Trumbull judge rules Ohio law unconstitutional, sewer projects unfair

By Ed Runyan

runyan@vindy.com

WARREN

A Trumbull County judge has ruled an Ohio law unconstitutional that gives building contractors great latitude to install sewers and later charge property owners a share of the cost.

Judge W. Wyatt McKay of common pleas court issued the ruling last week in a 10-year-old civil suit filed by property owners in the Sable Creek neighborhood in Mineral Ridge and an area of King Graves Road in Vienna Township.

Sewer projects have been built regularly in Ohio under provisions of the law for more than 40 years and never before been challenged in court, attorneys involved in the case say.

“This decision is very refreshing to property owners,” said Atty. Frank Bodor of Warren, who filed the suit on behalf of residents of the two neighborhoods. “It will be a precedent case for all of Ohio.”

Bodor said the part of the law that is unconstitutional is making property owners pay for sewer costs in full “where there are no bids for construction, no opportunity to raise questions as to the fairness of the bill.”

There is another law the county follows for construction of sewers in which property owners come to the county seeking sewers, and the county builds them on behalf of the property owners. The suit does not challenge that law.

But the law being questioned here has been used by contractors to build most sewer lines in the county for generations, said Jim Brutz, an assistant county prosecutor who handles legal matters involving sewer projects and the county Sanitary Engineers Office.

“We’re disappointed, but Trumbull County did nothing wrong,” Brutz said of the ruling, adding that it does not cost Trumbull County taxpayers any money, it will have relatively little impact on future sewer projects because the county already requires additional protections for property owners not required under the law.

As it relates to the Sable Creek neighborhood, Judge McKay ruled that the process used for construction of sewers allowed for “totally unreasonable charges” being “levied to landowners with absolutely no relation to the project costs and with no supervision or oversight by the Trumbull County commissioners.”

He added, “The facts as found in these cases should stand as a testament that the landowner in Trumbull County is getting nailed with unfounded and unreasonable charges because [the law] simply does not provide the protection necessary to contest these matters.”

Brutz said the county’s role in such projects is to review them before the contractor builds them to ensure they are done correctly because the county will ultimately take ownership of them.

Brutz said county officials like him could see a decade ago that parts of the law might be challenged, so it started requiring the contractors to hold meetings with property owners.

Brutz said when a judge challenges the constitutionality of an Ohio law, it automatically gets the Ohio Attorney General’s Office involved. County officials will talk with the Attorney General’s Office about whether to appeal the ruling, he said.

The ruling is the second one in just over a year by Judge McKay that voids the charges property owners were told to pay for sewers.

Judge Thomas Gysegem of Warren Municipal Court likewise ruled on behalf of a property owner who opposed paying a sewer assessment.

State Rep. Sean O’Brien of Bazetta, D-63rd, has vowed to try to pass legislation to address concerns Judges McKay and Gysegem have raised over sewer assessments.