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LISBON -- Columbiana County Commissioners made a move Wednesday toward closing the East Liverpool Municipal Court and merging it with the Columbiana County Municipal Court.
With East Liverpool Municipal Court Judge Dominic Frank's death earlier this year, the court has been continuing to operate with visiting judges in place and Judge Mark Frost serving as the administrative judge.
Chairman Mike Halleck said several people in key positions, the prosecutor, the sheriff and the two county Municipal Court Judges can handle additional influx of cases that merging the courts would entail.
While he said he was not going to go into all the statistics, Halleck said if you look at Hamilton County which has over a million people and it has only one municipal court system.
The matter is being forwarded for review by State Rep. Tim Ginter and the Ohio Supreme Court. If the Ohio Supreme Court reviews it and determines it would be best to merge the courts, it would require legislation by Ginter in order to dissolve the court, which could take months.
The move to dissolve the court has the blessing of East Liverpool Mayor Greg Bricker, who sent them a letter suggesting the current caseload does not justify a full time local municipal court, which he said costs the City of East Liverpool $300,000 in administrative salary costs per year.
"No other city in the county is subject to this level of costs and frankly, it is imposing a hardship on this city," Bricker wrote in his letter asking the commissioners to ask for the Ohio Supreme Court to render an opinion as to whether East Liverpool Municipal Court should remain as a stand alone court.
In the letter, Bricker included case numbers of how many cases the courts handle. According to the figures he provided from the Ohio Supreme Court database, East Liverpool Municipal Court handled 331 traffic cases in 2021, 22 civil cases and 522 misdemeanor cases for a total of 875 cases.
Additionally, Bricker said the Columbiana County Municipal Court had 1,112 traffic cases in 2021, 112 civil cases and 1,284 misdemeanor cases for a total of 2,508 cases. By combining the courts, Bricker said there would be 1,443 total traffic cases, 134 civil and 1,806 misdemeanor cases for a total of 3,383 cases.
That would be lower than Allen County and Miami County, which have similar populations. Allen County with a 2020 population of 102,208 residents reportedly handles 2,164 traffic cashes, 428 civil and 1,766 misdemeanor cases for a total of 4,356 with two judges and two magistrates.
Miami County has 2,616 traffic cases, 71 civil and 2,630 misdemeanor cases, a total of 5,317 handled by two judges and a magistrate. Miami County has a population of 108,774.
However, case numbers provided in the annual report of Candice Page, Clerk of Courts at the East Liverpool Municipal Court, show there are more cases coming through that court than being reported in the figures provided to the commissioners by Bricker.
In 2021, Page lists 455 civil cases filed of which 24 were small claims. She has 1142 traffic cases and 752 criminal cases for a total of 2,373 total cases. While some cases may have more than one charge on it, she said the number of charges filed total were 2,499. In addition, Page's report states the court handled about 1,162 review hearings in 2021.
While Page agrees the court costs the city $300,000, she also points to the amount of money that was collected in 2021 -- $675,246. Some of that money is used to operate the court, while some goes to the city, the police department and the two townships -- Liverpool and St. Clair -- who also bring their cases to East Liverpool Municipal Court.
Numbers pulled by the newspaper from the Ohio Supreme Court website also disagreed with what was provided to the commissioners.
The newspaper looked at number of incoming cases per judge.
East Liverpool Municipal Court was listed with 1,190 traffic cases, 481 civil cases and 840 criminal cases. While the Columbiana County Municipal Court is listed with an average per judge number of 3,267 traffic, 1,014 criminal and 1,169 civil.
Columbiana County Prosecutor Vito Abruzzino, one of those who wrote to commissioners asking for the consolidation to be considered said the difference in figures being found on the database are in regards to the numbers of total cases filed at the court as opposed to the number of cases actually handled by the prosecutor and the judge, which he called direct court intervention.
The numbers Bricker was using are the numbers the judge and prosecutor actually handled, Abruzzino said. The other cases may have been filed as tickets or cases, but they were settled or paid as fines without going in front of the judge.
In deciding whether or not to dissolve East Liverpool Municipal Court, Abruzzino said the Ohio Supreme Court will look at the direct court intervention numbers to determine how many judges and courts are needed to handle the county's declining caseloads.
"When you look at economic efficiencies and population deficits, when we claim to be economic conservatives, we should at least send it down to the legislature and let them have a look at it," Abruzzino said.
Clerk of Courts Anthony Datillio and Deputy Clerk Shane Patrone said consolidating the court system would logistically mean a change in the computer system in East Liverpool Municipal Court, which is currently on Courtview while the county Municipal Court uses Benchmark. It may mean the addition of another clerk, but the courts have reduced the number of clerks over recent months when the court went to an e-filing system, that allows attorneys to file the cases electronically and requires less handling of the paperwork.
East Liverpool Municipal Court currently has seven people working in the clerks office alone with more than 150 years of experience working there between them.