Mottle & Mottl & Associates

Ronald M. Mottl

Attorney at Law
Trial Attorney 50 Years
Former U.S. Congressman
Former State Senator
Former State Representative
Certified Mayor's Court Magistrate Since 2008

Ronald Milton Mottl is the epitome of the classic All-American success story.

Born on the East side of immigrant Czechoslovakian parents, Mottl learned early what it was like to work for a living. His father, Miloslav (Milton), and his mother, Anna, together ran a small grocery store at McBride and Dolloff near St. Alexis Hospital. Ron attended schools in the Cleveland system: Mound, Rickoff, Barkwell and Myron T. Herrick Junior High. Ron "Mickey" has been a Certified Mayor's Court Magistrate Since 2008..
 
It was a happy, busy time for the young, energetic Mottl. But his life changed dramatically when his father died. Ron was 11 years old at the time. Three years later, his mother married James Schovanek and the family moved to Parma.
 
At Parma High School, the young Mottl turned to organized sports in a big way...and is still regarded today as one of Parma High School's most accomplished athlete- scholars. Ron was all scholastic in basketball. In football, he received the Cleveland Touchdown Club's Most Valuable Player award, having been an outstanding quarterback on offense and a safety on defense. He was equally adept at baseball, pitching a no-hitter and four one-hitters.
 
Upon graduation, he was faced with a dilemma. Should he go for a football or basketball scholarship or accept a baseball scholarship offered by Notre Dame? He chose to go to the South Bend school, foregoing offers from numerous other prominent universities.
 
At Notre Dame, Mottl captained the 1955 baseball team and distinguished himself by beating Ohio State (and Hopalong Cassidy) in 15 innings, striking out 15 Buckeyes along the way.
 
Despite spending an inordinate amount of time on the athletic fields, Mottl managed to earn a bachelor's degree and a law degree in 5 ½ years at Notre Dame. On graduation, he briefly entertained the notion of playing major league baseball, pitching for a Philadelphia Phillies farm team. About this time, however, a military service requirement found him spending time in the Army. Including subsequent time in the Army Reserves, his military career totaled 6 years.
 
Started His Public Career
 
Upon separation from the Army, he got his first taste of public life in 1958 when he was appointed assistant law director for the City of Cleveland by then Mayor Anthony Celebrezze. The law director at the time was Ralph Locher, who went on to be mayor and Supreme Court judge. Two years later, 1960, he won his first elective office, the Second Ward Council seat in the City of Parma.
 
From 1961 to 1966 Mottl served as President of Parma City Council, and proved to be a nemesis of the
Columbia Gas Co. and a friend of the city's consumers. For four years he managed to deny the gas company a rate increase, saving Parma consumers millions of dollars.
 
With this accomplishment, Mottl was elected to the Ohio House of Representatives, serving in 1967 and 1968. He won election to the Ohio Senate in 1969, becoming known as the Father of the Ohio Lottery.
 
Motll's success in getting the Ohio Lottery approved transgressed all odds. The Legislature was Republican dominated, making passage of any Democratic sponsored bill difficult of itself, let alone a Constitutional Amendment. That he succeeded in getting the controversial measure passed totally confounded the experts.

At that, he had to get the Lottery bill passed twice. After passing the first time, the resolution was challenged in the courts on a technicality by the Council of Churches, and the resolution was struck from the ballot. Mottl reintroduced the bill in the following session, and again it passed -- and again only by exactly the right number of votes: not one vote extra in either the House or the Senate on both occasions.
 
A Mottl admirer characterized Mottl's double victory against overwhelming odds as perseverance of the highest order. "Ron's tenacity just wouldn't let him give up on the Lottery. It was all uphill from the start, and it continued to be a struggle even after it was passed the first time. Most everyone would have just thrown in the towel."
 
Mottl kept the measure going because he was determined that funds gained from the Lottery would go to help educate youngsters. In the last two years, the Lottery's funds earmarked for education have amounted to more than a billion dollars. Since its inception, the Lottery has brought more than 17 billion to education.

Mottl played a leading role, too, in locating the Ohio Lottery headquarters office in Cleveland. The result was hundreds of jobs and thousands of dollars in tax receipts to area communities.
 
The battle he waged for the Lottery and his record on other issues as an Ohio Senator from 1969 to 1974, brought Mottl such prominence that he was catapulted into the U.S. Congress in 1975. During his eight years as a U.S. Representative, he again demonstrated that funds can be gained for the public's benefit without imposing a tax.
 
A case in point: Mottl led the fight to have the nation's banks pay interest on billions of dollars annually which the Treasury Department had routinely allowed to lie idle in the banks, without collecting any interest from the banks, The funds are income tax and social security moneys of corporations and employees. The Treasury receives the moneys and deposits them in local banks on a short term basis.
 
Until rectified by the Mottl-led effort, the public had been losing $265 million annually. Since passage of the legislation, which was signed into law by President Carter, the U.S. Treasury has been the beneficiary of more than $12 billion.
 
Following his eight years in Congress, Mottl returned to the full-time practice of law. Mottl has practiced law for 50 years and was a partner in a former Parma Heights law firm, Cassidy and Mottl. His former partner, Paul Cassidy, is a long- time mayor of Parma Heights. Ron is presently practicing law under Mottl & Mottl & Associates.

Very quickly though, the desire to work in the public's behalf got the better of Mottl, and in 1986 he accepted the opportunity to serve as President of the Parma Board of Education. Among the many notable issues dealt with during his reign were the attempted closing of Normandy High School and the selection of a new superintendent of schools.
 
One of the schools' ongoing problems, however, was lack of state funding for worthwhile endeavors...This provided Mottl with the impetus to get elected again to the Ohio House of Representatives in 1987. Since then he has been waging an ongoing battle to have more of the district's dollars returned from the state to the district.
 
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Ron “Mickey” Mottl
 
Attorney & Counselor at Law
Former State Representative

Ron Mickey Mottl maintains a general law practice at the firm, Mottl & Mottl, with a focus on criminal and traffic law. He has served as a State Representative, representing the Parma area, where he authored numerous bills, including one of the first rights of privacy bills in the United States. The bill removed an individual’s Social Security Number from their Driver’s License, in an effort to help avoid identity theft. He also authored a Probate Reform bill to help people save on attorney fees, court costs and the time it takes to receive the assets from the decedent’s estate, and sponsored another piece of legislation to keep Ohio from becoming the dumping ground for radioactive waste. In addition to serving in the Ohio Legislator, Ron Mickey also served as Assistant Ohio Attorney General, where he represented the Ohio Veteran’s Home, the Ohio Bureau of Motor Vehicles and the Ohio Lottery

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http://www.mottlandmottl.com