YOUNGSTOWN — Unable to come to an agreement in mediation, the legal dispute between the city of Youngstown and Sarah Brown-Clark, a former clerk of courts, regarding back pay returned to the active docket of the 7th District Court of Appeals.

Magistrate Beth Anne Aurilio filed an order Thursday stating that after unsuccessful mediation, the case is back in front of the appeals court judges with Brown-Clark having until Sept. 19 to file a legal brief and the city’s brief due 20 days later.

The two sides had a mediation session Aug. 14.

Brown-Clark, clerk of courts for 24 years until her retirement at the end of 2023, contends the city owes her $28,298 in back pay. The city disputes that.

Mahoning County Common Pleas Court Judge John M. Durkin on March 11 granted the city’s motion for summary judgment in Brown-Clark’s case. Brown-Clark filed an appeal on April 9 with the 7th District, choosing to act as her own lawyer.

Aurilio filed a June 18 order informing Brown-Clark that the time to file her brief had expired. Rather than dismiss the case, Aurilio ordered her to file a legal brief no later than July 7.

“Failure to file a timely appellant’s brief in accordance with this order may result in dismissal of the appeal,” Aurilio wrote.

Instead of filing a brief, Brown-Clark hired James Vitullo as her attorney on July 7, who asked for a 30-day extension. A day later, Aurilio agreed to a delay in the case in order for mediation to occur.

The city followed the order, but mediation was unsuccessful.

Brown-Clark claims she is entitled to $28,298 in unpaid salary increases for the last six years of her term.

Durkin sided March 11 with the city’s request for summary judgment.

He wrote: “Summary judgment is to be granted when it appears from all the submitted evidentiary materials that reasonable minds can reach only a conclusion adverse to the party opposing the motion.”

Brown-Clark filed the case against the city and Kyle Miasek, its finance director, on Dec. 28, 2023, eight days after city council voted 4-3 against giving her a $7,181 raise for 2023.

The legal dispute centers on interpretation of Ohio Revised Code Section 1901.31 regarding clerks of courts and specifically a provision exempting certain cities and counties with populations under 100,000 residents, including Youngstown, from having an appointed clerk of courts and requiring that person be elected.

In Brown-Clark’s lawsuit in common pleas court, Kevin Daley, her attorney in that case, wrote that Youngstown “is legislatively determined to be a municipality with a population greater than 100,000 for the purpose of calculating the clerk of court’s salary.”

Under that requirement, the clerk of court would get 85% of the municipal court judges’ salary.

But in a March 7, 2024, motion to dismiss that was converted by the court to a motion for summary judgment, Adam Buente, a city deputy law director, wrote the statute states if a city’s population is under 100,000 and its court’s revenue is less than its expenditures “the clerk of court of a municipal court shall receive the annual compensation that the legislative authority prescribes.”

There are exemptions included in the law, but not for Youngstown, Durkin ruled.

He wrote: “The General Assembly had the chance to carve out the same exemption for the Youngstown Municipal Court,” but “expressly chose not to do so. Thus, Youngstown’s clerk of court is not exempted.”

Durkin also agreed with the city that the exemption for Youngstown to have an elected clerk of court “has nothing to do with the setting of Brown-Clark’s compensation.”

The city pays 60% of the Youngstown clerk of courts’ salary with Mahoning County paying the rest.

The rejected legislation by council would have increased the city’s portion of Brown-Clark’s annual salary from $67,389 to $74,570 in 2024. Overall, her annual salary would have gone from $117,103 to $124,284 that year.

In the lawsuit, Brown-Clark stated the city and Miasek improperly froze her salary at the 2018 rate of $67,389. With salary increases under state law, Brown-Clark stated she is owed $28,298 over the six years. The county paid its share of the raises to Brown-Clark during those six years.

In Youngstown, pay increases are included in what is called the master salary ordinance that council is supposed to approve.

When David Bozanich was city finance director, Brown-Clark would send him letters about her payroll increases and it would be handled by his department. Bozanich served as the city’s finance director from Nov. 15, 1993, to Dec. 31, 2017.

When Miasek took over as finance director, that stopped and he forwarded Brown-Clark’s paperwork to the law department, which didn’t take any action.

Brown-Clark was paid 85% of the municipal court judges’ salary by the city and county for the first 18 of her 24 years as clerk of courts.