City hasn’t met its responsibility to Youngstown Municipal Court

City hasn’t met its responsibility to Youngstown Municipal Court

While the Youngstown Municipal Court judges have no desire to engage in a continuing debate through the news media with Mayor Williams, neither can the judges leave unaddressed the flagrant misrepresentations made by the mayor in his recent interview with WFMJ-TV.

The mayor said that the city is in agreement with the judges that the present Youngstown Municipal Court facilities are unsuitable. Yet, in its filings in the Ohio Supreme Court, the city administration and city council denied that. The city maintained that the court facility is clean, adequately heated and air-conditioned and adequately maintained. All one need do is spend 10 minutes in the court to know how fallacious that position is.

The mayor claims that the judges want a $12 million court facility. The judges, in fact, abandoned plans to build a much-needed new court facility, and have asked the city to renovate the City Hall Annex, a building that the city already owns, in order to save costs.

The judges are disputing what the mayor has said because at every step of the way, the mayor has stonewalled the court. The court has asked for a new facility for 12 years. The judges finally had to order a proper facility and file a lawsuit to enforce the order.

Buildings which house courts must have weapons detection devices. The judges asked for them. The mayor refused to furnish them until there was a security incident several years ago. The Ohio Supreme Court donated an X-ray machine. The previous mayor would not use it, nor will this mayor. It is stored in the bowels of City Hall, collecting dust.

The judges asked for security surveillance cameras. The mayor would not comply, and the judges saw to it that cameras were installed. The judges asked that prisoners not be left unguarded in public courtrooms and finally had to enter an order because police officers were walking out of court, leaving prisoners sitting completely unguarded.

The city is obligated to provide adequate security. It has not done so. Any suggestion that the building is safe and that Wednesday’s brawl would have happened anyway is pure fantasy. The lack of adequate security, the physical location of the court, and the fact that 911 had to be called to get police assistance all show how dangerous this facility is.

This facility is unsafe. It is unsafe for the judges, for the court staff and for the public. To suggest that Wednesday’s incident was something completely unrelated to the condition of this facility, with its out of date design and the lack of proper security, is flagrantly misleading. What happened in that hallway is what the judges and the security staff of the Ohio Supreme Court have been saying for the last 12 years could happen. It was only a matter of time, and it is only a matter of time until something like Wednesday’s incident, or something worse, happens again. The mayor and council know this, but refuse to address the issue.

John B. Juhasz, Youngstown

The writer is special counsel to Youngstown Municipal Court.