Mayor’s Court not in foreseeable future for city

A Mayor’s Court in Eastlake is not looking like a possibility in the near future.

After residents suggested a Mayor’s Court as a possible way for the city to generate additional revenue, Eastlake City Council decided more research was needed. So council assembled a task force to study the cost of establishing a Mayor’s Court, along with the potential revenue it could generate.

The task force presented its report to Eastlake’s City Council Finance Committee during the March 6 meeting.

Task force members were Eastlake residents Steve Komarjanski, Thomas Koons, Margaret Keough Doherty and Robert McGuigan, along with Jason Kasunick as council representative,

Kasunick said the committee’s consensus was that there are other revenue-generating options that need to be considered and implemented first to increase volume, such as LIDAR (light detection and ranging) traffic enforcement.

“For that reason, (the Mayor’s Court) likely won’t happen in the near future,” Kasunick said. “The matter was transferred to the Ordinance Committee.”

The task force noted in its report that it would cost about $50,000 to start up the Mayor’s Court and it would take at least five years to pay for itself.

The task force considered both the benefits and disadvantages to the city having its own Mayor’s Court.

In its report, the committee listed the primary benefit as the city being able to keep all of the court costs assessed to misdemeanor and traffic defendants instead of them being paid to a municipal court. Additionally, the city would be able to retain a portion of the fines collected. Other benefits cited in the report include:

• Reducing the caseload for Willoughby Municipal Court.

• The Mayor’s Court could operate in the evenings, making it more convenient for many individuals.

• The Mayor’s Court would be a more efficient way to handle building code violations.

The primary disadvantage reported by the task force would be the defunding of Willoughby Municipal Court, causing the cost assessed per case heard in Municipal Court to rise. This in turn could result in rising costs to other municipalities within the Municipal Court’s jurisdiction to compensate for the decreased revenue.

Other disadvantages cited in the report included:

• The reputation of mayor’s courts among the general public is that they tend to issue an overabundance of citations, which raises concerns about how fair the proceedings are.

• The Mayor’s Court would need to occupy City Hall during court hours, with two rooms being designated for the court operations. Council Chambers would be the room likely used for hearings, with a second room needing to be designated to take payments.

• The city would be responsible for staffing the court and the cost associated with staffing, such as wages of employees, including the 18.77 percent (current year) for Public Employees Retirement System, Medicare, Workers’ Compensation and insurance for any employee working 32 hours a week.

• The city would need to maintain one full-time employee for the court.

• There is a cost for the training of a court magistrate and clerks, who must be trained through the Ohio Municipal League

This is not Eastlake’s first time to consider a Mayor’s Court. It was looked into about eight years ago and deemed not in the city’s best interest at that point.