PERRYSBURG – Tom Mackin looks to
bring experience earned through his background both as a lawyer and a city councilman to the post of
Perrysburg Municipal Court Judge.Mackin, of Perrysburg, is running as an independent in the race.He said
that during his “24-year legal career, I have practiced in municipal courts throughout Ohio, and I’m
familiar with the broad range of cases that the court handles. So I think it’s very important that the next
judge have experience handling the cases that a municipal court handles. And I think my experience best
qualifies me to do that.”A lawyer with the Munger Company, LPA, Mackin has also served as a Perrysburg City
Councilman since 1998 and chairs its Finance Committee. He also sits on the Planning and Zoning, and
Appointment Review committees.As Finance Committee chair, Mackin noted he has helped the Perrysburg
Municipal Court manage its $1.8 million budget, as well as its 15 full-time and 10 part-time employees.“I
think that that record of experience will help me from the start know the operations of the court, know how
the money’s spent, and he able to make sure that the court’s history of fiscal responsibility
continues.”Mackin also chairs the Finance Committee of the Toledo Metropolitan Area Council of Governments,
and serves on its Board of Trustees and Executive Committee.“My activity in the community and on council
show that I have the right temperament to be a good judge. I am knowledgeable but listen, think
independently and make decisions based on the facts present.”Regarding his ideas for the court, Mackin noted
the importance “for everybody who comes into the court to have some sense of continuity. Judge Osterud has
done a great job for 24 years. I think continuity will be important going forward for the next judge. If I
am the next judge, a lot of the policies that worked will be continued.”He pointed out that, in the wake of
a retirement, a new clerk of courts will have to be hired.“I think it’s important to hire the right person
to manage the court’s staff and the court’s operations with the judge. That’s a very big part of what the
judge does and I think we have some good ideas on how we’d like to do that, who we’d like to have come and
do that.”Mackin also favors restarting volunteer programs regarding probation and mediations as “they were
both an outreach to the community and helped the process of monitoring cases” and, as volunteer services,
could be operated at no cost.He also favors technological advances that could help police and law
enforcement outside of Perrysburg be more efficient in their dealings with the court, including case updates
“so they have more updated information about whether their case is going forward” and wouldn’t have to come
to the court needlessly.“The judge is a very important position in the community because one of the
foundations of the community is (that) the legal system works, that it’s fair and impartial,” Mackin said,
“and that everyone who comes before the court, regardless of their status, is treated correctly and they’re
given an opportunity to be heard.”“That function is part of the core of the court’s business. That’s what it
has to do.”