Quality of Life/Environmental Court

The District has received 7 responses in regards to this issue. Five of these responses have been in favor of the idea while 2 are opposed. A few of the favorable responses were contacted to see what types and how many cases they are burdened by. The general message coming from these municipalities is that their problems are more nuisance (i.e. junk cars, abandoned buildings) and zoning related violations. The following is a summary of each response addressing their reasons for supporting or opposing the idea. If the municipality supports the project, the type of violations they see most often are also given.

For

City of Forest Park

• •This municipality feels that with the current system, the judge either is unfamiliar with the importance of these ordinances or may not regard the violation of them as a serious matter. Also, from their experiences, some of the cases either get dismissed or the violator only received a "slap on the hand".



• •Properties littered with junk vehicles is a repetitious offense

Crosby Township

• •They support the project because they would like to see a judge that is familiar with the issues



• •Properties littered with accumulated junk; zoning issues

Colerain Township

• •They feel that while many environmental and zoning violations appear misdemeanor in nature, they should be weighed just as highly and deserve just as much attention as major criminal cases. Colerain Township has adopted a new property maintenance code and with this they expect their work load for such violations to almost double.



• •Defacing property with junk, lack of home maintenance, abandoned structures

Harrison Township

• •They feel this project would allow one judge to become an "expert" in such cases. The way the system runs now, different municipal judges have different standards for interpreting and enforcing the laws. Having a single judge deal with these issues should result in uniform enforcement. They also feel that repeat offenders would be more notices because they would come before the same judge.



• •No stats available on types of cases they are concerned with.

Against

Village of Fairfax

• •They have a minimum property maintenance code and standards and this has been successful 95% of the time.

Whitewater Township

• •Citizens would be opposed without further information provided to them. They want to know who will pay for such a court. They also feel that these issues are best left at the local level rather than the county level. "There are plenty of ordinances on the books to handle these".