Muni Court expands caseload

City wrangles over building conditions

As Lorain officials and residents wrangle over the condition of the city’s buildings, the municipal court has handled more code violation cases this year than it did in 2016.

However, the court would need more money and staff to boost efforts similar to what takes place in Cleveland, Lorain’s regional big city neighbor to the east, said Judge Mark J. Mihok.

This week city officials continued the public discussion about how Lorain could improve the conditions of homes and commercial buildings in the city.

In October, the Lorain Growth Corp. assembled a committee to look at exterior conditions of empty commercial buildings on Broadway. Last month, organization President Jim Long went public with his concerns about buildings that could be at risk for deteriorating beyond repair if owners don’t maintain them.

On Dec. 4, Lorain City Councilman-at-Large Joe Koziura called for stronger enforcement actions across the board at Lorain Municipal Court, prompting a reply from Mihok.

At muni court

As of Dec. 5, the Lorain Municipal Court housing docket had 750 cases this year, up from 426 cases last year, according to court figures.

The housing docket takes place at noon Wednesdays, as needed. Magistrate Linda A. Webber hears civil cases on that day but does not necessarily hear housing and building code cases in every session, Mihok said.

On Dec. 6, at least 37 people crowded into the magistrate’s courtroom, not counting their lawyers and the court and city workers dealing with cases.

Defendants check in with a staff member of the city Law Department. They and their lawyers can speak to city prosecutors about the cases before Webber calls them to the bench.

Webber spent more than an hour handling about 34 cases, each one unique.

In some instances, property owners had made the needed repairs.

Then Webber generally agreed with city prosecutors’ recommendations to amend citations to minor misdemeanors. Some of the property owners pleaded no contest, were found guilty and ordered to pay a $50 fine per violation.

For some cases, Webber set bench trials scheduled at the end of December.

“I think the progress is slow, but I think we’re making progress,” Webber said. “It takes time. It didn’t get this way overnight. Properties took time to get to this state, so it’s going to take a while to see improvements.”

Compared to Cleveland

The caseload is smaller than at the Cleveland Housing Court, which in 2016 had 3,388 criminal cases and 10,404 civil cases filed, according to figures from that court.

The Cleveland Housing Court sometimes has been suggested as a model for Lorain to emulate at a smaller scale, Mihok said.

Comparing the caseload of Cleveland to Lorain is not an apples-toapples comparison. “It’s more like a watermelon to a grape comparison,” said Tim Lubbe, court administrator for the Cleveland Housing Court.

The Cleveland court handles complaints in the city and in the village of Bratenahl. Its annual budget is almost $4.3 million, Lubbe said.

The court has 50 employees, including a dozen housing specialists who work with property owners to hold them responsible for correcting housing and commercial code violations, Lubbe said.

For buildings and neighborhoods in poor shape, it’s not unusual that people are frustrated in the dynamics of the community and look to the court to resolve it, Lubbe said.

The size of Cleveland makes the housing court viable there. But it can be difficult for smaller cities to sustain similar courts, Lubbe said.

Based on the proportional size of Cleveland and Lorain, Mihok estimated Lorain Municipal Court would need about $500,000 a year more in its budget to pay for an actual housing court, above the existing housing and building docket.

New court or more work?

City officials have suggested increasing housing citations up to 3,500 housing cases a year in Lorain, Mihok said, noting that would nearly double the number of cases going through the magistrate’s office a year.

Mihok used the analogy of the Lorain Street Department in a snow storm. Doubling the caseload would be like expecting the Street Department to plow the streets of Lorain and Elyria in the same amount of time with the same number of drivers and trucks.

That task would be impossible, he said.

“You can’t double the number of cases into the system without supplying more people,” Mihok said. “We’ve had these discussions over and over and nothing seems to happen.”

Coming soon

On Dec. 6, Lorain Safety-Service Director Dan Given sat in on the discussions before the city lawyers and defendants went to Webber to argue their cases. He does not make it to every housing court session but said he has tried to be a more frequent visitor there in recent months.

In 2018, the city administration has budgeted money to hire another inspector to work in the city Department of Building, Housing and Planning, Given said.

Given, who served for years as a city councilman, said he understands Koziura’s concerns. Now the city is “pushing the wet noodle uphill and we’re making progress, albeit slowly,” he said.

City inspectors are looking for common sense issues for which people should know better, Given said. It does not take a lot of money to buy paint for a porch or garbage bags for debris or having the junk man haul out the burned out shells of cars, he said.

“We want people to start having pride in their community again,” Given said. “And pride starts with being clean.”