Trending
WARREN - Trumbull County Commissioners unanimously approved a resolution Wednesday allowing them to look at consolidating the county's Central and Eastern District courts into one.
The commissioners are responding to an Oct. 19 letter from Robert W. Horner III, administrative director of the Ohio Supreme Court to Trumbull County Probate Court Judge Thomas A. Campbell, who in September requested having legislation drawn up to abolish one judgeship in Trumbull County. Central District Court is in Cortland and Eastern District Court is in Brookfield. Campbell previously served as Central District Court judge.
If the area courts consisted of a single judgeship, its incoming caseload would place it at the 17th percentile in civil cases, the 30th percentile in criminal cases and fourth percentile in traffic cases, according to data provided to the commissioners. There are two part-time judges assigned to the courts.
The caseloads of the two courts have declined from 2017 through 2026, driven by a substantial decrease in the number of incoming traffic cases. The number of criminal cases also declined, but at a much lower rate. There were 1,074 criminal cases heard in 2017 compared to a projected 963 in 2026, according to the report.
The courts' incoming civil cases have risen, with 922 projected cases this year, representing an increase of 82% over the 507 incoming cases reported in 2023.
Commissioner Rick Hernandez said the county's effort would be to review information collected so the county can make recommendations to the state. It would be state officials that would make the final decision whether the courts need to be consolidated into one.
"We don't have any numbers yet, with amounts that would be saved," Hernandez said. "In addition, where to move the current employees or if that is even a case. This would be a good start."
Commissioner Denny Malloy said the letter from the Ohio Supreme Court does not show the level of cost savings that may be achieved through the consolidation.
"They used data from the 2020 census," he said. "They are predicting Trumbull County will lose about 10,000 people a decade through 2050, meaning we will lose about 40,000 people."
"I don't believe that to be true at all," Malloy added. "With Kimberly Clark and Foxconn, all the data from the chamber of commerce shows we are growing. This is the first year we ever had a net, no loss of citizens, in Trumbull County since the 1960s.”
Based on the population number presented in the letter commissioners received, Malloy questions its conclusion that a reduction in the number of courts is needed.
"We will review this, but there is going to be much more intense financial reviews, including our economic agencies, chamber of commerce, our economic development team,” he said.
Malloy questions what the cost would be to merge the court.
"There was a figure thrown at us that we will save money," he continued. "We were told the Cortland court is too small, so we will have to build a new courthouse. We can't afford to build a dog pound right now. How can we build a courthouse."
Commissioner Tony Bernard said if the county is ever going to look at consolidating the courts, now is the time, especially since one judge is moving to the domestic court.
"We owe it to taxpayers to look at streamlining the government, when and if we can," he said. "We have to see if we can actually save money or how long it will take us to save that money."
"This is step or many steps and I think we are doing our due diligence," Bernard said. "Both judges have indicated to us that there is a need for reduction. The cases are just not there right now. We have to take a hard look at this.”