June 24, 2023 • 24 mins
Phil Naumoff is one of two, Richland County Common Pleas Court judges, in the general division. Phil was born in Toronto, Ontario, Canada and moved to Mansfield when he was a young child. Naumoff has been a judge for approaching 5 years. Phil is a graduate of Malabar High School, Miami University in Ohio and the Toledo College of Law. Naumoff is married and has a children, along with one grandchild. Phil enjoys sports in his spare time. Learn more about his role as a judge on the podcast.
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(00:00):
The CEO You Should Know, broughtto you by Robie Foster Miller Eric Insurance.
This week's CEO Phil Normal, RichlandCounty Common Police Court judge in the
General Division. Phil. Good morning, Good morning Aaron. How are you
doing. I'm doing well. Thanksfor coming in, oh, I appreciate
you having me. I know I'veheard the name. I know you've made
(00:21):
a visit to the radio station.But our first chance to actually meet in
this program has been really cool becausewe learn about local people in the area
and some of the great work that'sgoing on. Now, you are a
judge in the General Division. Let'sbegin there. How long have you been
a judge. I've been a judgenow it will be four and a half
(00:42):
years going on right now approximately,and prior to that, I was a
magistrate for almost nine years. Soas we learn about a judge in the
General Division, could we kind ofdo an overview of what you do kind
of daily basis duties what a judgehere in Richland County in the Common Police
(01:03):
Court General Division do on a dailyBased on a general division, the judges
there were tasked with taking care ofall criminal matters that are felonies. Those
are crimes that could result in imprisonment. Within the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and
Corrections. We also handle civil mattersand those are all matters involving moneis and
(01:25):
or land and that's at fifteen thousanddollars or higher. So we get cases
as far as civil that can runinto the millions. We have criminal matters
that could result all the way upto the death penalty, So we do.
I suppose you look at it askind of the heavy lifting. We
are trial courts, whether we likeit or not, we get more media
(01:49):
attention than any other courts. Ithink if you asked a lot of people,
they couldn't tell you who the appellatejudges were. Misdemeanor cases they don't
draw front page news, but ourcases seem to generate that, so you
know, we're in the public eye. So that's basically the types of cases
we handle. Personally myself, Mondaysare my docket days. Those are days
(02:13):
where we do pre trials. We'lldo change of please sentencenes and those pretty
much cover the entire day during theweek. Then on Tuesdays we start our
criminal trials. Sometimes we have sometimeswe don't. Generally speaking, I think
between me and Judge Robinson, weprobably have more trials than probably any other
(02:34):
General Division judges within the state ofOhio. You know, for the last
few years we've been really really inundated, and those trials can last anywhere from
a day or two two weeks.I just finished a murder trial a few
weeks ago that went into a thirdweek, so yeah, it can be
really really busy. Civil trials wegenerally start on Thursdays, and those run
(02:57):
anywhere from a couple of days tomaybe three days. So that's kind of
the makeup of the court and whatwe're doing. Of course, we're in
and dated with paperwork, so wesqueeze in motion hearings when we can.
When we send home a jury forlunch, we're doing motion hearings during that
time. Attorneys will come in wehear different cases and take care of those
(03:17):
things during those hours. So reallywe're busy NonStop. It's just a matter
of when and where we do thosethings. So yeah, our schedules pretty
heavy at times. All right,Well, it's good to learn all about
Phil naum Off today again. Heis this week CEO. You should know
Richland County Common Police Court judge inthe general division. So on a yearly
(03:40):
basis, is there a ballpark amountof cases? Is It hard to exactly
say. I'm sure it's quite thesame. But between myself and Judge Robinson,
we each have roughly probably somewhere inthe neighborhood of about eleven twelve hundred
cases a year. So that soundsbusy. Yeah, it is very,
(04:03):
very busy. We have some extremelyheavy case loads we do and it keeps
us busy. But that's okay.I mean, you know, we enjoy
what we're doing. It keeps yourmind sharp. You know, me and
Judge Robinson are pretty much alike.I mean, you know, we adhere
to the law work, you know, or a nation of laws, and
so we try and follow that asstrictly as we can and do what's necessary.
(04:25):
So well, speaking of laws,and I just recently. You you
think about anybody in their job,there's kind of that continuing education or just
learning in for a judge when lawschange, you guys course need to be
able to know. So it's whatdifferent conferences things that go on. Well,
yeah, absolutely, we have conferencesthat we attend each year. We
(04:46):
have our summer judicial conferences. Ijust got back from that's usually a three
day event. We do a winnerconference for the Ohio Common Police General Division
judges in September, and that's inDecember, And in September there is a
conference that entails all the judges withinstateable. How we go down to Columbus
(05:06):
for that. Now every few yearswe have we have to take a death
penalty seminar as far as the generaldivisions concerned, just to keep updated on
that. But what we learned duringthese conferences are changes in laws how they're
going to apply. A lot oftimes we go there not knowing really what
the effect will be, but wetry and prepare for any contingency that may
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occur. So we're always up todate and try to be up to date
on the laws and how they mayaffect everybody and how they're to be addressed.
During those times, we also havestaff attorneys from the Supreme Court that
will continually update us, send usany new legislation that's going through to keep
up to date on that and whatthose new laws may entail. So yeah,
(05:53):
we try and stay as current aswe can. I mean we have
to. You're hearing the voice thismorning of film norm Off again. Who
is this week CEO. You shouldknow Richland County Common Police Court judge in
the General Division. So let's staywith work for a moment. Your office
would be your courtroom. Where's allof that located at within the county.
