Menands seeks to dissolve village justice court, have Colonie take over cases

The village of Menands is seeking to dissolve its justice court and have the town of Colonie take over court cases.

Menands Mayor Brian Marsh tells NewsChannel 13 that the village is spending around $200,000 per year to fund the court, and it does not bring in nearly the revenue to offset that.

“The loss became a question of is this providing a service to our residents, or are we subsidizing justice for the Capital Region?” he said.

Marsh cited some changes in state law, including bail reform, that have made it more expensive to operate these courts.

For example, when bail was being more frequently imposed by judges. If the suspect violated the bail, it could be revoked, and some of those funds would go into the court’s coffers.

Also, Marsh said the state took away the ability of a local court to suspend someone’s license for nonpayment of fines. 

“There’s no ability to revoke their license and force them to pay their fines,” he said.

Marsh said the village used to collect around 80 to 85 percent of the fines it imposed and that has dropped to around 50 to 55 percent.

In addition, there are enhanced security requirements including an X-ray scanner that costs around $50,000 for courtrooms to screen for drugs.

Police wrote over 4,000 tickets in one year, according to Marsh.

“We’re very busy. We are a cut-through between Troy and Albany and that’s where most of the defendants are from,” he said.

To operate court, they need five security officers to protect the judge, check in the defendants and pull court files. They also spend thousands of dollars on mailings.

Marsh pointed out that village residents also pay taxes to the town of Colonie.

Marsh said the reason to make this change now is to coincide with the expiration of the village justice’s term on July 7.

“If we didn’t do this now, we would need to wait another four years. The judge would be re-elected and we would be forced to deal with the expenses for the next four years,” he said.

Colonie Town Supervisor Peter Crummey said Marsh has not had any discussions with him about the town taking over justice court, and he questioned how the village is running it.

“Based upon what I’ve been reading from the mayor’s recent posts, the court system is underwater by $200,000, which begs the question, what has been going on with the management of that court,” he said.

Crummey served in that court as an attorney for 18 years, and the finances were never a problem.

He suggested an audit be done of the court.

He asked if Marsh had petitioned the state Legislature to make changes to some of these criminal justice reforms.

Crummey acknowledged that the village is not required to have its own court, but said “this is the mayor running away from his responsibility.”