Letters to the Editor
Late for Choir Practice
I was leaving the coffee shop on Chardon Square, coffee in one hand and a bakery sack with a couple of muffins in the other. About that time, I heard a voice calling me. It was my friend Binky Barnes. Binky had vaulted from his semi-permanent seat on the park bench directly across the street from the courthouse annex.
Binky occupies the location daily following his career of feeding the pigeons. I was kind of nervous watching Binky dart across the street, but the cars seemed to part like when Moses parted the Red Sea. He stopped in front of me and paused a moment to catch his breath. He was excited to tell me all about the events that happened here a couple of weeks ago.
He said folks had it all wrong about that judge. He said he was sitting right across the street feeding the pigeons and he saw and heard it all. He saw a policeman come out of one of those doors across the street with that man and woman. The policeman was talking to them. The man and woman were speaking ever so politely to the police officer.
Just about that time that judge came running out of one of the other doors. He was in an awful hurry and when the policeman stopped him he began yelling. He said that he was late for his midday church choir practice. That was why he had that robe on.
Binky said he had heard that the judge was in great demand for church choirs because he had a five octave range all the way from basso profondo to a high C falsetto. He was yelling at the policeman about being late for choir practice. He told the policeman that he needed to get there right away. Then that judge calmed down a bit and said he could get the policeman into the choir and said would issue a court order.
I asked Binky if he was sure that this story was true. He said absolutely and that he was telling it just like the judge told him to.
I looked at Binky and he look a little embarrassed and began to shuffle his feet. I handed him my bakery bag with the muffins in it and told him that the pigeons were probably still hungry.
Binky gave me a satisfied grin and he walked off back to his seat on the park bench. As I watched him go, I began to wonder just how many pigeons there are in Geauga County.
David Partington
Munson Township
‘Threat’ was a Misunderstanding
It was neither my intent nor purpose to threaten anyone, but rather to explain the court process that I subsequently had to take after being informed that the court’s fiscal staff would be arrested if they ever visited the auditor’s fiscal office in the future, to assure that the court can pay its vendors for vital services such as child protective services, guardians for vulnerable seniors, statutorily required appointed counsel for the county’s mentally ill, and therapeutic services for troubled youth — without interference from the auditor’s office.
Nonetheless, I have sent Lieutenant Duncan a letter to apologize for any possible misunderstanding that may have occurred when I explained to him the procedures I was going to take to ensure that my court personnel could still conduct statutorily required official court business in a public area within a public office. I am writing now to apologize in case anyone else may have perceived my explanation as a threat.
Unfortunately, there have been a number of ongoing issues the court’s fiscal staff have encountered with the auditor’s office. The auditor has delayed or denied payment of over 100 invoices for such public purposes as child protective services, guardians for vulnerable seniors, statutorily required appointed counsel, and therapeutic services for troubled youth.
The auditor has delayed posting purchase orders, preventing payment of invoices for over 140 days. The auditor has made allegations against court staff, some of which the state auditor has already determined to be unsubstantiated.
The difficulties the court staff has encountered because of the county auditor’s restrictive demands and delays in simple accounting procedures are resulting in finance charges, collections and a lawsuit against the auditor by four court vendors.
I would like to find an effective way to work with the auditor’s office, to ensure that court vendors are paid promptly for the services that they render for Geauga County residents. State Auditor Keith Faber offered to help mediate the court vendor payment issues involving the county auditor’s office. I readily accepted the state auditor’s offer to mediate. Unfortunately, I was advised by the state auditor that county Auditor Walder refused his offer of assistance: “… unfortunately you[r] local Auditor [Walder] was not [willing to mediate] … we have expressed our displeasure with him and his association over this decision.”
Because I am committed to ensuring the Geauga County Probate/Juvenile Court provides the best possible service to this community, I remain willing to engage in a meaningful process to facilitate the proper processing of the invoices from the court’s vendors. I invite the county auditor to reconsider his refusal to have the state auditor mediate these issues.
Timothy J. Grendell, Judge
Geauga County Probate Juvenile Court