Yeah, that's located at fifty ParkAvenue East and it's in the County Courthouse.
(06:17):
We have both myself and Judge RobinsonGeneral Division Courts there, Judge Owens
who does the Domestic Relations court,as well as Judge Badnell and probate.
But you also have Patrick Dropsy,our County Treasurer, Bark Hamilton, our
Recorder's office which is Sarah Davis,and our Clerking Courts Office which is Lynn
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Frey. So those are all inthere, and we have our commissioners there
as well. So all three ofour commissioners are within that county building there.
And if people don't know, thereis in the works to add another
courtroom because at times it can bea real busy place. Yeah it is.
And the thing is Judge Robinson andmyself. We have three magistrates which
help us immensely. I mean withouttheir a lot of the work couldn't get
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done. But while we were havingour trials upstairs and the courtrooms are in
use. We need another court becausethey have to conduct hearings as well,
and we just don't have the facilitiesright now. And it just seems the
case loads are getting bigger and biggerand bigger, and thus so we need
the room. And I think thatreally showed during the pandemic time there were
(07:23):
things that needed to be done wecouldn't get done because one of the courtrooms,
Judge robbins'squore room, is much smallerthan mine, and so, you
know, just conditions that were placedon us by the Supreme Court of Ohio.
We conducted and continued to have trialsduring that time. Jury trials well,
we had to have safe distances amongjurors, so we had a separate
(07:44):
jurors. Now my courtroom will holdone hundred and ten people, which is
one of the bearer courtrooms within thestate of Ohio. And originally, I
think when the County building was beingbuilt, they took into consideration that that
would be a meeting center for thepublic. They ever had any public presentations,
so they made it bigger. Butwe were able to see jers in
(08:05):
there, separate them sufficiently enough wherewe could conduct trials. So we had
to adapt, and so that tookmy courtroom out, and so trying to
get everything else done with one othercourtroom made it difficult. But yeah,
it's working out all right. Well, terrific to learn this morning about Phil
Naumof. We're gonna learn a bitmore right now again this week's CEO.
(08:28):
You should know Richland County Common PoliceCourt judge in the general Division. So
let's step away from work and let'sfind out. As I mentioned more about
you, let's go back to thebeginning and if you would tell us where
was Phil Naumof born? Well.I was born in Toronto, Canada.
My parents, from the northern partof Greece, were Massadonian. My dad
(08:48):
originally came here in nineteen fifty six. He was a child refugee during the
Civil War in Greece. So innineteen forty eight he was taken from his
mother and up growing up in anorphanage in Czechoslovakia. During the time.
My grandmother had been sent to Poland. During that time, my grandfather was
here in the United States. Hehad come here and he was come in
(09:13):
and work. Every six months hewould come to the United States. He
would get a passport of work visato come in, he'd work, go
back. Finally he'd been here longenough where he became a citizen the United
States. He went back to visit. He was working at the steel mill
here in Mansfield during that time,and at that time they used to every
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three years get a thirteen week vacation, and so the year he had a
thirteen week vacation, he went backand he was a widower. My grandmother
was a widow, but they werein adjacent villages, and so they'd been
introduced to one another, ended upgetting married towards the end of that thirteen
weeks, and at the time shebecame pregnant, and he told my grandmother,
(09:58):
well, give me a year andI'll be able to get all of
you here, okay, to theUnited States. So he had to go
back. Well, that was innineteen thirty eight. Well, nineteen thirty
nine, War two starts, sothat's not happening. And so once World
War two ended, the Greek CivilWar started, and so a lot of
(10:18):
the Massaroyans were exiled from Greece.As I indicated, my father in nineteen
forty eight was taken from his mom. He's ten years old at that time
and gets sent to like I said, Czechoslovakia. It wasn't until nineteen fifty
six that the Red Cross was helpingfind all these refugees and reunited with the
(10:39):
families that they found my dad andmy grandmother to bring him to the United
States. So it wasn't until fiftysix, in nineteen I guess it was
fifty eight. My mom, whowas in Greece at the time, who
had also grown up in her orphanage. She because her mother had passed when
she was young, she ended upimmigrated to Canada, where her sister was,
(11:01):
and so she went to Canada.My dad was here in Mansfield,
Ohio. I had another aunt,my mom's other sister was living in Mansfield.
They had the Coney Island restaurant,so at that time she came to
visit her. My dad was workingfor them at the time, and so
you know, being in the samenationality, speaking the same language and everything,
and my aunt loved my dad todeath and thought they would be a
(11:24):
good match, and sure enough theygot married. And you know, a
year later, I'm born and untilDad could work the papers over, I
ended up bringing Mom and me tothe United States. How old were you
when you when you came from Canadato Mansfield just a shade over a year
old year or five days I thinkit was. So you know, all
(11:45):
right, so next, let's findout where'd you go to high school?
