Marietta City Council approves municipal court budget ordinance
Rejects measure to sell Fire House No. 2

Ward 1 Councilman Michael Scales, right, speaks about an ordinance for the municipal court budget, while Ward 2 Councilman Bret Allphin, left, listens during a Marietta City Council meeting Thursday evening. Council voted 5-2 to approve the municipal court budget. (Photo by Michelle Dillon)
MARIETTA — Marietta City Council passed the municipal court budget ordinance Thursday.
The third reading of Ordinance No. 131 (24-25), which sets the amount Marietta Municipal Court will receive from the city’s general fund for 2025 at $1,138,371, on a 5-2 vote, with Ward 2 Councilman Bret Allphin and At-Large Councilman Jon Grimm opposed.
The measure has sparked disagreement between some council members and the court.
A motion to suspend the rules and dispense with the third reading was rejected on a 5-2 vote Dec. 5. Ward 1 Councilman Michael Scales said the court asked for more than $180,000 more in its budget than this year and the amount council would need to contribute would create a general fund deficit for of $180,000. At-Large Councilman Jon Grimm’s disagreement with the court budget included raises when other departments’ non-union employees were not receiving pay increases. There was also an an assertion by At-Large Councilman Harley Noland that Marietta Municipal Court Judge Randall Jedlink said he would sue council if they didn’t pass the court budget.
“When we look at the general fund, and it’s part of the general fund, we tried to keep everything to what our estimate of the revenue was,” Scales said Thursday. “Everybody worked hard to keep within this. (Jedlink) decided he needed a little extra money.”
It would cost the city $100,000 if the judge were to take legal action to get council to pass the budget, Scales said, and “the only people that would win would be the attorneys, and the losers would be the taxpayers.”
Scales said he did not want to prolong the discussion of the budget, so he would vote to approve it, though he was unhappy in doing so.
Grimm said his primary concern is that “every department dug deep and built a budget that we could live with … the department heads and employees have accepted to move forward this (coming) year without a raise but that same consideration was not given by the court.”
He said because of the “court’s disappointing lack of cooperation” he couldn’t in good conscience vote yes for the legislation.
Ward 4 Councilwoman Erin O’Neill said she feels council is being “held hostage by the Municipal Court.
“As the chair of employee relations, it is not fair to me that our non-union employees have agreed to go without a raise and the other departments have tightened their belts … I feel like it’s a bad faith effort on the part of the judge,” she said.
O’Neill added that she would vote yes to keep the taxpayers from paying for a lawsuit.
In other business, council rejected the sale of the Marietta Fire Department’s former Fire House 2 at 333 Franklin St. on a 4-3 vote, with Scales, Ward 2 Councilman Brett Allphin and Ward 3 Councilman Bill Gossett voting in favor. Noland initially made a motion to table the ordinance, but it failed in a 4-3 vote with Grimm and At-Large Councilman Ben Rutherford joining him in voting yes.
Fire Chief C.W. Durham had previously expressed his desire to keep the building, which was used from 1930 to 1986, as a storage location for its backup pumper. He also indicated the former station would provide a strategic place for responses to emergencies like floods.
“I don’t believe that the sale of this asset outweighs the benefit to the city, so it was the recommendation of the Police and Fire Committee to recommend against the sale of this property,” Grimm said.
Noland said the building could provide a heated space for the department’s backup pumper that cannot be stored outside.
“For a very small renovation of a couple windows need replaced and the hanging space heater needs to be moved slightly, that truck could be rolled in there,” he said. “The chief has had it over there, it fits and I think it would be a great asset to protect for the city’s fire protection … It’s a much cheaper solution then building another building to house this fire pumper.”
Allphin said he was concerned more would need to be done to the building.
“I guess my concern here is … it would turn into another fully manned operation,” Allphin said.
Durham said he believed keeping the station could be “a giant cost savings to the citizens of Marietta for taxpayers.”
The next city council meeting is 7:30 p.m. Jan. 2 in Room 10 of the Marietta Armory.
Michelle Dillon can be reached at mdillon@newsansentinel.com