Judges: Williams is ‘stonewalling’

By David Skolnick

‘Litigation is inevitable,’ a judge says.

YOUNGSTOWN — The war of words over a new courthouse escalated with municipal court judges accusing Mayor Jay Williams of stonewalling them on a facility.

It was a statement that offended the mayor.

“I take extreme exception to the characterization that this administration is stonewalling the judges,” Williams said. “I won’t sit here and be categorized as stonewalling judges. Nothing could be further from the truth.”

Nevertheless, Municipal Court Judges Elizabeth A. Kobly and Robert A. Douglas Jr. repeated the comment.

While Williams remained seated, he said the judges were “entitled to their opinion no matter how misguided and inaccurate it is.”

It was the latest — and most heated, at least in public — battle between the two sides over new court facilities.

The dispute occurred Monday at a special city council finance committee meeting. The judges requested legislation allowing them to spend up to $25,000 to potentially use to sue the city for a new court facility.

It looks like that money is going to be put to use.

“Litigation is inevitable,” Judge Kobly said.

Judge Robert P. Milich, one of the three city judges, told the mayor and city council Wednesday that they had 30 days to reach a deal on “suitable facilities for the court” or the judges would go to the Ohio Supreme Court to demand the city provide a new courthouse. Judge Milich didn’t attend Monday’s meeting.

The Supreme Court’s administrative director recently urged the judges and the administration to continue discussing the issue among themselves.

Williams said he agrees with the judges that the current court facility, on the second floor of city hall on the corner of South Phelps and West Boardman streets, isn’t “suitable for justice.”

But moving the court to another location, estimated to cost $6 million to $12 million, is out of the question because of the city’s economic conditions, Williams said.

The city is facing a projected $3 million deficit for this year.

“I won’t bankrupt the city or lay off firefighters and police officers” to pay for a courthouse, he said. “Money doesn’t grow on trees.”

Judge Kobly said the city administration and council has ignored their needs for 12 years. The judges say they won’t be ignored anymore.

The judges filed a journal entry Jan. 26 in their court ordering Williams to “provide suitable facilities for the operation” of the court now.

The judges attended the meeting to ask for the ability to spend up to $25,000 on outside legal counsel.

The request was postponed and is expected to be approved at council’s Feb. 18 meeting.

Councilman Jamael Tito Brown, D-3rd, asked if the outside legal counsel money could come from a special fund established by the judges for a new court facility rather than the struggling general fund.

The special fund comes from a $14 fee charged on various court documents and has about $1.4 million in that account.

The judges, however, were adamant that no money come from that account.

Law director Iris Torres Guglucello said she’d have to research the issue.

skolnick@vindy.com