Belinky plans layoffs in court

Photo

Judge Mark Belinky

Photo

Mahoning County Commissioner Anthony Traficanti

Photo

George Tablack

The job losses may result in cuts in the number of hours the probate court will be open to the public.

YOUNGSTOWN — Judge Mark A. Belinky of Mahoning County Probate Court will lay off 13 of his 17 staff members effective Sept. 19 because he said his court is running out of money.

The layoffs are needed because of insufficient court funding from county commissioners, the judge said. “We’re spending at the rate of approximately $225,000 a quarter,” the judge said Thursday. “That takes us about to October.”

“We tried to keep everybody working as long as possible, hoping that this budget dispute would be resolved,” he added.

The layoffs will take effect less than a week before oral arguments take place in Judge Belinky’s mandamus lawsuit against the county commissioners concerning the funding dispute.

The case will be argued at 9 a.m. Sept. 25 at the 5th District Court of Appeals in Canton because all four judges of the Youngstown-based 7th District Court of Appeals removed themselves from this case.

Judge Belinky filed the suit after the county commissioners provided the court with a 2009 general fund budget of $694,833, rather than the $915,715 the judge said he needed to properly run his court.

After Sept. 19, those remaining will be the judge; court administrator Lucia Lovell; administrative assistant Luann James; Magistrate Gary Philibin; and clerk Janice Sammartino.

Those leaving next month will be Chief Magistrate Richard Burgess and Magistrates Vincent Wloch and Richard Machuga, two investigators and eight clerks.

If he reaches a settlement with the commissioners, the layoffs would be reduced or eliminated, the judge said. If the appeals court upholds his $915,715 budget demand, the judge said all laid-off workers will be reinstated.

The court expects its year-to-date spending will be $572,000 as of the end of this month, Lovell said.

The September cuts will result in a slower-moving court docket and may reduce the number of hours the court is open to the public, but the court’s 1,500 guardianships for mentally ill, mentally disabled and elderly people won’t be neglected, the judge vowed.

The judge said his lawyer, John B. Juhasz, is taking depositions Aug. 29 from the commissioners and county Administrator George J. Tablack in the lawsuit.

“The dispute is about the reasonableness of my budget request. ... My lawyer wants to inquire how did they conclude that my budget request was not reasonable?” he said.

Anthony T. Traficanti, chairman of the county commissioners, expressed his displeasure over the depositions at Thursday’s commissioners’ meeting.

“We still have a judge that’s suing us. We just got a letter that depositions are coming. That’s going to cost the county more money. This is ludicrous. It’s crazy. It’s politics that we have to go through this at a time of financial crisis when people have lost their jobs,” Traficanti said.

The judge denied that his lawsuit is politically motivated. “This is a lawsuit. Everyone has to respect the judicial process. Those comments make absolutely no sense to me. We didn’t file this lawsuit without considerable consideration,” the judge said in an interview after the meeting.

In the commissioners’ meeting, Tablack painted a gloomy picture of the county’s finances, saying the sales tax distributions from the state to the county have been down 12 percent in July and 11.5 percent in August, compared to the same months last year.

If current trends continue, this year’s sales tax revenues will be about $2 million below last year’s revenues, he said. The county has two half-percent sales taxes, each normally bringing in about $14 million annually for the general fund.

Noting that sales tax collections are running below 2005 levels, Tablack said “there is nothing on the horizon” that suggests county revenues will return to 2007 or 2008 levels. “At best, next year’s budget will be very similar to this year’s budget,” he said.

Unfortunately, within county government, “many are still in denial” concerning the county’s financial plight, Tablack said. “Expenditures are growing and revenues are shrinking or flat, at best.”

milliken@vindy.com

PROBATE COURT | By the numbers

Judge Mark Belinky of Mahoning County Probate Court says he will lay off 13 of the court’s 17 employees in September if his 2009 budget is not increased. He has sued the county commissioners to get more money. Here are figures associated with his budget.

k2008 spending: $762,859

k2009 request: $915,715

k2009 allocation: $694,833

k2009 spending (as of Thursday): $572,000

Court employees received 3-percent raises in January 2008 and January 2009.

Judge Belinky hired one clerk and one assistant investigator who also performs clerical work. Belinky said the court’s personnel drop from 21 in 2005 to 16 when he took office in 2007 “resulted in an unrealistic workload for the remaining employees.”

Source: Vindicator files, probate court