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hiring more than one Housing Specialist. The entire staff, including the in McManamon’s initial request. Those constraints alone kept Housing Court from reaching optimal effectiveness. The new Court’s future was challenged again that November when Judge McManamon was elected to the Court of Common Pleas, creating a fastrevolving door of judges on the Housing Court bench. McManamon was replaced by Judge Robert Malaga, who had just lost his own bid for re-election to Probate Court. Many did not see Judge Malaga as a Housing Court supporter; however, he did honor the Court’s problem-solving approach to justice. “Those be mitigated if the work is done,” wrote a Cleveland Press reporter in April 1981. The newspaper quoted Judge Malaga as frequently telling defendants, “I’d rather have you put the money into the house than give it to the court.” 29 Judge Malaga served only one year, replaced by Judge Eddie Corrigan, Local Rules, giving it a set of procedures and guidelines that set it apart from Municipal Court as a whole. It was an important step because of the specialized nature of cases heard in Housing Court. Judge Gaines also took the Court’s problem-solving philosophy to a higher level, assigning Housing Specialists to connect property ownerdefendants, often elderly and poor, with available programs to help them repair and maintain their homes. Resources, however, were few. One of the most popular programs, Cleveland Action to Support Housing (CASH), was available only to homeowners who were eligible for conventional bank loans. Interest rates at that time hovered above eleven Housing Court’s early supporters remained frustrated over what they saw They set out to recruit a judge who would continue the Court’s established mission. They found their candidate in William Corrigan—a lawyer, neighborhood activist and former teacher and guidance counselor at Glenville High School. Corrigan had never served as a judge, but in 1989, at age sixty-two, he ran for the Housing Court and defeated Carl Corrigan ushered in a decade of expansion for Cleveland Housing Court, including the creation of the Court’s Mediation Program, which still offers landlords and tenants the opportunity to settle their disputes without a hearing, free of charge. Judge Corrigan’s tenure also was brief. Clarence Gaines defeated Corrigan in the next election and began his term in January 1984— Housing Court’s fourth judge in four years. Judge Gaines was a competent jurist who continued to raise the professional standards of the Court, requesting a study to evaluate Court operations. The report found that despite the rapid turnover on the bench, the Court had met a primary mission—to resolve more housing cases than ever before, and at a faster rate. 30 The Court’s community service program (below and at right), engages in projects in local neighborhoods that focus on quality of life issues. Court Community Services Assists Housing Court in Fighting Blight Toxic titles, absentee and unresponsive owners, as well as other complicated problems may delay resolution of some cases in Housing Court. Grass and weeds grow high, scrappers strip gutters and aluminum siding, vandals break windows, and litterers use the yard to dump trash. What was merely a vacant house—again— quickly becomes an eyesore, a burden on property values nearby and a danger to the neighborhood and its residents. As Housing cases are pending, decay through its use of Court
Corporation Docket One of the Housing Court’s ongoing challenges is compelling corporate defendants to appear in Court. Because the Court cannot issue an arrest warrant or impose jail time on a business entites, it had to act creatively, to cause those defendants to appear. the orders of reviewing courts. The Court considers this an evolving docket, since the existing laws for criminal procedure were not established with corporate defendants in mind. The end goal of this specialized docket, however, always remains the same: to require corporate defendants to appear in Court when criminal charges have been brought. After an initial failure to appear, a business entity is ordered to appear and service is sent out again the entity’s address of record, cause why it should not be held in contempt. If the entity yet again fails to appear at the show-cause hearing, the Court imposes sanctions until the entity appears and enters a plea. This practice has been successful in encouraging corporate defendants to appear in Court. One corporate defendant, a multi-national bank, routinely failed to appear on Judge Pianka’s docket, but ultimately made an address in Europe! This company, and many others like it, now appear consistently when summoned to the Corporation Docket. Community Services (CCS). Judge Pianka utilizes CCS to remove nuisances at problem properties. In addition to ordering a property maintained, if a property can assign defendants to perform community service in lieu of trees. “We’re a real low-cost form of labor to go out and remedy those kinds of problems,” said Paul Klodor, Executive Director of Court Community Services. Housing Court referred 60 defendants in 2014, and they completed a total of 4,505 hours of community service. Not all the properties CCS services are vacant. The Housing Court has directed crews to the homes of the elderly and disabled who are unable do the repairs, and cannot afford to hire someone. The work often draws the attention of neighbors pleased to see that the blight next door is being cleaned up. “It is a way for Housing Court to demonstrate to different communities that the Housing Court is tuned in,” says Klodor. 15
Page 1 and 2: We Shape Our Cities, And Thereafter
Page 3 and 4: he Housing Court has jurisdiction o
Page 5: It has been my privilege to be the
Page 8 and 9: Columbia, holding Congress could co
Page 11 and 12: ocial and Political Change Bolsters
Page 13: Housing Court - Justice Beyond the
Page 19 and 20: oactive Court The 1990s ushered in
Page 21: collaborating with the Northeast Oh
Page 24 and 25: The often unscrupulous practice of
Page 27 and 28: evitalization and Resilience As the
Page 29 and 30: first year, 2008, this family-frien
Page 31 and 32: 2000’s 2010’s 2003 The Court be
Page 34 and 35: Notes The Early Years: The Emergenc

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