Sunday, June 7, 2009

Officials Disturbed by Lawsuit

The chairman of the Mahoning County Commissioners can sum up his displeasure with a mandamus lawsuit filed against the commissioners by Probate Judge Mark Belinky in one word: “Disturbing.”

Anthony T. Traficanti, chairman of the county commissioners: “I would like him to retract his mandamus and agree to sit down and talk to us.”

In his lawsuit in the 7th District Court of Appeals, Judge Belinky asked the appellate judges to compel the commissioners to provide the probate court with a $915,715 operating budget from the county’s general fund for 2009, per his previous order. The commissioners had allocated the probate court $694,833 from the general fund, which Judge Belinky said in his lawsuit is inadequate for the proper operation of his court.

Full Article and Source:
Probate Judge Belinky’s suit disturbs Mahoning officials

See also:
Judge Files Suit Over Budget

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

This Judge is so disconnected from reality he is clueless. Instead of Judges being 'rubber stampers' to frivilous motions that drag out cases for months and years, he/she should take control of the court and these money grubbing 'agents of the courts' and get business DONE by Law. Problem with some of the Probate Judges is that they are not schooled in Law and carry no Legal License so what are they doing presiding over legal, and often times, complicated cases?

We are in an economic crisis and everyone including Judges need to
appreciate that and just because it doesn' affect their personal standards of the living, is no excuse!

This Judge is paying court staffers out of funds not governed to do so and illegal and he should be brought up on charges for misuse of public funds

Anonymous said...

The interesting thing about this to me is that Probate Judge Mark Belinky sued --- and Anthyony T. Traficanti, chairman of the county commissioners wants now to talk.

I would eat my hat if Belinky didn't try talking and got snubbed, so is now suing.

And the commissioner reacts with surprise and feigned concern.

Anonymous said...

Sit down and talk -- now that's a fine idea.

But, that's not what judges promote in the courtroom. Why's that?

Anonymous said...

This article is an example of how sometimes talk breaks down and the next thing you know, it goes to court.

Anonymous said...

Perhaps there would be more money in the Mahong County Probate court if the court was more active in preventing unnecessary guardianships.

Anonymous said...

You're so right, Anonymous, cutting court costs would certainly help with the budget!

Perhaps probate judge Mark Belinky should consider the obvious first.