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Probate Judge Belinky’s suit disturbs Mahoning officials
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Judge Mark Belinky
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Mahoning County Commissioner Anthony Traficanti
Let’s negotiate your budget, commissioners tell judge.
YOUNGSTOWN — The chairman of the Mahoning County Commissioners can sum up his displeasure with a mandamus lawsuit filed against the commissioners by Probate Judge Mark Belinky in one word: “Disturbing.”
“I would like him to retract his mandamus and agree to sit down and talk to us,” Anthony T. Traficanti, chairman of the county commissioners, said after Thursday’s meeting.
In his Tuesday lawsuit in the 7th District Court of Appeals, Judge Belinky asked the appellate judges to compel the commissioners to provide the probate court with a $915,715 operating budget from the county’s general fund for 2009, per his previous order. The commissioners had allocated the probate court $694,833 from the general fund, which Judge Belinky said in his Tuesday lawsuit is inadequate for the proper operation of his court.
“It’s going to cost the county legal fees; $150 an hour for his lawyer,” Traficanti said. “We want to accommodate him, but why not sit down and discuss this issue with us?”
“I tried to go out and put the olive branch out, and that didn’t work,” said Commissioner David N. Ludt, adding that he then expected the lawsuit to be filed.
Ludt declined to disclose the settlement figure he suggested to Judge Belinky in a private conversation.
Judge Belinky said he doesn’t remember the exact figure Ludt suggested, but the judge said Ludt’s proposed settlement figure was insufficient.
“I tried to make a settlement because, by the time we go to court, we’re going to probably end up spending $30,000 for his attorney,” Ludt said. “That’s additional money that we’re going to take out of our budget that we don’t have.”
“If they want to allocate the funds that I put in my order, then the attorney fees will stop today,” Judge Belinky said.
The commissioners approved paying Atty. John B. Juhasz $150 an hour to represent Judge Belinky in his lawsuit against them, with an initial cap of $10,000.
“I think the budget that’s been provided to all county elected officials and all county departments is fair and reasonable and equitable to everybody involved,” said Commissioner John A. McNally IV.
“The attorneys should sit down and try to figure out if there is a way to settle it,” McNally said.
Judge Belinky said he won’t withdraw his mandamus lawsuit now, but he said he would be willing to have Juhasz try to negotiate a settlement with an assistant county prosecutor, who would represent the commissioners.
“Once you have filed a lawsuit, I think it’s only appropriate that the lawyers for the parties speak. I don’t think the parties should be speaking independently of the lawyers,” he said.
If he gets the $915,715 budget for this year, Judge Belinky said that figure would remain fairly constant as an annual probate court budget over the next several years.
In another financial matter, Traficanti said he favors putting the renewal of county’s second half-percent sales tax, which expires at the end of 2010, on the November 2009 ballot as a continuous measure.
To maintain uninterrupted collections, the tax renewal would have to be approved either in November 2009 or in May 2010, he said.
The voters renewed the other half percent sales tax on a continuous basis in May 2007.
McNally predicted this tax would pass whether it would be on the ballot in November 2009 or May 2010. He also predicted a continuous tax would pass.
If county social service agencies ask the commissioners to put their renewal levies on the November ballot, McNally said: “I don’t want to jumble the ballot full of issues.’’
Each of the two half-percent sales taxes raises about $14 million annually for the county’s general fund, which is the county’s main operating fund.
“The county cannot operate at less than a 1 percent sales tax. The jail alone is $20 million plus,” annually to operate, Traficanti said.
“The public understands that a 1 percent sales tax here in Mahoning County that’s devoted to the general fund is necessary,” McNally said. “I would probably lean [toward] a continuous measure.”