I went to Mansfild Malabar, whichis no longer high school as we know,
it's an elementary school now. Butyeah, I went to Mansfield Malabar
Grade School's kind of funny. Istart out of Krevln Elementary which was down
on Bowman Street, and I didn'tspeak any English at the time because you
know, at home we spoke massad onience. So I know during kindergarten
(12:09):
time I was going through and itwas towards the end of my first year
of kindergarten there that they wanted tohold me back because I couldn't hardly speak
any English, and so you know, they brought my dad, and at
that time you couldn't really move kidsalong unless you got the parents permission in
order to hold them back anyway,excuse me anyway, So they asked my
(12:31):
dad. They want to say,well, if we think another year in
kindergarten would help him out tremendously.Well, Dad wasn't a big fan of
that. So ultimately Dad just toldthem that, look, you know what
my job is to teach him massadOian home. Your job is to teach
him English. Here. Obviously I'mdoing a better job. Just move him
along. He'll be fine. Sothey did pass me along in the first
(12:52):
grade, and rust is history.But yeah, I went there that I
ended up from Krevelin, we movedover to the ranch would Air. I
went to Ransford Elementary, then NaplesJunior High School. Following malibur High School,
I went down to Miami University inOxford, Ohio, graduated from there,
and then I ended up going tothe university to the College of Law.
So and I'm back home. I'vealways loved it here, and this
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is where I wanted to be sonice now, growing up, did you
always know one day you wanted togo to law school, you wanted to
be a judge. What were theaspirations growing up? You know? My
parents again never really afforded a chanceto have an education. My dad was
a really, really smart man.I mean, he had a chance to
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studying engineering at Case Western when hewas younger. When he first got here,
my grandparents were afraid to let himgo though, because you know,
families have been separated and lost duringthe war, so they basically kept Dad
here. They bought him a carand he just went to work. He
ended up working all those years,got a job at you know, or
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purchase the wall at lounge, hadthat. But no, Dad and Mom
are always of the belief coming herethe most respected people at the time were
doctors and lawyers. I don't knowthat's the case right nowadays, but back
that it was so growing up,Dad mom really harped on us. Get
that education and you're either gonna bea doctor or a lawyer. There was
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no other question for them. Ever, although recently, you know, not
too many years ago, Mom said, couldn't one of you guys have been
a doctor at least? But bothme and my brothers are attorneys, all
three of us. But yeah,Mom said that she knew I wanted to
be a judged. She says,as a little kid, you walk around
a bathroom opportunity like you were holdingcourts. So I don't recall those days
(14:39):
she told me that, but thatwas interesting. So, yeah, I've
always wanted to go to law school. I enjoyed arguing not to win or
lose but just the ability to havea conversation with somebody, you know,
to get different points, to makepoints. Okay, I'm not saying you're
gonna win or out, but justhaving somebody to be able to think about
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another view of something. And Ithought that was always important and I still
think it's important. And you know, as judges, that's what we're tasked
to do. We're there to listento people and to make a decision based
on you know, what their argumentsare, you know what their point of
view is, and you know,apply it to the law and see whether
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it holds any water or not.So great to learn the story of Phil
Namoff this morning this week, CEO. You should know again he is Richland
County Common Police Court judge in theGeneral Division. Before we wrap it up,
a few more questions for you today. I heard wife earlier when you
and I were not on here.We're on here now, so if you
would tell us a bit more aboutPhil Naumoff and the family. Sure sure
(15:43):
I have a wife, Diana.We've been married now going to be twenty
four years here. Surely I've beentogether twenty eight years. I have a
daughter, stepson, also have agrandchild, and who's the lot of my
life. I mean, she's myworld, right. Being a grandparents the
greatest thing in the world. I'vealways said, if you could skip being
(16:07):
the parent and just go straight tograndparent, everybody would trade that in a
minute. And so yeah, sothat's my family. You know, joy
time with them and doing that andspending time and doing the different things.
You know, well, you broughtup spending time with them when you are
not working. You were not beinga judge. Do you have any hobbies?
(16:29):
Well, what are you doing whenyou're not working? That's not a
lot of time, to be honestwith you. I mean most of the
week is filled up. They tryand get out in golf at least once
on the weekend. I do liketo watch sports. I follow the Guardians,
the Cavaliers, the Browns, OhioState sports. I mean, I
love that all. I mean,that's my downtime. I come home in
the evening, you know, justkind of a break from reality. You
(16:52):
get to sit there and you know, just just be entertaining. And that's
what I like to do. EitherI'll either be watching sports or I'll try
and get out off once a weekend, maybe twice. If I'm lucky,
so yeah, I mean that's that'skind of it for me. All right,
good, great to learn about Philnaum Off this morning as we chat
with him. Want to get backto work with just a couple more questions
(17:15):
before I let you go. Iknow there's a good amount of staff right
within your office, and I knowthere's like there's four divisions, so the
courthouse is a very busy place.Do you have a ballpark number of employees
at least that are kind of underyou in the General Division and the General
Division we have I think fifteen orsixteen just within our office. We have
the two General Division judges, pluswe have the downstairs stite courtroom that we
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have our magistrates in, and wekind of oversee the probation department, which
is another eighteen to twenty people there. So roughly if you count the court
along with Court Services, which ofthe probation, we're looking about thirty five
to thirty eight people on any giventime, depending what's happened. Yeah,
and we mentioned earlier can be abusy place where you throw in you know,
(18:02):
security in different people there. There'sa good amount of people there on
a daily basis. There there isI mean I worked at Muni Court for
almost nine years. Now, theamount of people coming in and out of
Municipal Court much greater. But there'ssimple offenses. There's simple speeding tickets,
those types of things, so peopleare coming in taking care of that.
