Wednesday, May 27, 2015
YOUNGSTOWN
Six years after Youngstown Municipal Court judges filed a complaint with the Ohio Supreme Court over the court’s conditions and demanded an improved facility, a deal to relocate to the city hall annex should be done next week.
“It’s been a long time coming,” said Judge Elizabeth A. Kobly.
Mayor John A. McNally said he expects to have the agreement in front of city council for a vote at its June 3 meeting.
“We can finally put this litigation between the court and the administration to rest,” he said.
The judges in January 2009 filed a journal entry ordering then-Mayor Jay Williams and city council to provide adequate court facilities, adding that a renovated city hall annex, at 9 W. Front St., would be suitable. The current court facilities are on the second floor of city hall at 26 S. Phelps St.
In May 2009, the judges filed with the state Supreme Court.
During discussions, the judges sought $8 million worth of improvements to the annex, while the city countered with a scaled-down $6 million renovation.
The estimated cost of improving and relocating the court to the annex is $7.1 million with the financial terms finalized shortly, McNally said.
“We hope and expect the bidding process will reduce that estimated cost,” he said. “After all these years to put this to bed at this price tag is a good thing.”
Proposals to improve the annex for the court relocation are expected to be sought late this year, McNally said. Work would start early next year and be finished in late 2016, he said.
One of the top priorities is a new roof on the annex, Judge Kobly said.
“It needs a new roof yesterday,” she said. “It needs to be replaced before it collapses.”
The court has about $2 million from a special assessment fund it will use for the annex project, Judge Kobly said. Also, the court will pay a majority of the cost to improve the annex and relocate there, Judge Kobly and McNally said.
The city has been moving departments out of the annex for the past few months, and is in the process of relocating the Mahoning and Columbiana Training Association to 20 Federal Place, another city-owned downtown building.
A few city police units are at the annex and likely will stay there, McNally said.
By relocating the courts and the clerk of courts office, the city will have space on the second floor of city hall to bring other city agencies – most notably, the community planning and economic-development department – to city hall, McNally said. Also, the prosecutor’s office could move to the annex, freeing up space on the fourth floor of city hall, he said.
The annex also would include a holding area for prisoners.
The dispute over court facilities goes back about 15 years.
Among the problems at the current court facility, according to what the judges filed in 2009 with the Supreme Court, are it isn’t clean, adequately heated and air-conditioned, and adequately maintained. Also, the courtrooms don’t have adequate seating, public restrooms and telephones, or a waiting room for witnesses, and space is insufficient.
An effort to resolve this through mediation failed in April 2010, and the case was returned to the Supreme Court a month later.
Security problems reached a peak during a July 2010 brawl in the hallway between family members of a suspect and a murder victim.
The state’s highest court sat on the case until June 2012 when justices appointed Andrew J. Campbell, a special master, to handle the matter. Campbell waited until March 2014 for a hearing.
Since then, the city judges and the administration have been working on a settlement.