Mayoral veto latest round in judge tussle
Mccarthy still pushing to cut one of four jurists
Mayor Gary Mccarthy has vetoed a council resolution seeking to stop him from eliminating one of four city judge seats and any state legislation backing the idea.
Mccarthy, in a letter with the veto, indicates there has been a 26 percent reduction in cases since 2013 and 40 percent drop in fines over the past three years. He also said that over the years Schenectady has been receiving less money from the state for court expenses.
“All the trends in the courts are down, are reflective of our good works with building demolition efforts, home ownership incentive programs, datadriven policing and the economic development that is happening in our community,” he writes.
Mccarthy also argued that the state’s ‘raise the age’ legislation and legalizing marijuana will lead to reduced caseloads. (“Raise the age” increased from 16 to 17 the age at which someone can be tried on charges as an adult. This year it was upped to 18.)
The Office of Court Administration (OCA) has maintained that a fourth judge is needed and that Schenectady needs to provide an adequate facility.
The city could either spend millions building a new courtroom or spend less by leasing space or converting a room on the second floor of City Hall into courtroom space.
Mccarthy writes that though OCA has said it does a detailed study of courts every four or five years, it’s been more than six years since that happened in Schenectady, and that any “objective analysis of the caseload and operation” would prove that three judges is enough.
Council president Ed Kosiur said he is open to tabling the resolution in hopes of striking a compromise for four judges.
“We’re certainly willing to work with the Comptroller’s Office, the OCA, and our elected officials to work out a solution to satisfy the need for the fourth City Court judge,” he said Wednesday.
He has said the city started the year with a backlog of 22,000, a figure that the mayor on Wednesday said is wrong.
By a 4-2 tally, the council voted Feb. 11 to approve the resolution even though most said they would support a cost study of the court system by the Comptroller’s Office, an idea that was shelved so they could review information from Mccarthy.
Five votes are need to override the mayor’s veto.
The dissenters were John Polimeni and Karen Zalewski Wildzunas.
Councilman John Mootooveren was absent. He could not be reached for comment Wednesday.
Kosiur said he planned to call Mootooveren to discuss the issue and “to see if he would be my fifth vote.”
On Wednesday, Kosiur said they went with the resolution after learning that the mayor had spoken to Assemblyman Phil Steck about drafting legislation to abolish funding for one of the City Court judges.
Mccarthy said Steck was reviewing the veto packet and planned to move forwarding with introducing the measure.
The judges are Robert Hoffman, Teneka Frost, Mark Caruso and Guido Loyola, who will age out when he turns 70 this year.
Democrats have endorsed Schenectady City Attorney Carl Falotico for that seat.