|
|
Supervisor hopeful calls for community court
|
Oneida Avenue in Selden looks like many other streets in a quiet Brookhaven neighborhood, until a visitor notices a house with piles of building materials stacked out to the roadway. An adjacent house — at least it looks as if it was a house decades ago — leans to one side, is partially boarded up, has no front door and looks as if it will blow down in a stiff wind.
Judy Clendenning, who lives across the street, said the bricks have been there for about 18 months. With this winter's snow and ice, she said she's afraid that when backing out of her driveway onto the narrow street, her car may slide into the bricks. Meanwhile, she said area youths have hung out, smoking and drinking, in the next-door abandoned shack throughout the 22 years she's lived on the block. She's called the police, but they've never come, Clendenning added.
Both structures violate town building code and have done so for many years, according to town officials. Democratic candidate for supervisor Mark Lesko, a former federal prosecutor, highlighted the situation at a Monday press conference, vowing to address community eyesores if elected on March 31.
"These are some of the worst offenders in the town and the town is doing nothing to stop this," Lesko said. "When I am elected supervisor, I will change this."
The candidate called for the creation of a "community court," an idea borrowed from Babylon Town Supervisor Steve Bellone, who fought New York State to establish the first such court in suburban New York in 2004.
The plan aims to expedite the resolution of code violations like those on Oneida Avenue, while providing more funding for town enforcement efforts. The community court "would handle all quality-of-life cases, both criminal and civil, brought by the town," according to a Lesko release. As a result, complaints would bypass overloaded county courts and so be resolved faster, generating more revenue through fines, to cover the costs of broader town code enforcement.
The Babylon court has seen a lot of use, handling 200 to 300 cases a week, according to Bellone. And since the court's inception, town revenue from fines has increased from about $60,000 annually to over $500,000 last year, the Babylon supervisor said.
The court allows residents to be heard on quality-of-life grievances that "are not taken seriously by the district court," Bellone said. "And these serial code offenders and slumlords don't take this seriously either — they pay their fines and go about their business. You have to hit them in the pocketbook. In Babylon Community Court, at the end of the day, you must comply with the law and be a responsible member of the community."
Bellone added that if the rundown Selden properties were in Babylon, the town would remove the bricks if the owner still failed to do so after five days' notice, while his town would demolish the abandoned, deteriorating home after 20 days of inactivity.
Brookhaven's delay in addressing the Oneida properties' violations highlights the need for a community court to speed up the process, said Town Councilman Steve Fiore-Rosenfeld (D-East Setauket).
"Oftentimes district court gets tied up in delays," he added. "We need to expedite the people's business to keep communities whole. People are suffering here. Justice delayed is justice denied."
Suffolk County Legislator Brian Beedenbender (D-Centereach), who said he "grew up down the road" from the Oneida site, said the residents of Centereach and Selden "work hard every day and want to be proud of where they live."
"They shouldn't have to live next door to an eyesore like this," Beedenbender said. "Homes like these lead to a downgrade of the neighborhood." The legislator added that constituents had complained about the Selden homes' violations last July, whereupon he wrote to the town, demanding action. The town has cited violations on the properties, but no penalties have been enforced, according to Beedenbender.
Republican candidate for Brookhaven supervisor, Councilman Tim Mazzei (R-Blue Point) agreed with his opponent in the supervisor's race that a community court is a good idea — maybe.
"I'm in favor of any way to increase town revenue," Mazzei said, but he questioned whether such a court would do so, and what court would be the right one to establish for Brookhaven.
"[Councilman] Keith Romaine [R-Center Moriches] has been working on this for some time," Mazzei said. The Republican candidate added that two models exist for such a court: "The Babylon model or the State of New York's." Mazzei said that as a result of discussions at Tuesday's Town Board meeting, Romaine and Fiore-Rosenfeld "were going to sit down and decide what road to take."
In 2008 Suffolk spent $300,000 "to help towns improve their law enforcement," according to Lesko. But "Brookhaven did not participate in the program," he lamented, not even applying for its share of the county funds. The would-be supervisor pledged to work with Beedenbender to ensure that Brookhaven participates in the program in 2009.
| |
|
|
|
| |
