Opinion & Comments
At the beginning of the December 22, 2025, Village Board workshop, the Village Board proposed the following resolution: “To establish a local law to abolish the position of village justice and the village court.” The justification: “The functions of the court can be more efficiently and effectively handled by the Sweden Town Court.” This is simply not true.
Efficiency and effectiveness are the precise reasons that on October 7, 2013, the Village Board created the Brockport Village Court. The Village Court has, over an 11-year period, proven not only more effective and efficient for Brockport, but it is Village – not Town – focused and carries a greater caseload than the Sweden Town Court.
Village residents may remember the $89,000 in delinquent Brockport parking tickets that were discovered in 2013, which had not been pursued by the Sweden Town Court for lack of staff and because criminal cases took priority. The Village hired a collection agency that worked exclusively with judicial courts to retrieve that money. Brockport currently receives roughly $90,000 per year in parking tickets. Could we count on the Sweden Town Court this time to collect them for the Village?
The Village Board plans to turn over the functions of the Village Court to the Sweden Town Court, having had no prior detailed discussion with Sweden or the Sweden Court regarding what the change would entail, including personnel, logistics, and costs.
At the Village Board workshop on December 22, 2025, Sweden Town Supervisor Patricia Hayles commented, “There has been no discussion of the process. What is the process? We have never seen any of your data. The town is open to any discussion, but we haven’t any data. We might not have enough judges to take care of your load.” Furthermore, Sweden’s budget for 2026 is already set.
The financial justification for abolishing the Village Court is questionable, and it is not simply a question of spending or not spending money.
The Court has operated since its inception within its annual expense budget. There was never an expectation that the revenues for the Court needed to equal or exceed their expenses. You don’t create a court to make money. The Court is a service to the community and operates accordingly. No different than the Police Department, DPW, Codes Office, Welcome Center, etc. No department has been expected to operate as a profit or loss center. Village accountant Dan Hendricks estimates that eliminating the court could result in a tax rate decrease of about $.09/$1,000. On a home valued at $250,000, this is a savings of $28. However, villagers can likely count on an increase in their town taxes if the Sweden Town Court has to take on all of Brockport’s court business and hire more personnel.
I see no evidence that the Village Board has considered the overall benefits that a most local, village-focused judicial court offers the village. Some of these advantages were pointed out in the carefully researched presentation given by Chris Hamlin, chair of the Ad Hoc Committee on courts, at the December 1 Village Board meeting. Additionally, it is to the village’s advantage to keep the criminal justice system within the village, where police, judges, and defendants are part of the same system and separate from the influence of other agencies. The speed with which cases are heard, the priorities of cases, and the simple fact that the elected judges are village residents who understand village ordinances and their relationship to the quality of village life are all factors recommending a court most local. Brockport Village Court has earned the respect of other courts within the NYS court system. These qualities are difficult to measure in dollars and cents.
This important issue has been extremely rushed — two weeks from start to finish over the Christmas and New Year’s holidays. What’s the hurry? Will the Town of Sweden have sufficient time to review and carefully consider taking on the Village Court by then? Will you, Brockport residents, get to vote on the issue?
The current Village Board ran on a campaign of transparency and listening to the voters. If they really care what the voters think, they will call for a referendum on the issue so Brockport voters, not the Village Board, can determine whether our Village Court continues to exist.
Let your voice be heard at the public hearing on Monday, January 5, 2026, at 6 p.m.
Margay Blackman
Brockport
NOTE: In the fall of 2025, the Village of Brockport assembled an Ad Hoc Committee to study the Brockport Village Court. The committee was comprised of two trustees, one department representative, and two community representatives. They were tasked with doing a general overview with an eye on department transparency, opportunities to improve services, and financial responsibility and stability. A link to the Ad Hoc Committee’s full review of the Village Court is posted online at https://brockportny.gov/news/.
