Nan DeGarmo VonAllman

By Kyle Valentini
October 14, 2011
1115

Family: Married 25 years to Jerry VonAllman; two sons: Glenn, 22 and Nick, 20. Education: Bachelor of Fine Arts in Art Education, 1979, Kent State University; Juris Doctor, 1984, University of Akron, admitted to the practice of law in Ohio, October, 1984. Hometown: Born in Canton, Ohio; resident of Tuscarawas County since 1986. Occupation: Magistrate, New Philadelphia Municipal Court (last 8 years) Political Party: Democrat Previous elected offices: I have never held an elected office. Applicable Experience: I have spent my entire legal career in the courtroom. Currently I am the Magistrate of the New Philadelphia Municipal Court (2003 to present.) I previously operated my own law practice in New Philadelphia (1986 to November, 2007.) I worked for the Stark County Public Defender's Office as a case investigator, legal intern and staff attorney where I began representing clients in courtroom hearings and trials while still in law school. I have tried misdemeanor, traffic and trial, including jury trials, throughout my entire legal career. What is the primary reason you are running for this office? I am running because I want to continue the important programs Judge Space has established, primarily because they work. What I do every day as the Magistrate is helping to reduce the number of repeat offenders, DUIs, and alcohol and drug abuse in our communities. This Court runs efficiently and in a fiscally responsible manner. For my part, I consolidated the civil and criminal Magistrate's dockets, consolidated the weekly criminal and traffic arraignment courts, established a mediation program to collect income taxes owed to cities and villages, and set up a payment review and enforcement program to collect past dues fines, costs and restitution. Why should someone vote for you? Voting for a Judge is like hiring an employee to do a very important job. The employer must look seriously at the applicant's background and accomplishments to decide: "is this the best person for this job?" If you want to know what kind of Judge I will be, simply look at what I am doing right now, because it is all a matter of public record. I am in the Municipal Court starting at 8:00 am, hearing evidence, ruling on motions and objections, setting bonds, issuing protection orders, conducting arraignments and making decisions that affect people's lives. I spent the two decades before I was the Magistrate running a very successful law practice and conducting hundreds of hearings and trials, including civil and criminal felony and misdemeanor, jury trials. What is the biggest problem facing the community? It might sound too simple, but I would say it is people who don't want to take personal responsibility for themselves or their actions. How do you propose to solve it? I address problems in Court on a case by case basis. Some people do have legitimate issues, such as addiction or mental illness and I use a variety of sentencing and treatment options to help them help themselves. Other people are just in excuse mode, and have been that way; it seems, for a very long time. I try to be firm, but fair, applying the basic common sense principal that the choices a person makes have consequences. Limited only to the office you are seeking, where specifically would you cut budgets if needed? The Municipal Court has run in a fiscally responsible manner for many, many years thanks to the good stewardship of Judge Space and I intend to continue that. Our court costs and fees are structured and allocated in such a way that the offenders who use the court bear the primary cost of running the court, relieving the burden on taxpayers. In the last several years staff vacancies were left unfilled, with other employees absorbing those additional responsibilities. We continue to look for ways to increase efficiency and cut costs, and recently placed the court docket online. We now have 20 years of searchable court records on our web page and paid for all of it from a special fund accumulated from court costs, not taxes. I also want to look into hiring a private collection company which can collect past due fines and costs without additional expense to the court or taxpayers.

Nan DeGarmo VonAllman

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