But they're at the courthouse now.Yeah, there's still a lot of people.
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It's it's a lot of business.I mean, people coming and paying
their tax through the tryer's office,going to the otter's office, doing you
know, whether they get dog tagsor whatever they're doing at the time recorder's
office, you know, when there'sany transfer of title and some property.
So everybody's staying busy. I mean, it really is a busy place.
And with all the updates that aregoing on, adding the court, removing
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some things around, I'm sure plentyof construction going on then too. Right
there is I mean right now,it's not affecting. That's because it's down
on the lower level. They're they'retaking care of the old jail, which
is down on the lower levels ofthe courthouse. You don't see it or
feel it, but they are clearingthat area out because they're gonna move the
clerk's office down there and then we'regonna take over the clerks space as far
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as going ahead and making it thenew courtroom for us. So yeah,
well before I let you go again, Phil Normof is in studio this morning,
our CEO this week, Richland CountyCommon Police Court judge in the General
Divisions. We aught to let peopleknow though there are four divisions, correct,
there's a general division which two judges. You have probate Court, you
(19:29):
have domestic relations, you have juvenileSo yeah, we have four divisions altogether,
five common police judges altogether though,and something I wanted to add to
both Judge Robinson myself, we runsome specialized dockets that I didn't mention as
far as our daily work, butwe both run a drug court, a
substitute treatment court, as well asa reentry court. A reentry courts.
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Me and Judge Robinson are only twoof nine certified within the state of Ohio,
and just recently Chief Justice Kennedy itin me to the re Entry Court
Task Force. So I'm participating inthat with the Supreme Court right now.
But you know, that's something bothof us are really proud of. You
know, I think it helps thecommunity cuts down and recipivism hopefully saves the
(20:15):
taxpayers some money. I mean,incarcerating people's costly and there's guidelines that we
have to follow on sentencing people.So in order to minimize the cost to
the county and ensure their safety andwon't be you know, substitutes, treatment
courts are working well. And asfar as reentry court, those are people
that have done prison time and havejust been released and they're either on parole
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through the High Department Rehabilitation Corrections orthey're on post release control, which is
supervision after a prison time. Wehave to monitor them and so the hope
is by keeping a close eye onthem and monitoring them, getting them on
their feet, helping them find jobs, stable housing that we're able to at
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that point and get them from goingback into a life of crime and getting
them, you know, as productivecitizens. So I know with the drug
court, that was one of thefirst of its kind in this area right
across the state. When yeah,it started, Yeah, it was Judge
Henson I believe was the second judgewithin the State of Ohio Toronto Drug Court
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and it's changed over years. Whenit was first done, most of the
treatment was faith based, but astime goes on. You know, you
see what works, what doesn't work, and so they made progress through that.
Now, I mean you have medicineassisted treatment now where they find that
people that are addicted, they'll putthem on suboxing where the program is you
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know, you prescribe it to themfor a year at an upgraded dosage each
time, and then you start weedingthem off after that year and the you
know, projection is to get themcompletely off after a year and a half.
And so you know they're working withI mean there's some ups and downs
with it, but you know,we have to be flexible and if something
doesn't work, we try something elseuntil we find something that works. And
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that's important. You know, everylife is worth saving, and so you
know we're trying to do that forthe people before it lets you go too
quick. Questions been a great chatthis morning. People would hear of a
judge and wonder how long is theterm because you think maybe a mayor four
years for you, I'll talk aboutthe Hong's the term. There's six year
(22:29):
terms. Okay. Yeah. WhenI first was elected, Judge Dewies had
retired. I finished up his termthe final two years got elected to a
six year term here and then I'vegot my next term starts in twenty twenty
six. Okay, so all rightnow, before I let you go,
if somebody hears your voice, theyhave a question, they want more information
about the court, they just easyenough go to the county website. They
(22:53):
can go to the county website.Telephone numbers listed there as well as email.
We're always open to talk to people. Obviously, we can't talk about
cases. We have a ethical codethat we can't discuss cases without all the
parties presents. So somebody wants totalk to us about something, we need
to get the prosecutor, we needto get the defense counsel, we need
(23:15):
to get defended there. We haveto protect defendants rights. I mean,
they have constitutionally protected rights that wehave to ensure. And sometimes things are
not to be discussed around other people, so we have to take care of
that. You know, we geta lot of phone calls where people are
trying to, you know, getsome input to us, and we have
(23:37):
to be careful about that. AndI know sometimes they don't like our response
that you know, we can't discussthat with you, but it's the truth.
And so you know, we doget monitor on those things. So
somebody has just in a general comment, those are questions that I should say
they could reach out to the Absolutely, we have an open door policy.
Yeah, we'll talk to people.I mean, that's what we're there for.
(24:00):
We're here to serve the people.All right, terrific Richland County,
OH dot gov and then click onthe links for the court. All right,
great conversation this morning, Phil naumofin studio, this week's CEO You
Should Know Richland County Common Please CourtJudge in the General Division. It's been
great to learn your story. Thanksso much for coming in and we wish
you continued success. Thanks for havingMarion. I appreciate it. Thank you,
(24:22):
sir, Richland County Common Please,Court Judge Phil Nauman. The CEO
You Should Know rid a bio,see a photo and hear the extended interview
at WMANFM dot com. This isJohn Robi of r F and ME Insurance.
