an additional $49,000 to the court that year. City council initially refused the order. The judge took the matter to the 11th District Court of Appeals and got the additional funds, but the city is seeking reimbursement.
jgoodwin@vindy.com