Thursday, August 26, 1999
Monroe council approves 2 officials
New magistrate will hold mayor's court
BY JANET C. WETZEL
The Cincinnati Enquirer
MONROE — As the new assistant city manager/engineer prepares to take the helm, Mayor Elbert Tannreuther is getting ready to step down from the mayor's court he has held for nearly 13 years.
During a meeting this week, council authorized City Manager Don Whitman to contract with Jonathon O. Nerenberg to serve as magistrate of the city's mayor's court.
Effective Wednesday, Mr. Nerenberg will hold court twice monthly for an annual salary of $7,500.
Council also approved Mr. Whitman's choice of William Brock as assistant city manager/engineer. He will start his new position the same day.
Mr. Brock, 31, a senior engineer with Dayton's Department of Planning and Community Development, will have an annual salary of $55,500.
He succeeds Jay Stewart, assistant city manager, who resigned from his full-time job with the city Aug. 18 to go to law school. Mr. Stewart immediately took on a new part-time position, as Monroe director of development.
Mayor Tannreuther is among many Ohio mayors who have decided to give up their mayor's court duties after a U.S. Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals ruling in June.
That ruling questioned whether a mayor, who holds executive power over purse strings, operations and personnel of a community, can be impartial when sitting as a judge.
The court said a mayor “can be said to occupy practically and seriously inconsistent positions, one partial and the other judicial.”
That caused mayors all over the state to worry about presiding over their courts, where they have traditionally handled traffic and parking tickets and violations of municipal laws within their communities.
“With the liabilities this puts on the position, I don't need that,” Mr. Tannreuther said.
“But I still want to maintain a court in the city for the convenience of the people. I won't miss it that much.”
Monroe's court generates about $45,000 annually.
For about two years, Mr. Nerenberg has sat in for Mr. Tannreuther in his absence. But the mayor said he's reserving the first mayor's court in the new municipal building for himself.
“Mr. Nerenberg can sit back and watch me for the first one there, then I'll step aside,” Mr. Tannreuther said.
During the meeting, it was announced that the city's municipal offices at 105 Old St., the finance office at 27 W. Elm St. and the court office at 6262 Hamilton-Middletown Road will be closed on Monday so they can be moved into the new city hall, 233 S. Main St.
All offices will reopen at the new location at 8 a.m. Tuesday.
How to put a porker in your art collection
600 join melting pot
Schools sued for holy day closings
Kings Island taking no chances
Recent deaths of riders at Tristate parks
Art museums try to draw Web audience
Nine hospitals drop Medicare HMO
What's Your Opinion: Questions of fairness
Hate-crime hoax at Miami?
New world opens for students
Sea of friends mourn Ross teens
Lawsuit charges abuse of teen inmate
Will GOP's bite be as big as its bark?
Pilfered lawn duck at-large
'Resource Guide' offers breast cancer network
Who killed King Tut? 'Mr. Mummy' might know
$214,000 goes for rec projects
County lags 200 years on some paperwork
GET TO IT
Girl who wants to be vet saves 6 pups trapped in pipe
Judge rules city may raze building
Man found dead in Over-the-Rhine
Mayor's court now magistrate's
Monroe council approves 2 officials
NKU, Sparks honor each other
Payroll change upsets workers
Police looking for witnesses to fatal crash
Prisoner's beard-cutting case headed to trial
Rain charging reservoirs, but water bans unaffected
Residents weigh in on bridge's future
Skipped-paycheck plan upsets workers
Slain woman's family sues store where she worked
Theater land offered for roomier library
TRISTATE DIGEST
Upscale seniors' residence proposed
Villa Hills eliminates administrator job
Weapons unlikely to be burned
Zoning chief latest to quit development department