Is said that a good leader setsthe bar high because he or she
wants to reach goals and make thebest of their teams. We're proud to
(24:44):
introduce you to some of the community'sleaders on the CEO series
The CEO You Should Know, broughtto you by Robie Foster Miller Eric Insurance.
This week's CEO Phil Normal, RichlandCounty Common Police Court judge in the
General Division. Phil. Good morning, Good morning Aaron. How are you
doing. I'm doing well. Thanksfor coming in, oh, I appreciate
you having me. I know I'veheard the name. I know you've made
(00:21):
a visit to the radio station.But our first chance to actually meet in
this program has been really cool becausewe learn about local people in the area
and some of the great work that'sgoing on. Now, you are a
judge in the General Division. Let'sbegin there. How long have you been
a judge. I've been a judgenow it will be four and a half
(00:42):
years going on right now approximately,and prior to that, I was a
magistrate for almost nine years. Soas we learn about a judge in the
General Division, could we kind ofdo an overview of what you do kind
of daily basis duties what a judgehere in Richland County in the Common Police
(01:03):
Court General Division do on a dailyBased on a general division, the judges
there were tasked with taking care ofall criminal matters that are felonies. Those
are crimes that could result in imprisonment. Within the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and
Corrections. We also handle civil mattersand those are all matters involving moneis and
(01:25):
or land and that's at fifteen thousanddollars or higher. So we get cases
as far as civil that can runinto the millions. We have criminal matters
that could result all the way upto the death penalty, So we do.
I suppose you look at it askind of the heavy lifting. We
are trial courts, whether we likeit or not, we get more media
(01:49):
attention than any other courts. Ithink if you asked a lot of people,
they couldn't tell you who the appellatejudges were. Misdemeanor cases they don't
draw front page news, but ourcases seem to generate that, so you
know, we're in the public eye. So that's basically the types of cases
we handle. Personally myself, Mondaysare my docket days. Those are days
(02:13):
where we do pre trials. We'lldo change of please sentencenes and those pretty
much cover the entire day during theweek. Then on Tuesdays we start our
criminal trials. Sometimes we have sometimeswe don't. Generally speaking, I think
between me and Judge Robinson, weprobably have more trials than probably any other
(02:34):
General Division judges within the state ofOhio. You know, for the last
few years we've been really really inundated, and those trials can last anywhere from
a day or two two weeks.I just finished a murder trial a few
weeks ago that went into a thirdweek, so yeah, it can be
really really busy. Civil trials wegenerally start on Thursdays, and those run
(02:57):
anywhere from a couple of days tomaybe three days. So that's kind of
the makeup of the court and whatwe're doing. Of course, we're in
and dated with paperwork, so wesqueeze in motion hearings when we can.
When we send home a jury forlunch, we're doing motion hearings during that
time. Attorneys will come in wehear different cases and take care of those
(03:17):
things during those hours. So reallywe're busy NonStop. It's just a matter
of when and where we do thosethings. So yeah, our schedules pretty
heavy at times. All right,Well, it's good to learn all about
Phil naum Off today again. Heis this week CEO. You should know
Richland County Common Police Court judge inthe general division. So on a yearly
(03:40):
basis, is there a ballpark amountof cases? Is It hard to exactly
say. I'm sure it's quite thesame. But between myself and Judge Robinson,
we each have roughly probably somewhere inthe neighborhood of about eleven twelve hundred
cases a year. So that soundsbusy. Yeah, it is very,
(04:03):
very busy. We have some extremelyheavy case loads we do and it keeps
us busy. But that's okay.I mean, you know, we enjoy
what we're doing. It keeps yourmind sharp. You know, me and
Judge Robinson are pretty much alike.I mean, you know, we adhere
to the law work, you know, or a nation of laws, and
so we try and follow that asstrictly as we can and do what's necessary.
(04:25):
So well, speaking of laws,and I just recently. You you
think about anybody in their job,there's kind of that continuing education or just
learning in for a judge when lawschange, you guys course need to be
able to know. So it's whatdifferent conferences things that go on. Well,
yeah, absolutely, we have conferencesthat we attend each year. We
(04:46):
have our summer judicial conferences. Ijust got back from that's usually a three
day event. We do a winnerconference for the Ohio Common Police General Division
judges in September, and that's inDecember, And in September there is a
conference that entails all the judges withinstateable. How we go down to Columbus
(05:06):
for that. Now every few yearswe have we have to take a death
penalty seminar as far as the generaldivisions concerned, just to keep updated on
that. But what we learned duringthese conferences are changes in laws how they're
going to apply. A lot oftimes we go there not knowing really what
the effect will be, but wetry and prepare for any contingency that may
(05:29):
occur. So we're always up todate and try to be up to date
on the laws and how they mayaffect everybody and how they're to be addressed.
During those times, we also havestaff attorneys from the Supreme Court that
will continually update us, send usany new legislation that's going through to keep
up to date on that and whatthose new laws may entail. So yeah,
(05:53):
we try and stay as current aswe can. I mean we have
to. You're hearing the voice thismorning of film norm Off again. Who
is this week CEO. You shouldknow Richland County Common Police Court judge in
the General Division. So let's staywith work for a moment. Your office
would be your courtroom. Where's allof that located at within the county.
Yeah, that's located at fifty ParkAvenue East and it's in the County Courthouse.
(06:17):
We have both myself and Judge RobinsonGeneral Division Courts there, Judge Owens
who does the Domestic Relations court,as well as Judge Badnell and probate.
