Romulus City Council accepts 34th District Court deficit budget, 5-2

Over the last five fiscal years, the 34th District Court paid $16,760,894.98 to its host community, the City of Romulus, but the budgets for the current year and next fiscal year are different. Now, its Romulus’ turn to pay for the court.
At its zoom telephone conference on May 11, the Romulus City Council accepted the court’s actual to-date current and proposed budgets on a 5-2 split vote.
The court’s one-page budget was included in a motion for the city’s budget and General and Special Appropriations Act and Tax Levy Authorization.
Councilwomen Virginia Williams and Kathleen Abdo said they couldn’t vote for the proposal because the current $4,407,623 court budget that ends June 30 had a deficit at the end of this fiscal year of $77,633 and the new $4,902,300 budget had an unfunded $494,677 increase for the year ending June 30, 2021.
“I cannot approve something I cannot agree with,” Councilwoman Williams said, adding there is over a $77,000 deficit. “Where would that money be coming from? It’s not carried over. There are too many questions.”
“I have the same concern,” Councilwoman Abdo said. “They’ve been in deficit spending for two years in a row. A half million in the new budget. That’s crazy. What I agree with is the same as last year.
“I can’t vote for it with the extra half million dollars,” Abdo said.
“I taught math for 40 years,” Abdo said. “The City of Romulus is responsible. I can’t vote for it… What happens when they can’t pay for the building? What do we tell the people of Romulus?”
“The pandemic caught everyone off guard,” said Councilwoman Tina Talley. “They have self-funded themselves for years. We’re in the middle. We have to come together and help work this out.”
Mayor LeRoy Burcroff said this is the process they’ve had for being a host community and it has benefitted the city for many years. He said the city gets two-thirds of the court’s revenue.
The city budget and court budget were first presented to the council on April 27 and council members asked for more details about the court budget at their May 4 meeting. Mayor LeRoy Burcroff said he would get more details from the chief judge.
In his May 8 memo to the council, the new Chief Judge Brian A. Oakley said for 25 years, a very detailed budget was prepared and submitted by Chief Judge Tina Brooks Green and last year the court received a number of complaints about the format of the 2019/20, and prior, budgets.
“When I became chief justice in January 2020, the decision was made to have the 2020/21 court budget prepared by a CPA,” Judge Oakley wrote. “As such, the court engaged the services of Post, Smythe, Lutz and Ziel, LLP.”
He said the budget submitted to the council on April 27 was not a special format but was in keeping with sound accounting practices and the court has no plans to revise or change its budget format.
Judge Oakley addressed questions sent to the mayor on the court budget and said Councilwoman Williams appears to be requesting that the court provide an expenditure breakdown separated by department.
“Given the fact that the council has no authority over how the court allocates its resources, I see no need to provide that detail,” Oakley wrote. “The court is a separate branch of government and we determine how best to allocate court resources.
“Many of Ms. Williams’ inquiries are about court revenues; as I am sure most council members understand, the court has very limited control over the revenue stream that we have to work with,” Oakley wrote. “We do not make arrests or issue tickets. As a result, any future revenue projections can only be made based on past revenues and educated estimates. Obviously, in light of the COVID-19 pandemic, it is likely that our projected revenues for 2020/21 will be inaccurate.”
Oakley said the revenues coming to the court are used to pay the court’s operating expense and all monies in excess of expenditures are then paid to the City of Romulus.
He said a question on a $900 per month expenditure ($11,000) is due to the AT&T phone system in the new court. Also, Oakley wrote, the 34th District Court is definitely NOT financially responsible for the replacement of the Veterans’ Memorial. He said $58,000 remains in the new court construction budget that has been set aside for the monument committee to use for that purpose.
Oakley also wrote that the city is responsible for the cost of the new court.
“The building belongs to the city and the city borrowed the bond money,” he wrote. “The position of the court has not changed; as long as revenues are constant and the State does not change the mechanism for court funding, the 34th DC will generate funds sufficient to repay the bond.
“Due to the fact that the court does not control our revenue stream it would be irresponsible for us to make any guarantees as to what payments will or will not be made,” Oakley wrote.
“As you all know, we are preparing to move into a facility that is approximately 60% larger than our current building,” he wrote. “Many of our expenses are expected to go up as a result. The lion’s share of our increase is for new personnel. We will need more security because we will have to cover two floors and more square footage.
“We have been short-staffed for years and had planned to hire clerks now that we have space to put them to work. Obviously, with the COVID-19 disruptions, we do not know when we will get back to full operation levels. As such, I do not anticipate the need for additional clerks until that happens and perhaps even later than that,” he said.
Oakley said he does not wish to give the impression that the court is being secretive in any way.
“However, I do plan to maintain a clear line of distinction between our two equal but separate branches of government,” he concluded.
Councilwoman Williams replied in a May 8 memo to Judge Oakley that it appeared that in the last two years the court has operated in a deficit.
“A budget deficit occurs when government spending is greater than the revenue collected,” Williams wrote. “Why would you even think it’s normal to ask for a negative budget to be approved? It’s customary to ask a question for clarification. As judges always say, ‘Being ignorant to the law is not an excuse.’”
Williams said in 2019 Judge Green did promise to give a detailed budget for 2020.
“Maybe because of the conflict with the court accusing the City of Romulus of stealing/misspending their money (FUF), it went over your head. Even the mayor had comments concerning the one-page budget that was presented to council at that time,” Williams wrote to Oakley.
“I will never forget that situation with the 34th District Court and the City of Romulus,” she wrote. “The allegations just disappeared with the alleged millions that was supposed to be owed to the court and the other four communities.
“…No defendant or plaintiff can stand in front of a judge with evidence of missing money owing to no one and the judge make the issue disappear as if it never happened. This is not about Respect. It is about Lack of Trust,” she wrote.
Williams said she sat at a meeting in Judge Green’s courtroom when the court’s claim against the city for $3 million was made to “go away.” She said the mayors of Belleville and Romulus were present, along with the supervisor of Van Buren Township, among others.
The 34th District Court serves the cities of Belleville and Romulus and the townships of Huron, Sumpter, and Van Buren, along with Metropolitan Airport and the local Metro Parks. The court building has been closed since mid-March by the governor’s executive orders to fight COVID-19. Although the court had expected to move into its new building next door in mid-April, that has not yet happened.