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WARREN -- Trumbull County Commissioners are considering passing a resolution to ask the Ohio Supreme Court to do a study to determine if the county's central and eastern district courts should be consolidated into one court.
Bazetta Trustee Michael Hovis, who is running for Commissioner Denny Malloy's seat in November, during Wednesday's commissioner meeting sought to convince commissioners to pass a resolution asking the high court to conduct a study to determine if the two courts should be consolidated because of the declining number of cases going to each.
Previous efforts to consolidate the two courts in 2012 and 2017 failed.
"In 2012, the commissioners reluctantly signed off on a resolution to consolidate the courts after reading recommendations from the Supreme Court of Ohio," Hovis said. "The bill was sponsored by a state representative from outside of Trumbull County."
"The two state reps refused to sponsor the bill," he continued. "It passed in the Senate and was then shot down by two state reps, causing it to fail."
When it was brought up again in 2017, Hovis said the commissioners refused to sponsor it. Hovis provided the commissioners a 2017 Ohio Supreme Court review of the two county courts that found they should be combined into a single full-time court, instead of remaining two part-time courts.
He noted the Eastern District Court in Brookfield has the higher budget of the two courts, with more employees than Central District Court in Cortland and a smaller case load.
"Both courts use different software," he said. "This would eliminate the payment of maintenance and software problems."
He noted if the county had consolidated the two courts more than 14 years ago when the consolidation was first proposed, the county potentially would have saved up to $6 million.
"With the consolidation, there could be some cost savings to the taxpayers of Trumbull County," Hovis said. "The case loads of each court have declined."
It is estimated the savings could be between $600,000 to $700,000 a year, Hovis said. He noted that the county is renting the Eastern District Court building, but the county owns the Central District Court building.
In 2025, the Eastern District Court had a $933,000 budget and the Central District Court had a $722,000 budget, Hovis said.
Commissioner Rick Hernandez questioned whether the elimination of one of the courts would force the county to eliminate some jobs.
"We want to be able to maintain the employees who want to stay employed with the county," he said. "We want to be able to retain our employees somewhere. That would be a win-win."
"That would be a decision of the commissioners," Hovis responded. "Ashtabula County is going through this right now. What they did was to guarantee to their employees that they could receive some type of employment with the county."
Commissioner Tony Bernard said now is the time to look at consolidation, especially since Judge Thomas Campbell just won the probate court seat in the May primary.
"There will be a vacancy there," Bernard said. "I don't have a problem reaching out to the Supreme Court asking them to look at it. I don't think it ever hurts to look at ways to reduce government spending. I'm sure their caseloads have decreased over the years. They don't have the heavy caseloads they once had. If the numbers are not there, then I think we should take a look at that."
He questioned if there is a need for the two courts.
"We have to take a hard look at this," Bernard said. "If we don't do anything, the cost will continue to increase."
Commissioner Denny Malloy said they also should look at the Newton Falls Municipal Court in the consolidation effort.
He added the commissioners need a week to consider this proposal so they will be able to hear from area attorneys, judges and others that may be opposed to consolidating the courts for reasons other than financial considerations.
"We need to hear the other side before we make a decision," Malloy said. "I'm sure we will hear the pros and cons."
Malloy also noted that while there likely will be long-term budgetary relief once the consolidation is complete, there also may be a short-term increase as the courts will be required to move to a single location, purchase equipment and other considerations.