By Mike Sever
Record-Courier staff writer
Where a new municipal courthouse will be built depends more on the law and less on local desire.
Streetsboro resident and city Planning Commission member Brett McClafferty touched off a storm when he suggested the court now located in Kent would be better in Streetsboro.
Acting Mayor Art Scott has said he is “livid” with McClafferty because McClafferty did not discuss the idea with anyone before sending a letter to commissioners, several Portage County judges and The Gateway News.
The court location is actually set by the Ohio Revised Code, and, unless the law changes, it is tied to Kent.
Section 1901.021 (C) of the ORC says “Two of the judges of the Portage county municipal court shall sit within the municipal corporation of Ravenna, and one of the judges shall sit within the municipal corporation of Kent. The judges may sit in other incorporated areas of Portage county.”
That last sentence allows judges to hold court sessions in other municipalities, but the courts “shall” remain based in Ravenna and Kent.
So far, county commissioners and judges have given no indication they have thought about moving the court. For more than two years they have been discussing building a new facility in Kent.
Not only did McClafferty fail to discuss his idea with fellow commission members and city officials, he failed to get his e-mailed message through to county commissioners.
The item was not on commissioners’s agenda Tuesday. When asked why, commissioners and their clerk, Deborah Mazanec, said they had not gotten the message.
“It may have ended up in our junk mail filter,” Commissioner Maureen Frederick said.
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E-mail:
msever@recordpub.com
Phone: 330 298-1125