43
Court dispute still up in air
Facilities case goes back to high court
By DAVID SKOLNICK
YOUNGSTOWN
An effort to mediate the longtime dispute over new court facilities between the city’s administrators and the three municipal court judges has failed.
The case will go back to the Ohio Supreme Court’s justices, who had recommended mediation.
“The mediation process has ended without a resolution,” Mayor Jay Williams said.
City administrators, the judges and their legal counsels met for several hours Thursday in city hall with Gregory Clark, appointed by the Supreme Court to mediate the matter. Clark handles mediation cases for the state’s 12th District Court of Appeals, which is based in Middletown in northwest Ohio.
Clark told those at the mediation session that they couldn’t discuss what happened at the session except to say it occurred and ended without a deal.
The only other mediation session occurred in July 2009 in Columbus.
Elizabeth A. Kobly, Youngstown Municipal Court’s administrative and presiding judge, couldn’t be reached Thursday or Friday by The Vindicator to comment on Thursday’s session.
The city’s municipal court judges filed a complaint in May 2009 with the Supreme Court demanding that the city’s administration and council be compelled to provide the court with “suitable accommodations.”
The judges in January 2009 filed a journal entry ordering Williams and city council to provide a new court facility of at least 34,000 square feet with numerous other requirements.
The judges wrote in the January 2009 journal entry that a renovated Youngstown City Hall annex, on the corner of Front and Market streets, would be suitable if the city spent $8 million to improve it.
The city countered a few months later with a scaled-down $6 million renovation.
The judges have refused the counteroffer, leading to a stalemate, and the matter is now back with the state’s high court.
Municipal court is on the second floor of city hall, 26 S. Phelps St. The judges have complained about the court facility for about 13 years.
The judges have a lengthy list of complaints about the court including a lack of security, it’s too cramped, it’s not clean and poor ventilation has caused health problems for those working there.