DISCUSSION: WHEN WILL STARK COUNTY FAMILY COURT FIND STARK COUNTY SOURCES FOR RESIDENTIAL PLACEMENT AND KEEP $400,000+ AT HOME?

At last week's Board of County Commissioners meeting Commissioners Vignos and Bosley are shown on the accompanying video discussing a letter the commissioners received from Stark County Family Council.

What was the topic of the letter?

The letter was addressing the concerns of the commissioners that Stark County is spending $400,000 or so per year sending Stark County youth with residential treatment needs out-of-county.

The STARK COUNTY POLITICAL REPORT (The Report) believes the commissioners are on a mission to get the Stark County Family Court (Judges Stucki, James and Howard) directed towards (with the assistance of Family Council) establishing a Stark County capability to provide residential treatment needs and thereby keep the money in Stark County.

The Report believes that the Stark County Family Court has had a lackadaisical attitude towards developing a Stark County capability and thus keeping the money at home. The Report further contends that the Court's ho-hum attitude is a consequence of the lack of political competition for these judgeships.

Mike Howard did have determined opposition from Taryn Heath in his election bid. But this is the exception rather than the rule.

Lack of competition across-the-board for judgeships is another way that former Republican Party chair Curt Braden and current Democratic Party chair Johnnie A. Maier, Jr., failed and continue to fail (Braden now replaced by Jeff Matthews) the general public.

The Report will give Maier this. He notes how when a judgeship is up for appointment by the governor, you have applicants coming out of the woodwork. But when it comes to running, these folks are nowhere to be seen. Well, Maier is a Vern Riffe (strongman) type of chairman. Why doesn't he twist some arms?

To The Report throwing hands up in resignation (which is what Maier does) is not good enough. Braden (now Matthews) and Maier need to invoke imaginative ways to cultivate a group of lawyers who are willing to wade into these waters. Party chairmen being imaginative for the public good? Considering the public good is not a priority for party chairmen, The Report's experience is that they look out for themselves and their closest friends.

Just as an aside. Readers will recall the big to-do that Judge Stucki (Family Court) made about Judge Park (Probate Court) not having competition. The Report's question to Stucki. Was he upset that he didn't have competition the last time he ran for Family Court judge?

To his credit Commissioner Todd Bosley is pushing the development of a Stark County capacity. The Stark County Family Council has a Service Coordination Committee (SCC) made up of up Stark County agency notables (in the words of Rick DeHeer - SCC Chair and Carol Lichtenwalter - SCC Director) are "very aggressively ... address[ing] the issues related to [Stark County] youth being placed out-of-county in residential treatment facilities."

Question: Is lack of political competition a key source of the Family Court judges historical disinterest in tackling the issue of forcing the development of a residential treatment program capacity in Stark County?