But you also have Patrick Dropsy,our County Treasurer, Bark Hamilton, our
Recorder's office which is Sarah Davis,and our Clerking Courts Office which is Lynn
(06:38):
Frey. So those are all inthere, and we have our commissioners there
as well. So all three ofour commissioners are within that county building there.
And if people don't know, thereis in the works to add another
courtroom because at times it can bea real busy place. Yeah it is.
And the thing is Judge Robinson andmyself. We have three magistrates which
help us immensely. I mean withouttheir a lot of the work couldn't get
(07:01):
done. But while we were havingour trials upstairs and the courtrooms are in
use. We need another court becausethey have to conduct hearings as well,
and we just don't have the facilitiesright now. And it just seems the
case loads are getting bigger and biggerand bigger, and thus so we need
the room. And I think thatreally showed during the pandemic time there were
(07:23):
things that needed to be done wecouldn't get done because one of the courtrooms,
Judge robbins'squore room, is much smallerthan mine, and so, you
know, just conditions that were placedon us by the Supreme Court of Ohio.
We conducted and continued to have trialsduring that time. Jury trials well,
we had to have safe distances amongjurors, so we had a separate
(07:44):
jurors. Now my courtroom will holdone hundred and ten people, which is
one of the bearer courtrooms within thestate of Ohio. And originally, I
think when the County building was beingbuilt, they took into consideration that that
would be a meeting center for thepublic. They ever had any public presentations,
so they made it bigger. Butwe were able to see jers in
(08:05):
there, separate them sufficiently enough wherewe could conduct trials. So we had
to adapt, and so that tookmy courtroom out, and so trying to
get everything else done with one othercourtroom made it difficult. But yeah,
it's working out all right. Well, terrific to learn this morning about Phil
Naumof. We're gonna learn a bitmore right now again this week's CEO.
(08:28):
You should know Richland County Common PoliceCourt judge in the general Division. So
let's step away from work and let'sfind out. As I mentioned more about
you, let's go back to thebeginning and if you would tell us where
was Phil Naumof born? Well.I was born in Toronto, Canada.
My parents, from the northern partof Greece, were Massadonian. My dad
(08:48):
originally came here in nineteen fifty six. He was a child refugee during the
Civil War in Greece. So innineteen forty eight he was taken from his
mother and up growing up in anorphanage in Czechoslovakia. During the time.
My grandmother had been sent to Poland. During that time, my grandfather was
here in the United States. Hehad come here and he was come in
(09:13):
and work. Every six months hewould come to the United States. He
would get a passport of work visato come in, he'd work, go
back. Finally he'd been here longenough where he became a citizen the United
States. He went back to visit. He was working at the steel mill
here in Mansfield during that time,and at that time they used to every
(09:33):
three years get a thirteen week vacation, and so the year he had a
thirteen week vacation, he went backand he was a widower. My grandmother
was a widow, but they werein adjacent villages, and so they'd been
introduced to one another, ended upgetting married towards the end of that thirteen
weeks, and at the time shebecame pregnant, and he told my grandmother,
(09:58):
well, give me a year andI'll be able to get all of
you here, okay, to theUnited States. So he had to go
back. Well, that was innineteen thirty eight. Well, nineteen thirty
nine, War two starts, sothat's not happening. And so once World
War two ended, the Greek CivilWar started, and so a lot of
(10:18):
the Massaroyans were exiled from Greece.As I indicated, my father in nineteen
forty eight was taken from his mom. He's ten years old at that time
and gets sent to like I said, Czechoslovakia. It wasn't until nineteen fifty
six that the Red Cross was helpingfind all these refugees and reunited with the
(10:39):
families that they found my dad andmy grandmother to bring him to the United
States. So it wasn't until fiftysix, in nineteen I guess it was
fifty eight. My mom, whowas in Greece at the time, who
had also grown up in her orphanage. She because her mother had passed when
she was young, she ended upimmigrated to Canada, where her sister was,
(11:01):
and so she went to Canada.My dad was here in Mansfield,
Ohio. I had another aunt,my mom's other sister was living in Mansfield.
They had the Coney Island restaurant,so at that time she came to
visit her. My dad was workingfor them at the time, and so
you know, being in the samenationality, speaking the same language and everything,
and my aunt loved my dad todeath and thought they would be a
(11:24):
good match, and sure enough theygot married. And you know, a
year later, I'm born and untilDad could work the papers over, I
ended up bringing Mom and me tothe United States. How old were you
when you when you came from Canadato Mansfield just a shade over a year
old year or five days I thinkit was. So you know, all
(11:45):
right, so next, let's findout where'd you go to high school?
I went to Mansfild Malabar, whichis no longer high school as we know,
it's an elementary school now. Butyeah, I went to Mansfield Malabar
Grade School's kind of funny. Istart out of Krevln Elementary which was down
on Bowman Street, and I didn'tspeak any English at the time because you
know, at home we spoke massad onience. So I know during kindergarten
(12:09):
time I was going through and itwas towards the end of my first year
of kindergarten there that they wanted tohold me back because I couldn't hardly speak
any English, and so you know, they brought my dad, and at
that time you couldn't really move kidsalong unless you got the parents permission in
order to hold them back anyway,excuse me anyway, So they asked my
(12:31):
dad. They want to say,well, if we think another year in
kindergarten would help him out tremendously.Well, Dad wasn't a big fan of
that. So ultimately Dad just toldthem that, look, you know what
my job is to teach him massadOian home. Your job is to teach
him English. Here. Obviously I'mdoing a better job. Just move him
along. He'll be fine. Sothey did pass me along in the first
(12:52):
grade, and rust is history.But yeah, I went there that I
ended up from Krevelin, we movedover to the ranch would Air. I
went to Ransford Elementary, then NaplesJunior High School. Following malibur High School,
I went down to Miami University inOxford, Ohio, graduated from there,
and then I ended up going tothe university to the College of Law.
