Proposed legislation by Ohio Representative Larry Wolpert would require that the person presiding over a Mayor's Court be a lawyer.
The bill also raises the population limit from 100 to 300 people.
Currently Valleyview's Mayor's Court is be conducted by Mayor Watkins.
My guess is that the proposed law will pass and it will effect Valleyview. There have been Federal Court rulings that have stated that Mayors cannot run their court. A conflict of interest exists for the person responsible for making the Village's budget and deciding what the fine should be to person who will be providing revenue to the Village.
It was brought to the Mayor's attention late last year that it needed to change how Mayor's Court was operated.
The only change so far is that anyone who pleads not guilty gets sent to the County. The Mayor claimed that he was looking into getting a magistrate and some preliminary visits were made to some magistrates who were currently conducting mayor's courts for other municipalities. Other than that nothing else has been done to the best of my knowledge.
By having the Mayor conduct Mayor's Court he is putting the Village at risk of a lawsuit that the Village mostly likely could not recover from and would lead to the end of the Village.
Hopefully the threat of the proposed legislation will get the Council moving on getting a magistrate in place for the Village. Why needlessly put the Village at risk? It is only a matter of time before the law passes (in my opinion) so why not be proactive to insure that the court does not have to be shut down while the Village looks for a magistrate?
My next question is what is to stop another legislator from raising the population limit to 600. The last census has the Village at 603, but projections put the Village at 587. The Mayor and Council need to become more active and work with our State Representative to make sure that something like that does not happen. Sitting back not taking action will allow them to do away with Mayor's Court.
If you want more information I suggest googling ''Brice Mayors Court'' and you will get links to news stories from Channel 4 and the dispatch about the Village of Brice's Mayor Court and the proposed legislation from Representative Larry Wolpert of Hilliard. You may recall that he is the one that wrote the ''New Rome Law'',
The bill also raises the population limit from 100 to 300 people.
Currently Valleyview's Mayor's Court is be conducted by Mayor Watkins.
My guess is that the proposed law will pass and it will effect Valleyview. There have been Federal Court rulings that have stated that Mayors cannot run their court. A conflict of interest exists for the person responsible for making the Village's budget and deciding what the fine should be to person who will be providing revenue to the Village.
It was brought to the Mayor's attention late last year that it needed to change how Mayor's Court was operated.
The only change so far is that anyone who pleads not guilty gets sent to the County. The Mayor claimed that he was looking into getting a magistrate and some preliminary visits were made to some magistrates who were currently conducting mayor's courts for other municipalities. Other than that nothing else has been done to the best of my knowledge.
By having the Mayor conduct Mayor's Court he is putting the Village at risk of a lawsuit that the Village mostly likely could not recover from and would lead to the end of the Village.
Hopefully the threat of the proposed legislation will get the Council moving on getting a magistrate in place for the Village. Why needlessly put the Village at risk? It is only a matter of time before the law passes (in my opinion) so why not be proactive to insure that the court does not have to be shut down while the Village looks for a magistrate?
My next question is what is to stop another legislator from raising the population limit to 600. The last census has the Village at 603, but projections put the Village at 587. The Mayor and Council need to become more active and work with our State Representative to make sure that something like that does not happen. Sitting back not taking action will allow them to do away with Mayor's Court.
If you want more information I suggest googling ''Brice Mayors Court'' and you will get links to news stories from Channel 4 and the dispatch about the Village of Brice's Mayor Court and the proposed legislation from Representative Larry Wolpert of Hilliard. You may recall that he is the one that wrote the ''New Rome Law'',
