BRVCA council municipal court vote 050824
Council Approves Municipal Court
By Cynthia Drummond for BRVCA
May 10th 2024
RICHMOND – Richmond is getting its own municipal court.
At a public hearing during the May 8 meeting, members of the Town Council voted, with Helen Sheehan and Michael Colasante opposed, to approve ordinance amendments to allow the town to establish its own municipal court.
Although the council has discussed the matter at length at previous meetings, Colasante raised questions about the impact such a court might have on residents, since it will be hearing not only police matters but cases involving zoning violations.
“What I have an issue with this is, you have somebody from New York that comes down, they have a Mercedes that they park in their driveway, and you have somebody that’s been living in town for 35 years,” he said. “We know that a lot of people cut firewood in this town. You see it piled up. It’s in non-commercial areas, non-business areas, so that person driving in the $125,000 Mercedes can also now make a potential problem to this person that’s been living in this town for 35 years, making a few bucks, splitting a little bit of firewood and selling it. Now, all of a sudden, all right? there’s a potential now that that person knows that there’s an avenue to get this person in trouble and to get a cease and desist about this guy who’s been doing it for 35 years, cutting firewood That’s the problem we have in a very rural town.”
Councilor Samantha Wilcox suggested that Colasante’s statement appeared to resemble his own situation, in which he was charged with a zoning violation for operating his sawmill, “Buttonwoods Sawmill and Betta Burn Firewood Inc.,” in a residential zone.
“That sounds awfully familiar to the case Councilor Colasante has pending,” she said.
Colasante replied that there is no pending case against him.
(The Beaver River Valley Community Association has filed a Public Records Request asking for information regarding the zoning violation, and is awaiting a response from the town.)
After listening to additional questions about what the court might end up costing the town, Council Vice President Richard Nassaney said,
“None of this has to do with money, not one iota of money. This all has to do with holding people responsible. It doesn’t matter if you split wood or a rock. …Whether you’ve lived here for a year, six months, or 40 years. If you’re breaking our ordinances, you need to be held accountable, period. It doesn’t matter if the town makes a penny or a million dollars off of it.”
Council President Mark Trimmer has described the establishment of the court as a trial, to see whether it is good for the town.
Reached after the meeting, Wilcox said that it would not be a trial but instead, ordinance amendments that could always be changed.
“The Municipal Court is not a trial, it's a live set of ordinances that will be in effect until they are amended or removed,” she stated in an email. “I'm excited for this change. Residents will have recourse for their concerns and the town will be able to hold those in violation of our local laws accountable.”
Wilcox also addressed the subject of the new court’s financial impact on the town.
“Although we will not lose money, a municipal court will not make us a substantial amount of money either,” she said. “The fees collected from violations would offset the costs associated leaving us revenue neutral. Public services are not about making money, it's about serving the public and that's what this does.”
Other Business
Dental Benefits
The council approved a proposal, by outgoing Finance Director Laura Kenyon, to allocate $4,900 from the town’s wage contingency budget to enhancing the town employees’ dental plan. The improvements, which would include a 20% co-pay, would bring the benefit in line with the dental plan for the town’s police officers.
Town Hall Carpet
Town Administrator Karen Pinch asked the council to approve the awarding of a contract for the purchase and installation of new Town Hall carpet to NSI Clean Worldwide Inc.
“It came in much lower than I had been given an estimate, which made me a little nervous,” she said. “They’re in New York.”
After checking the company’s references and receiving carpet samples which were of higher quality than the next-lowest bidder, Pinch said she wanted to award the contract to NSI for $26,582. But since that bid was so much lower than she had expected, Pinch said she had added an additional $4,000 to have the company move the furniture, which would have otherwise been assigned to the Department of Public Works. The final price is $30,582, still considerably below the original estimate, which was $56,000.
Capital Strategy and Tax Payments
Wilcox proposed, and the council approved, a long - term strategy for capital improvement projects.
“The purpose of this is to have a list that we can draw off of when there are funding opportunities,” she said.
Colasante stated that the town already has a five-year capital improvement plan, but Kenyon responded that the new proposal would go beyond five years and include town departments, boards and commissions which might be considering proposals that they had not brought into the budgeting process because they were wishes rather than necessities.
“We don’t know what’s out there for requests unless they are brought to staff for us to evaluate, so it’s more a matter of letting everyone know that you’re trying to get more projects into the capital projects plan,” Kenyon said.
Tax Payments
Wilcox asked the council to consider holding a special council meeting on May 21 at 5:30 p.m. to provide additional privacy to residents who have reached tax payment agreements with the town.
“It’ll really just help the people who are in that situation to have a little bit more privacy – as much as you can in a public situation,” she said.
Councilor Sheehan noted that the tax agreements had already been made with the town and could therefore be included in the consent agenda.
Wilcox said either way would work for her, and the council voted to add the agreements to the consent agenda.