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Cuyahoga County's administrative building.

(Plain Dealer file)

CLEVELAND, Ohio -- Cuyahoga County is threatening to sue over a long-simmering battle between the county and cities over how much in fees traffic courts should tack onto moving violations.

Earlier this week, County Executive Ed FitzGerald sent a letter to the county's mayors, instructing the cities' municipal court clerks to begin assessing a state-mandated $5 fee per charge when a driver is convicted of multiple moving violations.

Judges in some municipal courts -- including Lakewood, where FitzGerald used to be mayor and still lives, and Cleveland -- are resisting, maintaining the $5 fee only should be assessed once per case, not per violation.

FitzGerald's letter includes a recently-issued written opinion from Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine that he said backs up the county's position. FitzGerald's letter gives cities until Oct. 21 to respond, and hints at legal action if they don't play ball.

"I anticipate these fees will be collected and remitted routinely as to avoid the need for further official action by the County," FitzGerald said. (scroll down to read the full letter.)

While the fees might seem small, they add up. Officials have not calculated the impact, but Norberto Colon, the county's acting public safety director, estimated the difference could mean an additional $100,000 annually in new fees assessed to drivers pulled over in Cleveland alone. The county collects about $950,000 a year in the fees, Colon said. The fees pay for the county's computer background system commonly used by police to run checks on people they pull over.

Once the county's deadline arrives, "we will address those who aren’t doing it correctly," Colon said.

"If we can't come to a resolution amongst ourselves, it will ultimately lead to the courts, which would be interesting," he said. "We obviously don’t want to get to that, but we can’t continue to ignore it like previous administrations. Everyone should be doing it the same way."

But Lakewood Municipal Court Judge Patrick Carroll said the county is jumping the gun. Everyone should wait to see how a case shakes out that's currently before the Ohio Supreme Court, Carroll said in a Thursday email sent to area judges and county officials. The case is a class-action lawsuit out of Berea that dates to 1995 that questions what kinds of fees local courts can charge.

Besides possibly exposing the cities to liability if the the Supreme Court rules against assessing per-violation fees, Carroll also said collecting the fees is unfair and not required by state law.

"While I do not condone traffic offenses, the effect of the county’s position is to impose higher courts costs on the least egregious violations," Carroll wrote.

Cleveland Municipal Judge Ron Adrine responded to Carroll's email, agreeing: "As always, you reduced to writing what many of us are thinking. Thanks for your scholarship and erudition." (scroll down to see the email exchange.)

City officials are reviewing FitzGerald's letter, Cleveland Municipal Court spokesman Ed Ferenc said in an email.

“There is a difference of opinion between the County Executive and Cleveland Municipal Court on how to proceed. The County is relying on Ohio Attorney General Opinions and the Court is relying upon an opinion from the Ohio Supreme Court. We expect to respond to the County Executive within the time set forth in his request," Ferenc said.

Lakewood Law Director Kevin Butler declined to comment for this story, citing the possibility of a lawsuit from the county.

Colon said the move from the county isn't a money grab. Rather, it's not fair that some cities contribute a larger proportion in fees to operate the computer data base than others do, he said.

"It's more of a matter of fairness. The revenue is pretty consistent, and if Cleveland does it correctly, we'll see a slight increase, but it really is a matter of fairness," Colon said.

The issue dates back years. In December 2012, an internal county audit found that 18 of the county's 47 clerks of court assessed the the $5 fee per case, and not per violation.

