Commentary: My visit to district court

I've learned a lot about Flint sitting in the 68th District Court. I have listened to those caught with shotguns running from police, those who didn't pay for contracted services and those who drove while under the influence of drugs or alcohol. I listened to police tell their stories. Sometimes they risked their lives to catch the criminal. I listened to attorneys fighting for the clients.

Today, I sit in Judge Herman Marable's courtroom with a fellow landlord listening to other landlords as they asked for rent payments from delinquent tenants. Sometimes the tenant was in court and agreed to pay. But, if the tenant failed to show, the judge allowed the landlord to file an eviction notice.

Marable was firm as he read each defendant the Michigan tenant-landlord law. He made clear to each defendant that they were entitled to representation, perhaps free, if they qualified.

My friend Aaron Dionne, whose case was heard, explained the proceedings.

"The basic premise is that the tenants can pay or leave. If they pay — great. If they don't, the landlord has the right to obtain an order of eviction from the court.

"The tenant often is simply looking for a judgment to bring to their caseworker. They hope that the caseworker can get emergency funds to avoid eviction. For the tenant, it's good — free money.

"It's not so good for the landlord, compared to getting paid when he should have, because he has to wait at least a month from the time the rent was due. He also has to jump through the hoops of the court system and expend time and energy filing and appearing in court. He doesn't get paid for his time and effort and courts cannot grant late fees," he said.

If guilty, the tenant has to pay court costs — about $100.

Funding for this important court is not cheap. According to the city's budget, it takes $5.2 million to handle misdemeanors or to arraign defendants to circuit court.

Before the emergency financial manager took over, the city was planning to shift the district court operation back to City Hall where it was years ago. The council voted to pay Partners in Architecture of Mount Clemens nearly $495,000 to create a renovations plan for the district court. The offices in the north building of City Hall had already been moved to get ready for the renovation.

The old location was more convenient for some because guilty defendants could walk from the courtroom to the jail.

Today the jail space is gone. Voters turned down a request by the mayor to renovate it.

According to David Caswell, a community activitvist, the city has been complaining for years about renting space from the county in the McCree Courts and Human Services Building. After a 2009 flood, Genesee County remodeled McCree and then asked for more money from the cash-strapped city for rent. That was the catalyst for them looking for new quarters.

According to an article in the Flint Journal the city pays the county about $819,000 a year to rent space.

Since the appointment of Michael Brown, emergency financial manager, it is uncertain if plans to bring the 68th District Court back to City Hall will continue.

Thomas Paine, a major player in the American Revolution who helped draft the Declaration of Independence, knew something about human nature — its propensity to miss the mark and the need for good government.

"Government, like dress, is the badge of lost innocence. Nevertheless, the simplest society finds it necessary to establish some form of government to supply the defect of moral virtue," Paine said.