So and I'm back home. I'vealways loved it here, and this
(13:16):
is where I wanted to be sonice now, growing up, did you
always know one day you wanted togo to law school, you wanted to
be a judge. What were theaspirations growing up? You know? My
parents again never really afforded a chanceto have an education. My dad was
a really, really smart man.I mean, he had a chance to
(13:37):
studying engineering at Case Western when hewas younger. When he first got here,
my grandparents were afraid to let himgo though, because you know,
families have been separated and lost duringthe war, so they basically kept Dad
here. They bought him a carand he just went to work. He
ended up working all those years,got a job at you know, or
(13:58):
purchase the wall at lounge, hadthat. But no, Dad and Mom
are always of the belief coming herethe most respected people at the time were
doctors and lawyers. I don't knowthat's the case right nowadays, but back
that it was so growing up,Dad mom really harped on us. Get
that education and you're either gonna bea doctor or a lawyer. There was
(14:18):
no other question for them. Ever, although recently, you know, not
too many years ago, Mom said, couldn't one of you guys have been
a doctor at least? But bothme and my brothers are attorneys, all
three of us. But yeah,Mom said that she knew I wanted to
be a judged. She says,as a little kid, you walk around
a bathroom opportunity like you were holdingcourts. So I don't recall those days
(14:39):
she told me that, but thatwas interesting. So, yeah, I've
always wanted to go to law school. I enjoyed arguing not to win or
lose but just the ability to havea conversation with somebody, you know,
to get different points, to makepoints. Okay, I'm not saying you're
gonna win or out, but justhaving somebody to be able to think about
(15:01):
another view of something. And Ithought that was always important and I still
think it's important. And you know, as judges, that's what we're tasked
to do. We're there to listento people and to make a decision based
on you know, what their argumentsare, you know what their point of
view is, and you know,apply it to the law and see whether
(15:22):
it holds any water or not.So great to learn the story of Phil
Namoff this morning this week, CEO. You should know again he is Richland
County Common Police Court judge in theGeneral Division. Before we wrap it up,
a few more questions for you today. I heard wife earlier when you
and I were not on here.We're on here now, so if you
would tell us a bit more aboutPhil Naumoff and the family. Sure sure
(15:43):
I have a wife, Diana.We've been married now going to be twenty
four years here. Surely I've beentogether twenty eight years. I have a
daughter, stepson, also have agrandchild, and who's the lot of my
life. I mean, she's myworld, right. Being a grandparents the
greatest thing in the world. I'vealways said, if you could skip being
(16:07):
the parent and just go straight tograndparent, everybody would trade that in a
minute. And so yeah, sothat's my family. You know, joy
time with them and doing that andspending time and doing the different things.
You know, well, you broughtup spending time with them when you are
not working. You were not beinga judge. Do you have any hobbies?
(16:29):
Well, what are you doing whenyou're not working? That's not a
lot of time, to be honestwith you. I mean most of the
week is filled up. They tryand get out in golf at least once
on the weekend. I do liketo watch sports. I follow the Guardians,
the Cavaliers, the Browns, OhioState sports. I mean, I
love that all. I mean,that's my downtime. I come home in
the evening, you know, justkind of a break from reality. You
(16:52):
get to sit there and you know, just just be entertaining. And that's
what I like to do. EitherI'll either be watching sports or I'll try
and get out off once a weekend, maybe twice. If I'm lucky,
so yeah, I mean that's that'skind of it for me. All right,
good, great to learn about Philnaum Off this morning as we chat
with him. Want to get backto work with just a couple more questions
(17:15):
before I let you go. Iknow there's a good amount of staff right
within your office, and I knowthere's like there's four divisions, so the
courthouse is a very busy place.Do you have a ballpark number of employees
at least that are kind of underyou in the General Division and the General
Division we have I think fifteen orsixteen just within our office. We have
the two General Division judges, pluswe have the downstairs stite courtroom that we
(17:40):
have our magistrates in, and wekind of oversee the probation department, which
is another eighteen to twenty people there. So roughly if you count the court
along with Court Services, which ofthe probation, we're looking about thirty five
to thirty eight people on any giventime, depending what's happened. Yeah,
and we mentioned earlier can be abusy place where you throw in you know,
(18:02):
security in different people there. There'sa good amount of people there on
a daily basis. There there isI mean I worked at Muni Court for
almost nine years. Now, theamount of people coming in and out of
Municipal Court much greater. But there'ssimple offenses. There's simple speeding tickets,
those types of things, so peopleare coming in taking care of that.
But they're at the courthouse now.Yeah, there's still a lot of people.
(18:23):
It's it's a lot of business.I mean, people coming and paying
their tax through the tryer's office,going to the otter's office, doing you
know, whether they get dog tagsor whatever they're doing at the time recorder's
office, you know, when there'sany transfer of title and some property.
