City leaders expressed concern Tuesday night that Dearborn's could not justify its expenditures.
At a budget meeting Tuesday night, court administrators brought documents to explain the department's expenses and revenue history, plus caseload and staffing comparisons to similar courthouses.
But most questions from City Council members and Mayor Jack O'Reilly did not yield immediate answers—and several councilmembers expressed disappointment that Chief Judge Richard Wygonik did not attend the meeting.
"I personally am not happy he's not here," Councilman Bob Abraham told court representatives. "We've had problems in the past and we're trying to work past them. But it's important that the person in charge should be here."
Council President Tom Tafelski agreed.
"We have a lot of questions," he said, "and it would help if the chief judge or one of the judges could come and answer some of them."
Among their biggest concerns were statistics showing that while caseloads and expenses continue to go up, revenues are down nearly $400,000 since 2008.
The court's proposed fiscal year 2013 budget requests $4.369 million–roughly $900,000 more than 2008.
"I just cannot swallow it," Abraham said. "I have a hard time supporting (the budget) given all the issues we're going through."
Court Administrator Sharon Langen contested that the court is operating with as small of a staff as possible.
"I did a survey of other courts ... and if you compare our numbers to courts with a similar caseload, we're actually operating very efficiently," she said. "I don't think we could afford to eliminate another position."
The 19th District Court's caseload is just over 80,100, and the staff includes 11 full-time and four part-time clerks, three full-time and two part-time probation officers, and one full-time probation clerk.
According to Langen's survey, the closest comparable district by caseload–the 43rd District Court (Ferndale/Madison Heights/Hazel Park)–employs six full-time clerks and two full-time probation officers. However, several courthouses (Birmingham and St. Clair) employ more staff than Dearborn, but with caseloads 20,000-40,000 less.
City leaders also heavily questioned the court's system for enforcing the collection of delinquent payments.
As of April 11, 62 percent of money owed from collection notices dating back to 2006 has been paid. The percentage paid goes down every year forward, with just 11 percent of delinquent fines for 2011 marked as paid.
"This is disappointing in terms of percent and duration of how long it takes to collect," Mayor O'Reilly commented. "If we exercise the bench warrant and bring them in, we’d like to get data on how soon that happens, is the total amount paid and what’s the percent paid."
Councilwoman Suzanne Sareini suggested that the court look into the possibility of working with a collection agency.
Council requested to have the court budget discussion moved to a meeting later this month at a time when one or more of the district's judges would be able to attend and answer the city's questions.
to justify that choice of not using the city's health plan and thus saving costs (not true), the employee is given additional money as a reward. The private sector did away with this practice decades ago. Folk are going to choose the best plan irregardless, and the city should not be paying employees additional money to reward an obvious choice. Of course, the city has a deaf ear to these questions, and, as Frank notes, no one wants to be accountable and make a decision to save us taxpayers money. Who do we talk to in order to get answers? The city council?? On city wide TV??
Maybe we can get out city back.
Maybe the court budget has been cut to much in the last 3 or 4 years. Maybe there isn't enough money to perform the services at the court house and this is why they're asking for more money.
Somers also insisted on appealing a denial of a summary judgment decision by Federal District Court David Lawson to the U.S. Court of Appeals. The only point he won on was the claim that the Court was not liable, but the Appeals Court also ruled that he remained personally liable. He let his hatred for Hultgren get in the way of his good sense. So, the Mayor now has a duty to the taxpayers to refuse to satisfy the verdict by placing it on the tax rolls. Recall that he supported Somers in the last election, so this cannot be an easy position to take. His friendship with Somers has not clouded his thinking, nor should yours. As to the merits of the case, that is best left to the 12 jurors who heard it, or the Court of Appeals who will now decide. Taking work home was never a problem when I was working. You cannot rely on the explanation of a defendant who has already presented his case, and if he was sharing administrative information with you off duty, shame on Sommers.
Kathy, I agree with you that Guido, and O'Reilly as the council president, along with several present and past councilmen, made the poor decisions to build those edifaces for their pown posterity. Look not only at those places you mention, but also the grandiose court building with all the marble and new judges offices areas. And, then there is the huge expansion of ice rink that serves more as a place for non-residents than those living here. Look at the parking lot---it is NEVER---NEVER near full. Yes, and now the O'reilly dream machine wants to sell city hall to Art Space who relies on grants from the state and federal governments to operate...yep---that's OUR tax dollars again! And, how much will it cost to move the city hall fat cats to new digs? OMG!!!...I can't stand it.
Realizing he had screwed up, Somers as Chief Judge issued a memo (to himself) indemnifying himself from any personal liability in the upcoming trial. After the verdict he pulled out the memo, claiming the city had to pay the million dollar verdict against him. It's all online in court documents. The mayor, despite his friendship with Somers (he endorsed him last election) felt he had a duty to the taxpayers to refuse to pay the verdict as only the judge was personally liable. Somers has collected over a million dollars in salary over the past eight years from the taxpayers so he should be able to satisfy his debt on his own. As to taking work home, when I was working, that was a good thing!