by Steve Wiandt
Reporter
Cuyahoga Falls -- Hope Jones, deputy law director for the city of Cuyahoga Falls, said the soon-to-open mayor's court will take on minor misdemeanor traffic citations, first-time DUIs, driving under suspension, as well as minor misdemeanor criminal cases such as disorderly conduct, open container, dog barking and loud music.
"The one area that I'm excited most about is, we'd like to keep all zoning, housing and building cases that are generated from the city," Jones added.
Jones said the city mayor's court will only hear cases in which the accused pleads guilty or no contest. Anyone who comes to mayor's court and pleads not guilty will be transferred to Stow Municipal Court, she added. "... We do expect to have approximately 4,000 cases per year here in the Cuyahoga Falls Mayor's Court," said Jones.
Pending bills in the state house and senate that would convert mayor's courts into community courts is a step toward regionalism, said Lisa Coates, a presiding judge at Cuyahoga Falls Municipal Court, during public participation at the meeting. She said opening a mayor's court would be a "step back" for the city and its efforts to promote regionalism.
Coates said she has read that the Cuyahoga Falls Mayor's Court will not have fines as high as the municipal court. "The mayor's court does not have the overhead required for more difficult cases ... the mayor's court is going to take the easy money. It may be cheaper, but it's going to be easier. All the difficult cases are going to end up on our court, burdening our court, without the extra income."
She said the easier cases, such as traffic tickets, alleviate the burden of the more serious cases on the court, and with the reduction of cases and lack of funds, the municipal court "may have to eliminate some of its staff."
"If you eliminate the easier cases, you take away our income that helps support us," said Coates.
"We're trying to do what's best for the citizens of Cuyahoga Falls," said Cuyahoga Falls Law Director Virgil Arrington. "We believe opening a mayor's court is not going backwards at all. It's going forwards."
Arrington said the bills in the Ohio house and senate won't completely abolish this type of court. "They would simply replace mayor's courts with a new creation called a 'community court,'" he said. "A community court would have essentially the same powers as the current mayor's court." Arrington said that neither bill would prevent the city from establishing a community court.
"[Cuyahoga Falls Municipal Court] Judge [Kim] Hoover and [Stow] Mayor [Karen] Fritschel were boasting in the newspaper that this was a loss leader for economic development ... If that's their loss leader then they've accepted that up front," said Cuyahoga Falls Mayor Don L. Robart. The mayor said the move is about "cost efficiency." He said if the municipal court's overhead is too high, "they ought to cut back ... if the courts are running out of control, that's their problem and soon to be Stow's problem."
Robart said the cost of fines in the municipal courts are "ridiculous" and those that will come out of mayor's court will be 50 percent less. "That's what we're elected to do, not to worry about the judge's overhead or Mayor Fritschel's economic development plan," said Robart. "It's what we have to do for the citizens of Cuyahoga Falls."
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