Fri Feb 10 2012
by Marsha McKenna
Senior Editor
Stow -- With the new Stow Municipal Courthouse close to winding up its first year, candidates are vying for the job of judge and clerk of courts.
On the Nov. 3 ballot will be incumbent Judge Lisa Coates, who is being challenged by Adam VanHo, an assistant Ohio attorney general.
Incumbent Lisa Zeno Carano and challenger Kathleen Murphy Jeffers are vying for the clerk of courts post.
Both terms are six years and will begin Jan. 1, 2010.
Municipal judge
Coates, 41, a Hudson resident, was appointed to the bench in 2003 and elected in 2004. She is a graduate of Bowling Green State University and the Case Western Reserve University School of Law. Prior to the judgeship, she has served as an assistant prosecutor, judicial attorney and has worked for the federal government and a law firm.
If re-elected, Coates has said she would seek to implement a mental health court "to address a defendant's mental issues on a long-term basis."
A second goal Coates has described would be to create a classroom-courtroom curriculum to introduce students to the judicial branch of the government and also to address substance abuse issues.
Her opponent is VanHo, 34, a Cuyahoga Falls resident. He is a graduate of Allegheny College and the Cleveland-Marshal College of Law at Cleveland State University.
He is presently an assistant Ohio attorney general and has served as an assistant prosecutor in Summit and Montgomery counties, as well as a special prosecutor in Summit and Jefferson counties. He is also on the auxiliary faculty at the University of Akron.
VanHo has stated he wants to ensure the court system "is run in the most financially responsible manner possible." He plans to work to reduce court costs and also to limit the court's economic impact on the city of Stow.
Clerk of Courts
Carano, 46, a Tallmadge resident, was elected to the clerk of courts post in 2007 to complete the term left open when former clerk of courts Eric Czetli took a position with the Ohio Department of Transportation.
She is a graduate of Akron North High School and attended Adelphi University. She is a current participant in the clerk of courts certification program at Michigan State University. She has also served on Tallmadge City Council.
If re-elected, Carano has said she plans to update the court's computer software and hardware, including pursuing technology such as electronic filing and on-line payments. In doing so, she believes this "will ease and simplify" consumers' -- defendants, plaintiffs, attorneys and law enforcement agencies -- interactions with the court, providing "more efficiency and accuracy."
Jeffers, 59, a resident of Hudson, is a probate and estate tax paralegal. She is a graduate of Ursuline College and has an associate's degree in paralegal certification from Chancellor University.
She has stated "changes do not come to a court system without a complete analysis of its operations."
Saying the Stow Municipal Court needs to work with the 16 municipalities it serves to make its presence "consumer, friendly," she pledges to work with officials "to run an efficient and fiscally responsible court."
E-mail: mmckenna@recordpub.com
Phone: 330-686-3918
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