Candidates seeking Youngstown's Clerk of Courts post

YOUNGSTOWN — With city Clerk of Courts Sarah Brown-Clark’s decision to not seek reelection, the position is without an incumbent for the first time since 1999.

Seeking to succeed Brown-Clark is Democrat Richard Vincent Hill, whom she chose as her successor, and two independents: city Law Director Jeff Limbian and Corrine Sanderson, a paralegal.

Limbian and Sanderson criticized how Brown-Clark kept her retirement secret and acknowledged she groomed Hill for the position.

“They conspired to hijack the Democratic endorsement,” Sanderson said. “There would have been a lot of people to run in the Democratic primary against him if it wasn’t secretive.”

Limbian, a lifelong Democrat, said he would have been one of them had Brown-Clark announced her retirement.

“I thought it was despicable,” Limbian said. “She should be ashamed of herself. People should have a choice and not Sarah Brown-Clark’s handpicked successor.”

Hill, who has worked at the clerk of courts office for 23 years and currently is the criminal and traffic supervisor, said anyone could have filed for the seat in the Democratic primary.

Limbian called Brown-Clark a “dinosaur” for failing to modernize the clerk’s office and said, “I’m certain I can be a conduit with a better relationship between that branch of government and the mayor.”

Limbian is close friends with Mayor Jamael Tito Brown. The mayor has had an uneasy relationship with Brown-Clark.

Limbian said he sees Hill “unfortunately as just an extension of Sarah Brown-Clark’s reign. We don’t see much of a change if he were to be elected.”

Sanderson also said Hill “wants to keep everything the same. The last thing I want to hear is someone running for office saying they want to keep things the same. The office has been very problematic for years, and that’s why I decided to run.”

But Hill said there isn’t any reason to change as the office is not only effective but has improved over the years under the direction of Brown-Clark.

The clerk’s office recently received a $150,000 grant from the Ohio Supreme Court with council approving legislation from the mayor for a $150,000 match from the city’s American Rescue Plan fund to enhance the court’s case management system.

“The office is going to be more efficient with the upgrade to our case management system,” Hill said. “That will be a big change. The clerk’s operations have been running smoothly for the past 23 years. The technology upgrade will greatly improve that.”

Limbian said more is needed, such as a paperless court filing system and a program to add multiple languages to the clerk’s website for greater access.

The $300,000 upgrade, Hill said, will increase public access and permit e-filings for motions.

Sanderson and Limbian said the clerk’s office runs inefficiently, while Hill says collections increased by more than $160,000 in 2022 from the year prior.

“There’s been no progress in 24 years,” Sanderson said.

Limbian said the clerk’s office has 26 employees, which is far too many. He added about 15 to 20 should be in the office, and, if he’s elected, he would downsize through attrition and by moving some court clerks to other city departments that are truly in need of help.

Hill said court filings were up 2,735 cases from 2021 to 2022.

“With that caseload, I would keep personnel as is,” he said.

Sanderson said a performance audit of the clerk of court’s office hasn’t occurred in 24 years and one is needed. She also said annual financial audits of the city show that the clerk of courts office is over budget.

“Based on reviews of the financial statements of the office, the high salaries of management and the amount of staffing are the major contributors to the failed audits,” Sanderson said.

Limbian’s time as law director since January 2018 has come under scrutiny by some, with the city losing cases, including a number against the firefighters union as well as having a 14-misdemeanor-count case against former Youngstown police Lt. Brian Flynn dismissed by a judge who said the law department failed to prove it didn’t use statements made by Flynn during an internal police investigation as evidence and a federal case against the city’s former insurance company. In the insurance case, a federal judge criticized Limbian for “his complete lack of oversight in the legal department.”

Sanderson said Limbian is “a nice guy but he has weaponized incompetence” and outsources too many cases that his office should be able to handle.

Asked about Limbian’s effectiveness as law director, Hill said: “I’m focused on my campaign and what I will do.”

Limbian said: “It’s easy to cherry-pick granules of information and expand them into larger issues. We’ve done tremendous work to move the city to better representation.”

There’s been high turnover in the law department because city council won’t increase the salaries of attorneys who work there, he said.

Among the three candidates, they’ve lost a combined seven elections.

Hill lost the Youngstown mayoral race in 2021 as an independent, finishing fourth and doing so poorly that Amber White, a write-in candidate, beat him.

Limbian has lost four judicial races with the most recent defeat coming in the 2019 Democratic primary for a Youngstown Municipal Court judge’s seat.

Sanderson has lost two races: one in 2016 for an Ohio House seat and three years later for Youngstown council’s 5th Ward spot. She’s the only candidate of the three to win an election. She was elected in 2015 to the Youngstown school board.