East Hampton Village is exploring creating its own justice court that could be up and running at the Emergency Services Building on Cedar Street by next January.
A resolution passed at the village board’s Feb. 24 meeting, authorizing a flat fee of $50,000 to pay the law firm Perillo Hill for legal services related to the establishment of the court, brings closer a long-held desire of Mayor Jerry Larsen.
The village attorney, Lisa Perillo, is a partner in the firm, but a new court is outside the scope of her services as village attorney, hence the fee.
“We would use the ambulance side of the building,” Mayor Larsen said in a phone call after the meeting. “They have a meeting room, smaller than the meeting room we use now in the firehouse that’s ideal for a court setting. The court would probably be open once a week.”
East Hampton Village is the only village on the East End that has its own police department without its own court. Sag Harbor Village and Southampton Village both have courts.
Before Sag Harbor Village’s court was established about 15 years ago, “cops used to complain about complicated jurisdiction lines,” said Carl Irace, the village justice. “If someone was arrested on the East Hampton side of the village, they took them to the East Hampton Town Justice Court. The Southampton side meant they had to travel to Hampton Bays.” Hence, operational efficiencies were a key argument for that court’s creation.
“I went to the village board back in the ‘90s about this,” Mayor Larsen said. “What used to irk me, as a detective, I’d arrest someone for burglary. The court would put a high bail on the suspect if they were from out of town and the likelihood of them coming back was slim. Their court date would come, they don’t show up, and their bail money goes to the town court, not the village. Then, worse, the court would issue a warrant for their arrest and the village police would have to go back out and find them. We’d do all the work, and the town got all the money.”
The mayor sees two benefits to a court. First, it would provide nontax revenue for the village. Right now, income from traffic tickets, or from the violation of any village code, goes directly to the town. In the case of some violations, the fine gets split among the town, county, and state. Second, the court would give the village “more control over village jurisdiction.”
Marcos Baladron, the village administrator, visited the Sag Harbor Justice Court and drew up a mock budget. It could cost the village north of $300,000 annually to run the court, with two judges, a full-time clerk, part-time clerk, stenographer, translator, and court officer.
The Village Police Department writes roughly 4,000 traffic summonses annually. “Translate that into fines and it would be well in excess of what it will cost to run the court,” said Mayor Larsen. The violation money would fund the court and any extra would spill into the general fund.
Mr. Baladron said zoning violations within village boundaries would also come before the court. “We’d love to take on cases like that. You can’t just do what you want, ask for forgiveness, and thumb your nose at the zoning board,” he said.
So, it’s possible traffic tickets and other violations could be enough to make the court a working business proposition. Still, Mayor Larsen, along with William Manger Jr., the mayor of Southampton Village, have begun pushing State Senator Anthony Palumbo and Assemblyman Tommy John Schiavoni for state legislation that would allow the village to collect fines from speed cameras.
This was discussed last spring when the village first proposed installing the $29,000 cameras. According to one camera, since Jan. 1, the average speed eastbound on Main Street is 36 miles per hour. There are outliers. During that time period, 10 people have been clocked going over 76 m.p.h. down Main Street.
Some may see speed camera summonses as village greed, but Mayor Larsen sees it as a way to deter people from speeding down the village’s side streets. Many are lined by houses and used as pass-throughs by those seeking to avoid summertime traffic.
“It’s a dangerous situation,” he said. “Traffic apps direct people down Dunemere and Further Lane, for example. If legislation is created and signed by the governor, it would take effect January 2026. To collect those fees, we would need to have our own court.”
“They’re thinking about a pilot program,” Senator Palumbo said by phone. “Other municipalities want it as well. The general public is often not too thrilled about this sort of thing, because it can be viewed as a money grab. We want to be sure it’s being done for the right reasons. The village wants to slow people down, they’re not doing it for the revenue. I’m open to it. I personally believe in the autonomy of local government.” It’s budget season in Albany. He said local bills aren’t usually introduced until the end of May or June.
Last year, when the village first purchased the speed cameras, then-Assemblyman Fred. W. Thiele Jr. said it would be a “heavy lift” to pass a bill authorizing the village to collect summons revenue. He said speed cameras were controversial and that he was sure tickets would be challenged in court. Tommy John Schiavoni, who is now the assemblyman, did not return a request for comment.
“I haven’t heard one resident say it’s a bad idea,” said Mayor Larsen. “They’re all complaining about speeders in their neighborhoods.”