So everybody's staying busy. I mean, it really is a busy place.
And with all the updates that aregoing on, adding the court, removing
(18:47):
some things around, I'm sure plentyof construction going on then too. Right
there is I mean right now,it's not affecting. That's because it's down
on the lower level. They're they'retaking care of the old jail, which
is down on the lower levels ofthe courthouse. You don't see it or
feel it, but they are clearingthat area out because they're gonna move the
clerk's office down there and then we'regonna take over the clerks space as far
(19:07):
as going ahead and making it thenew courtroom for us. So yeah,
well before I let you go again, Phil Normof is in studio this morning,
our CEO this week, Richland CountyCommon Police Court judge in the General
Divisions. We aught to let peopleknow though there are four divisions, correct,
there's a general division which two judges. You have probate Court, you
(19:29):
have domestic relations, you have juvenileSo yeah, we have four divisions altogether,
five common police judges altogether though,and something I wanted to add to
both Judge Robinson myself, we runsome specialized dockets that I didn't mention as
far as our daily work, butwe both run a drug court, a
substitute treatment court, as well asa reentry court. A reentry courts.
(19:51):
Me and Judge Robinson are only twoof nine certified within the state of Ohio,
and just recently Chief Justice Kennedy itin me to the re Entry Court
Task Force. So I'm participating inthat with the Supreme Court right now.
But you know, that's something bothof us are really proud of. You
know, I think it helps thecommunity cuts down and recipivism hopefully saves the
(20:15):
taxpayers some money. I mean,incarcerating people's costly and there's guidelines that we
have to follow on sentencing people.So in order to minimize the cost to
the county and ensure their safety andwon't be you know, substitutes, treatment
courts are working well. And asfar as reentry court, those are people
that have done prison time and havejust been released and they're either on parole
(20:38):
through the High Department Rehabilitation Corrections orthey're on post release control, which is
supervision after a prison time. Wehave to monitor them and so the hope
is by keeping a close eye onthem and monitoring them, getting them on
their feet, helping them find jobs, stable housing that we're able to at
(20:59):
that point and get them from goingback into a life of crime and getting
them, you know, as productivecitizens. So I know with the drug
court, that was one of thefirst of its kind in this area right
across the state. When yeah,it started, Yeah, it was Judge
Henson I believe was the second judgewithin the State of Ohio Toronto Drug Court
(21:19):
and it's changed over years. Whenit was first done, most of the
treatment was faith based, but astime goes on. You know, you
see what works, what doesn't work, and so they made progress through that.
Now, I mean you have medicineassisted treatment now where they find that
people that are addicted, they'll putthem on suboxing where the program is you
(21:45):
know, you prescribe it to themfor a year at an upgraded dosage each
time, and then you start weedingthem off after that year and the you
know, projection is to get themcompletely off after a year and a half.
And so you know they're working withI mean there's some ups and downs
with it, but you know,we have to be flexible and if something
doesn't work, we try something elseuntil we find something that works. And
(22:08):
that's important. You know, everylife is worth saving, and so you
know we're trying to do that forthe people before it lets you go too
quick. Questions been a great chatthis morning. People would hear of a
judge and wonder how long is theterm because you think maybe a mayor four
years for you, I'll talk aboutthe Hong's the term. There's six year
(22:29):
terms. Okay. Yeah. WhenI first was elected, Judge Dewies had
retired. I finished up his termthe final two years got elected to a
six year term here and then I'vegot my next term starts in twenty twenty
six. Okay, so all rightnow, before I let you go,
if somebody hears your voice, theyhave a question, they want more information
about the court, they just easyenough go to the county website. They
(22:53):
can go to the county website.Telephone numbers listed there as well as email.
We're always open to talk to people. Obviously, we can't talk about
cases. We have a ethical codethat we can't discuss cases without all the
parties presents. So somebody wants totalk to us about something, we need
to get the prosecutor, we needto get the defense counsel, we need
(23:15):
to get defended there. We haveto protect defendants rights. I mean,
they have constitutionally protected rights that wehave to ensure. And sometimes things are
not to be discussed around other people, so we have to take care of
that. You know, we geta lot of phone calls where people are
trying to, you know, getsome input to us, and we have
(23:37):
to be careful about that. AndI know sometimes they don't like our response
that you know, we can't discussthat with you, but it's the truth.
And so you know, we doget monitor on those things. So
somebody has just in a general comment, those are questions that I should say
they could reach out to the Absolutely, we have an open door policy.
Yeah, we'll talk to people.I mean, that's what we're there for.
(24:00):
We're here to serve the people.All right, terrific Richland County,
OH dot gov and then click onthe links for the court. All right,
great conversation this morning, Phil naumofin studio, this week's CEO You
Should Know Richland County Common Please CourtJudge in the General Division. It's been
great to learn your story. Thanksso much for coming in and we wish
you continued success. Thanks for havingMarion. I appreciate it. Thank you,
(24:22):
sir, Richland County Common Please,Court Judge Phil Nauman. The CEO
You Should Know rid a bio,see a photo and hear the extended interview
at WMANFM dot com. This isJohn Robi of r F and ME Insurance.
Is said that a good leader setsthe bar high because he or she
wants to reach goals and make thebest of their teams. We're proud to
(24:44):
introduce you to some of the community'sleaders on the CEO series
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