Winning an election gives a judge a new perspective

Winning an election gives a judge a new perspective

Over the next few weeks the Mahoning County commissioners and the prosecutor are going to have to put together a presentation for the 7th District Court of Appeals explaining why the county can’t afford to give another $221,000 to Judge Mark Belinky for the operation of the Probate Court.

Belinky, as judges are wont to do from time to time, is playing the judicial trump card on the commissioners. The Supreme Court of Ohio has ruled that counties must give courts what they require for the administration of justice — other considerations be damned. In the view of some judges, the commissioners dare not spend a penny on frills such as economic development, agricultural services or conservation until the courts get every dime they want.

And let no one suggest that perhaps the courts should be more aggressive in trimming salaries or increasing health -care or pension copayments or consolidating jobs. Those techniques that have become commonplace in the private sector are somehow incompatible with the administration of justice.

There’s only so much

We hope that the commissioners can make a persuasive case for trimming the appropriations for all of the courts. Judges must recognize that while what they do is important, the county’s resources are finite, and when taxpayers are hurting, it’s not a bad thing for judges to share the pain.

But we would be particularly interested to hear Judge Belinky explain to the taxpayers of Mahoning County what has changed since last October, when the judge was running for election. There was no poor mouthing then, no suggestion that Belinky hadn’t been providing for the efficient administration of justice or that he did not believe himself capable of running a tight ship.

Quite the opposite.

In a pre-election interview with Vindicator editors, Belinky stressed that he was running his court so well that after only 10 months in office he had been named to the Ohio Judicial Conference on Probate Practice and Procedures, which he characterized as a rare honor for a neophyte. He said his staff was busy getting things done, including work that had been left for him by his predecessor. “The public will rehire me if they perceive that the court is running well, and I will tell you the court is running well.”

A point of pride

He even noted that he was doing the job with far fewer employees than the Trumbull County Probate Court, which then was a matter of pride for him. Now he uses that manpower disparity between the counties as a talking point for why he’s being unfairly treated by the penny-pinching Mahoning commissioners.

“I bring my private sector mentality to the court, that’s why it’s running so well,” he explained. He said all that and more about his devotion to the job and his ability to keep costs down and operate efficiently. He even implied that he’d be able to save more money because when the chief magistrate retired, he — the judge — would take on that function.

That was then, when he was running for election and was eager to keep the job to which he had been appointed. Having won, he’s dropped that private-sector mentality like a bad habit. Now that he has a lock six years in office, he’s less interested in doing more with less. Now he simply demands more.

Why should Belinky work at scraping by on $694,833 if he can get the appellate judges to back his demand for $915,715? Being true to the picture he painted of himself during the campaign would be one reason.