Youngstown council postpones vote on resolution to cut a city judge

YOUNGSTOWN — City council postponed a vote today on a resolution urging the state Legislature to pass a law eliminating one of the city’s three municipal court judges.

Council members said a decision on the resolution should wait until a meeting of all interested parties overseen by Chief Justice Thomas J. Moyer of the Ohio Supreme Court takes place.

No date has been set, but the chief justice has said he would have such a meeting.

Elizabeth A. Kobly, the court’s presiding and administrative judge, said she was shocked that council would even consider the resolution, sponsored by Mayor Jay Williams.

The mayor agreed that council should wait, but added that the postponement shouldn’t be indefinite.

Also today, council voted 6-1 to authorize the board of control to allow the court to use up to $25,000 to sue the city. The money would come from a special fund established by the judges to build a new court facility.

The judges want the money, used to pay legal fees related to the lawsuit to compel the city to provide an adequate court facility, to come from the city’s general fund.

Without the signature of at least one of the judges, the money can’t be spent from the special fund.

The Supreme Court will decide where the money comes from for the judges’ legal fees as part of the case pending in front of it, Judge Kobly and Williams said.

For the complete story, read Thursday’s Vindicator and Vindy.com