Saratoga Springs City staff consider administrative court

Saratoga Springs City staff consider administrative court
Lance Madigan - Daily Herald
Officials are taking steps to open an administrative law court in Saratoga Springs to make things easier on residents while retaining revenue for the city.

The Saratoga Springs Justice Court has been open for slightly more than a year, and handles everything from domestic violence to unsightly yards cases. The court is open just one day a week and generally has a pretty full agenda when it is open.
Those are some of the main reasons Saratoga is looking at an administrative law court option.

"The biggest complaint that I think I received every single week, is that I have people that are coming into here that are being criminalized on behalf of the city for having their dog out," said Lindsay Jarvis, Saratoga Springs city prosecutor. "They are sitting in the audience court with citizens who have received DUIs, who are being investigated for domestic violence. They don't understand why they are sitting in this particular arena. They are sitting around guys who are going to jail."

Jarvis said the majority of the court cases have to do with code violations, and the city is losing out on a significant amount of revenue because code violators are being tried in Justice Court.

"The state charges us an 85 percent surcharge for every fine we bring in," he said.

An administrative court would give the city the power to create its own ordinances and enforce them. At present, Jarvis said this would probably be applied to animal citations, marina harbor violations, Department of Transportation violations and "messy yards."

"There are two main advantages here," said Ken Leetham, city manager. "One is not sharing court revenue. The other is, if we as a city are serious about property management, code enforcement and beautification of neighborhoods, this court and putting a comprehensive code together to address that is really the solution. And we really need to do that early on."

"I think the other thing is the better use of certain people's time for certain things," said Councilwoman Mia Love.

Enforcement, especially in the yard violation area, is a significant benefit according to Jarvis, because an administrative court would make it easier for city staff to enforce standards.

"We give notice of violation, or what we call an administrative citation," Jarvis said. "It gives them a notice of what the violation is, and then says 'You have 10 days to take care of this problem. Should you not take care of this problem in the 10 days, on the 11th day we are going to start charging you $25 a day per violation until it is taken care of.'••"

A lien could then be placed on a property, so in the case of unoccupied homes, new buyers would have to address the issue and pay the fine before they could get a certificate of occupancy.

The cost for the court would be minimal, according to Jarvis. She and the judge would have only a slight increase to their time since they have to hear these cases anyway.

The most expensive portion would be in the support staff for classifying and organizing these cases to be heard. The cost, she is quick to point out, would be quickly recouped in the fines that are not being sent to the state justice system.

The City Council was supportive of the idea. Jarvis, with the help of other city staff, will outline what administrative codes will cover in the city.

Once that is approved by the City Council, the court will just need to be organized so that it can start hearing cases.

"The sooner the better for us," Jarvis said.