Fredonia mayor lobbies for court consolidation
Says the village is losing $30,000 annuallyBy MICHAEL RUKAVINA
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Fredonia Mayor Michael Sullivan has been entertaining the idea of merging the village court system with the town of Pomfret's since he submitted his first budget proposal as mayor back in April. The topic has been on the backburner since the idea first appeared and the board of trustees are waiting to see what more Sullivan can give to them once he brings the idea to a regular board meeting.
In August, Sullivan gave each trustee a brief idea of how the village court system affects the budget and touched on how much the village is losing because of it.
"I totaled up the budgets: how much it costs us with all the personnel, health insurance and retirement and from that what we collected in fines and fees," he said. "It showed last year we ran about $31,000 short, so we lost money. In this year's budget alone, the budgeted amount has us going into about $27,000 of a loss. It's one of those things we simply do not have to do."
If the village does dissolve the court system, Sullivan said the town of Pomfret would then have to tax townwide for the justice court and the cost would then be split around the entire population within the town, rather than partially.
"The town may have to pay the judges a little more for four days a week, but we'll save on having fewer employees being paid health insurance, retirement and other benefits that come with it. To me it's a no-brainer and I'm hoping the trustees will agree that it just doesn't make sense for us to keep it separate," Sullivan said. "I suppose the old argument used to be we'd lose all the fine money. In reality we're still entitled to receive some of the fine money that comes from village ordinance violations. We would actually get rid of the cost and we'd get to make money through that. I'm sure there was a time when the fine money exceeded the cost, but as the cost of personnel has gone up. I can't think of an argument to keep it other then it follows tradition I guess."
Sullivan said the village is able to dissolve its court because although the creation of the courts are a New York state entity, the state legislature has given local municipalities provisions to transfer and make changes. The Lundine Commission also recommeded for villages and town courts merge together so that no duplication occurs.
On June 11, Judge David Prince visited the Pomfret Town Board and explained how such a move, which the town would have no control over, would impact Pomfret.
"It's going to be a tremendous shock. We're not going to get along with just two court clerks in the town; we'll need at least three, possibly four. You just can't take that workload," Prince said. "The mayor wants it. The board of trustees could make that decision or it could be put up for a villagewide vote possibly."
If Sullivan's numbers are correct in his initial reports that Fredonia would not only be saving money but making money, the town would take the initial brunt, but it may see the move as a financial gain long term.
"The only thing the village will retain is village ordinances - sewer, open container, littering - which is roughly $35,000 to $40,000 per year," Prince said. "The rest of the revenue - vehicle traffic, everything else - would come here to the town. It's a no brainer, it's going to be a tremendous burden for the town, but we're going to make money even with three clerks."
Besides having enough hands to help the workload, Prince also notified Pomfret officials of a concern of his that has to deal with records, should the merger take place.
"The thing that concerns me is the records the village has. The courts started in 1969 and they certainly can't come back here. The state did come in and reviewed our court facilities. They made a lot of recommendations, but their recommendations were for cameras and things outside the building," Prince said. "Right now on an average of one week both the town and village received a tremendous amount of letters pertaining to people who need their records checked. When most people get employed they have to do a background check, and with the university kids who get arrested for possession of marijuana and being disorderly and what not, now they have to call for a record check. It's quite time-consuming to dig records out each week."
Currently the court consolidation topic is not on the agenda for the Fredonia Village Board's meeting on Monday, but it could be added. On Friday, Trustee Joseph Cerrie said he couldn't really comment on the idea because the board has not received all of the numbers needed to make a judgement.
"He (Mayor Sullivan) didn't give a line-by-line but said we supposedly lost $31,000 last year and then supposedly we may lose $35,000 this year. You can't forecast what you're going to lose," Cerrie said. "Until I see the pros and cons and the benefits of it and what it will do to the village and the town's budget I can't comment because I have not seen any numbers yet. If it's an overall savings and if that's the case then it's a no brainer, but, if we lose money from the state or money generated because of traffic tickets and it's going to affect our budget then you really have to pose the question, is this the right thing to do?"
Comments on this article may be sent to mrukavina@observertoday.com
