It’s time for chief justice to review Youngstown’s court
Ten years ago, Ohio’s chief justice conducted a study of the Youngstown Municipal Court and issued a damning report not only on the condition of the facility, but on the way it was being administered.
Justice Thomas Moyer compared what was going on in Youngstown to what is usually found in some Third World country, but he wasn’t only talking about the physical appearance.
Indeed, one of the major deficiencies was this: Court sessions start late, by as much as 90 minutes, and workers leave before their designated quitting time.
Moyer’s report noted that “the court offices were virtually vacant by midafternoon on each day of our visit.”
Even on the issue of the appearance, the chief justice talked about the courtrooms and environs being deteriorated, cluttered and dirty.
We point this out because last week, Youngs-town Municipal Judge Robert A. Douglas Jr. referred to Moyer’s “Third World country” comment in arguing that the time has come for the city to provide the court with new facilities.
Douglas and his two colleagues on the bench, Robert P. Milich and Elizabeth A. Kobly, are hiring a lawyer — to be paid with taxpayer dollars — to represent them in a lawsuit should Mayor Jay Williams and city council fail to meet their demands.
The municipal court does not have the $10 million needed to build a courthouse, and neither does the city. Given the latest analysis of the general fund budget, layoffs across the board are inevitable.
Legal action
Yet, Douglas, the court’s presiding/administrative judge, said last week that he and his colleagues intend to force city government to provide the courts with “reasonable accommodations.” And he warned that if legal action is necessary to accomplish that, a suit would be filed in the Ohio Supreme Court.
Seeing as how it has been 10 years since Chief Justice Moyer and his staff conducted a top-to-bottom review of the municipal court, we believe it’s time for a return visit.
Not only should the high court assess the municipal court’s success — or failures — in addressing the deficiencies contained in the 1998 report, but it should provide an objective analysis of the court’s facilities and offer an opinion as to whether a new courthouse is the only option.
Chief Justice Moyer has been around long enough to know that while the courts have the power to force the executive and legislative branches to their bidding, there is a test of reasonableness that must apply.
We would urge the state’s top judge to determine whether judges Douglas, Milich and Kobly are being reasonable in demanding that the city spend money it does not have.
Indeed, given that local government at many levels is facing, or soon will, budgetary challenges, Moyer can strike a blow for court reorganization by evaluating the various proposals that have been developed for the creation of a metropolitan court system below the common pleas level.
We have long advocated the elimination of all the lower courts in Mahoning County and the formation of a countywide system that would have several judges elected by districts.
However, parochialism and the special interests — read that, public employees who would lose their jobs — have undermined the effort,
In light of the threat from Youngstown municipal judges, Chief Justice Moyer, who has statutory authority over all the state courts, should return to Youngstown to update his 1998 study.