Extra costs accumulate for the Columbiana County Municipal Court

One year after the East Liverpool Municipal Court ceased to exist

LISBON -- Additional caseload meant additional costs for the Columbiana County Municipal Court when the East Liverpool Municipal Court ceased to exist on Sept. 23, 2022.

For the city of East Liverpool, there's an obvious savings from not having to pay court staff.

But for the county, extra costs started accumulating even before the city shuttered the courtroom and clerk's office in East Liverpool City Hall. The assimilation didn't magically happen with the flip of a switch or change of address.

The county incurred moving costs, overtime costs and construction costs associated with moving the East Liverpool court to Lisbon to the municipal court building on Saltwell Road.

Chief Deputy Clerk M. Shane Patrone of the county Clerk of Courts Office said four county municipal court employees clocked 360 to 400 hours to box up and prepare court files in East Liverpool to be moved. A moving company was paid $9,600 to physically move the files and equipment to the county.

Once those files arrived, space was needed to store them so Patrone said a previously public area at county municipal court was converted into a storage room at a cost of about $6,500. Additional shelving was purchased to store the new boxes of files at a cost of approximately $3,900.

The increase in cases also resulted in increased costs for items such as postage and supplies, according to Patrone, who said he would determine the exact increased cost once the year ends.

The Clerk of Courts Office is looking into hiring an additional staff member to make up for the increase in workload. So far in 2023, he said the overtime costs associated with the additional caseload totaled $14,000.

No employees from the East Liverpool court were hired by the Clerk of Courts when the court closed, but Common Pleas Court hired one assistant/bailiff who started before the closure and at least three probation officers. A county municipal court judge hired one member from the former East Liverpool clerk staff to act as court bailiff. Patrone believed remaining East Liverpool court staff were already retired or went into retirement after the court closed.

The beginning of the end of East Liverpool Municipal Court began with the death of East Liverpool Municipal Court Judge Dominic Frank in early 2022, with visiting judges filling role until the court closed. East Liverpool Mayor Greg Bricker approached county commissioners about eliminating the court not long after Frank's death, citing the costs to the city. The commissioners discussed the issue and eventually the abolishment went through the legislature in the spring of 2022, with the governor giving his approval and the date for elimination set.

The job of absorbing the court fell on the county Clerk of Courts staff, not just of the files, but also the computer system and website and the financial accounts.

"This is the first time a court has been closed in this manner, and the court records transferred to another court in the State of Ohio. The transition was not easy, but made possible with the cooperation of East Liverpool Clerk Candy Page and the East Liverpool Municipal Court staff. The East Liverpool city auditor was very helpful with closing out accounts and transferring funds to the county. I appreciate the Columbiana County Municipal Court judges and the county Municipal Court clerk staff for their hard work and patience through the transition," Patrone said.

According to numbers he provided for this year through August 2023, the number of criminal cases totaled 2,727, which is an increase of 169 cases over last year's total, with four months still to go. The number of civil cases so far through August totaled 2,835, an increase of 147 from all of last year. The number of traffic cases totaled 7,090 through August, an increase of 505 from all of last year.

Numbers of cases for 2022 totaled 2,558 criminal, 2,688 civil and 6,585 traffic. The numbers for 2021 (prior to East Liverpool closing) were 2,453 criminal, 2,703 civil and 7,088 traffic.

In 2022, the court finalized about 60 East Liverpool cases a month and had 30 to 40 arraignments in November and December from cases previously filed in East Liverpool Municipal Court.

"Daily operations remain unchanged, the number of cases heard in each day has increased slightly. We continue to process about 15 to 20 old criminal cases each month from East Liverpool, including warrants to arrest. We still have hearings on between 50 to 60 East Liverpool cases each month (cases that started in East Liverpool Municipal Court and were filed prior to the merger)," Patrone explained.

Here's what the county gained: a certain amount of money into the general fund from each new case type filed. Those amounts include: criminal, $10; traffic, $15; civil, $37.26; and small claims, $15.11.

The Clerk of Courts computer fund gets $10 per new case and receives $38 per case for Special Projects.

The East Liverpool Municipal Court jurisdiction covered the city of East Liverpool and the townships of St. Clair and Liverpool. Now those entities are part of the county system in Lisbon.

mgreier@mojonews.com