Hearing date set in budget dispute

Youngstown’s appellate judges removed themselves from the case.

staff report

CANTON — Oral arguments concerning the budget dispute between Probate Judge Mark Belinky and the Mahoning County commissioners will be at 9 a.m. Sept. 25 at the 5th District Court of Appeals, 110 Central Plaza, Canton.

Last week, Chief Justice Thomas J. Moyer of the Ohio Supreme Court assigned Judges Sheila Gibbons Farmer, William Brian Hoffman and John Wheeler Wise, all of the 5th District Court of Appeals, to hear this case.

Judge Farmer announced the hearing time, date and location in a judgment entry filed Monday.

Justice Moyer made the assignments after all four judges of the Youngstown-based 7th District Court of Appeals removed themselves from the case.

Judge Belinky filed a mandamus lawsuit in the 7th District Court of Appeals in support of his demand for a $915,715 operating budget for this year from the county’s general fund.

The probate judge filed the lawsuit after the commissioners allocated only $694,833 from that fund to his court for this year — an amount Judge Belinky said was insufficient for proper court operations.

Speaking only for himself, Judge Joseph J. Vukovich, presiding judge of the 7th District Court of Appeals, said he would be fair and impartial.

However, he noted that Mahoning County supplies most of his court’s budget and said he removed himself from this case to avoid any questions about political influence over the appellate court. The 7th District consists of eight counties, with those counties contributing funding to that court based on their populations.

Melinda Cooper, administrator of the 5th District Court of Appeals, said it is traditional for the newly assigned panel of judges in a case such as this to hear oral arguments at its home base, rather than conducting the hearing where the case originated.

No party in this case has expressed a preference as to where the hearing should take place, she said.