The Honorable Suzanne Rister was the scheduled speaker for the Zoning Inspectors meeting that took place on Thursday March 14 at the OSU Extension building with village and township officials from all over Paulding County. The meeting began with PCED director, Tim Copsey opening with the pledge of allegiance and giving a brief synopsis of the previous meetings that began just last year before introducing PC Municipal Court Judge Suzanne Rister and bring her forth to speak.
Judge Rister presented the process that a locality would go through in order get a conviction of junk or trash ordinances to get areas cleaned up. She gave statistics on how many cases come in to the municipal court, how many return, and how many end up getting jailable punishments.
There are not a huge amount of cases throughout the county – in 2020 8 zoning cases, 2 in 2021, 19 in 2022, 8 in 2023, and so far in 2024 – none. Rister stated that most zoning problems are taken care of with a letter from the governing agency. The numbers she presented are ones that were sent on to prosecution after the defendants failed to respond. If there is a conviction and the court costs and fines are not paid, the court works with the BMV and the person will not be able to renew their vehicle tags until the court fines are paid. Only three of the cases broke the level for a jail-able offense where someone has broken the same code multiple times. The townships can charge under their own code or the Ohio Basic Code.
Suzanne stated that one of the problems between the agencies and the residents is communication. She said many times the people don’t understand why they’ve been charged. Zoning violations must be clear to the alleged offender and presented in an itemized listing in reference to what is in violation. Pictures of the evidence must be clear and current – they cannot be six months old.
The fines that are paid go back to the entity that charged them. She also talked about reimbursement – including attorney fees – average of $700-800 per case each town/trustee are supposed to pay for that; however, the judge has stated she does what she can so the localities do not have to foot the bill.
For the agencies that want a favorable ruling from the judge, the entities are highly encouraged to have an official from the village stand in court with the prosecutor.
There was then a question and answer time. A few of the questions are the following: Q: Can you bring in pictures on your phone? A: No. They must be printed. If pictures are entered into evidence on the phone, then the phone becomes evidence and must be turned over to the court. Pictures must be the most current as possible. Q: If the town has already given time and warning to offenders, why does the court need to give them more time rather than just judgement immediately? A: IF a person pleads guilty to a minor misdemeanor they can be charged immediately. That may not be the best scenario because the goal is to get them to clean up and if they are just convicted they may be back in the court the next month once again with more charges. The end goal is to get progress in clean up. Q: Are landlords also responsible for the tenant’s mess? A: Yes. Landlord’s are also responsible for the tenant and many times will start an eviction process so they don’t have to put up with this. Q: What makes a jail-able offense? A. It depends on the statute charged under and if it’s a repeat of the same offense and charge. Probation could be an alternative to jail to get them in compliance. Q: What about an owner that has multiple properties in multiple townships/villages and has the same problem. A: This would be separate charges from separate towns/townships. This could not be combined under a blanket case. There might be an exception if it was charged under Ohio law.
Paulding County Prosecutor, Joe Burkard, was invited to speak next. He filled in some more about what can help to clean these properties up. Collecting the proper data an evidence goes a long way to helping prosecutors build the case. He said there were three different methods they go to attack the problem: 1. Health Department, 2. zoning, 3 Opening dumping and open burning.
It was asked about processing several properties in different locals and consolidating them all. It could be on one complaint, maybe, but under one charge, probably not. Burkard mentioned the goal is not to prosecute, but to get the place cleaned up.
Scott Straley asked if there was any events making things available to help residents clean up including old tires? Q: What is the difference between junk and trash? Joe stated that the definitions should be in each of the zoning books as different locals will have different definitions of terminology.
Nearing the end the meeting, Tim Copsey came back up and spoke a bit on answering Scott’s questions. In the last couple years Paulding received $500,000 for blight and residential clean up. Many clean ups projects have taken place already and have done a lot for their communities including the CIC being able to purchase land for cleanup and repurposing.
Q: What properties do we have that are still in blight. A: Identify in your communities what empty lots do you have that could be built on? Not for landlords but young people – we are helping them build in our communities.
Tim also stated that Koharts now have a new car shredder for recycling vehicles. Once the fluids are removed the vehicles can be put through quickly. It was also brought up that a GIS system of layers for the county for water and sewer lines for each village are now an option. The towns need to do their due diligence to get their systems updated and identified to be included in the GIS.
