Common Pleas Court presents budget request
Oct. 18—JEFFERSON — The Ashtabula County Board of Commissioners hosted a budget work session for the Ashtabula County Court of Common Pleas on Tuesday afternoon.
Court Administrator Kathleen Thompson presented the court's budget request to the commissioners.
"The budget this year has really not a lot of changes to it," she said.
The budget factors in a three-percent raise for all employees, she said.
Thompson said one of the few big changes to the budget is a request for $1 million for the CourtView upgrade.
Thompson said the court is reaching a critical stage, with the current system being outdated.
Two new computers are useless with the current system due to software compatibility issues, she said.
"It has become more apparent that this upgrade is necessary and needed," Thompson said.
Commissioner Casey Kozlowski said the commissioners received a request from the judges, seeking to have the CourtView project expedited. He said at a work session on Tuesday morning that the Ashtabula County Prosecutor's Office is working solely with the Ashtabula County Clerk of Courts' office on contract negotiations for the upgrade.
Commissioner Kathryn Whittington said the commissioners are the contracting authority for the county.
If parties are not working collaboratively, the project will not move forward, Whittington said.
"We would like to see this project happen just as much as anybody would," Commissioner J.P. Ducro said.
He said the project will have a positive impact on the courts, the media and the public.
"We're very strongly advocating for it," Ducro said. "I won't speak for my fellow commissioners, but my personal opinion is, regardless of whether there are personal issues or tensions or whatever the circumstances are, everybody needs to put those aside and talk about this specific project collectively, in a room together."
Kozlowski said he recently learned the Ashtabula County Prosecutor's Office will not speak to him regarding the contract because he is not a party to it.
The priority is to move this project forward, Whittington said.
"What's concerning to me, at this point is that, being the contracting authority, we have been cut out of those contract negotiations," she said. "I will not put my signature [down], I cannot make the decision what's best for our residents of this county, using taxpayer dollars to move the project forward, if I have not been part of negotiations."
Thompson said she understands that, and the Court of Common Pleas staff understand that the commissioners are the contracting authority.
The commissioners do not know if the contract that is currently being negotiated has everything all the parties want, or includes items that other parties would object to, Ducro said.
"The project was sold to us as a collaborative effort amongst multiple entities, that being the judges, the clerk of courts, the commissioners of course being a partner in a county-wide endeavor," Kozlowski said. "And here now we've got to this point where now it's being led by a singular group, where now everyone else has been cut out of the conversation, as it relates to the contract.
"We all have to be part of this in order for this to work, collectively."
He said he wanted to put to rest any idea that the commissioners would move forward with a contract that did not come before them.
Tuesday was the second of four days of budget hearings, with the first taking place last week, with a variety of county office presenting their proposed budgets.
Additional hearings will take place on Oct. 24 and 26.
According to a press release from the commissioners, members of the public are encouraged to attend the hearings, which take place in the commissioners' conference room at the old courthouse building.
