NY State Senate Bill S4979

Archive: Last Bill Status - In Senate Committee Judiciary Committee

Introduced
In Committee
On Floor Calendar
- Passed Senate
- Passed Assembly
Delivered to Governor
Signed/Vetoed by Governor

Your Voice

Please enter your contact information

First Name *

Last Name *

Email Address *

A valid email address is required.

Home address search or enter your address manually *

Home address is used to determine the senate district in which you reside. Your support or opposition to this bill is then shared immediately with the senator who represents you.

Optional services from the NY State Senate:

Create an account. An account allows you to officially support or oppose key legislation, sign petitions with a single click, and follow issues, committees, and bills that matter to you. When you create an account, you agree to this platform's terms of participation.

Include a custom message for your Senator? (Optional)

Enter a message to your senator. Many New Yorkers use this to share the reasoning behind their support or opposition to the bill. Others might share a personal anecdote about how the bill would affect them or people they care about.

Leave this field blank

Actions

view actions (2)

	Assembly Actions - Lowercase Senate Actions - UPPERCASE
Jan 06, 2016	referred to judiciary
Apr 27, 2015	referred to judiciary

S4979 (ACTIVE) - Details

Current Committee:: Senate Judiciary
Law Section:: New York City Civil Court Act
Laws Affected:: Amd §110, NYC Civ Ct Act

S4979 (ACTIVE) - Summary

Relates to increasing the term of office of judges of the New York city civil court housing part.

S4979 (ACTIVE) - Sponsor Memo

BILL NUMBER:S4979

TITLE OF BILL:

An act to amend the New York city civil court act, in relation to
increasing the term of office of judges of the New York city civil
court housing part

This measure is being introduced at the request of the Judiciary.
Present law calls for a five-year term of office for each Housing
Judge of the New York City Civil Court. This measure would increase
this term to ten years, but only where a Housing Judge is being
reappointed to his or her office. That is, each Housing Judge would
serve an initial five-year term and then, if he or she is reappointed
to office, the term then to be served and any future terms will be ten
years.

In our view, a five-year term for a full-time judge does not insure
that individual, and the public he or she serves, an adequate measure
of judicial independence. Nor are we confident that such a
comparatively short term will consistently attract a sufficient number
of qualified candidates to seek appointment to judicial office.{1}
Housing Judges serve full-time and, like other full-time judges, they
may not practice law on the side; and because they are subject to the
Rules Governing Judicial Conduct, they are barred from engaging in
many forms of extra-judicial activity by which they might otherwise

augment their income. At the same time, because of the present
five-year term, Housing Judges

{1} Housing Judges are appointed by the Chief Administrator of the
Courts from candidates for the office who have been approved by the
Advisory Council for the Housing Part. See New York City Civil Court
Act § 110(f).  have much more limited job security than do their
judicial peers on the New York City Criminal Court and New York City
Civil Court.

A ten-year term for Housing Judges, after an initial five-year term,
would be in keeping with the terms now fixed by law for other
full-time judges of the Unified Court System, including those of the
New York City Criminal Court and New York City Civil Court. Also, it
would strike a more reasonable balance between the public's need to
attract qualified candidates and its concern that Housing Part Judges,
like all other government officials, periodically must be accountable
for their performance in office. Finally, by pairing entitlement to
the ten-year term to a continuing need to serve an initial five-year
term, this measure will assure that only those Housing Judges who are
experienced and who have demonstrated competence through a more
limited tour of duty on the Court can enjoy longer tenure in office.

This measure, which would have no fiscal impact on the State, would
take effect immediately but would apply only to the terms of office of
Housing Judges reappointed on or after that date.

2014 Legislative History:

OCA 2014-60 2011 Legislative History:


OCA 2011-44
Senate 4878-A (Sen. Young) (ref to Judiciary)

S4979 (ACTIVE) - Bill Text download pdf

                    S T A T E   O F   N E W   Y O R K
________________________________________________________________________

                                  4979

                       2015-2016 Regular Sessions

                            I N  S E N A T E

                             April 27, 2015
                               ___________

Introduced  by Sen. YOUNG -- (at request of the Office of Court Adminis-
  tration) -- read twice and ordered printed, and  when  printed  to  be
  committed to the Committee on Judiciary

AN  ACT  to  amend  the  New  York  city civil court act, in relation to
  increasing the term of office of judges of the  New  York  city  civil
  court housing part

  THE  PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK, REPRESENTED IN SENATE AND ASSEM-
BLY, DO ENACT AS FOLLOWS:

  Section 1. Subdivision (i) of section 110 of the New York  city  civil
court  act, as amended by chapter 310 of the laws of 1978, is amended to
read as follows:
  (i) Housing judges shall have been admitted to the bar  of  the  state
for  at  least  five years, two years of which shall have been in active
practice. Each housing judge shall serve full-time for five YEARS EXCEPT
THAT, ONCE A HOUSING JUDGE HAS SERVED A FIVE-YEAR  TERM,  EACH  TERM  IN
SUCH  OFFICE  TO  WHICH HE OR SHE THEREAFTER IS REAPPOINTED SHALL BE FOR
TEN years.  Reappointment shall be at the discretion of the  administra-
tive  judge  and on the basis of the performance, competency and results
achieved during the preceding term.
  S 2. This act shall take effect immediately and shall  only  apply  to
the  terms  of  office  of  housing  judges reappointed on or after such
effective date.




 EXPLANATION--Matter in ITALICS (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
                      [ ] is old law to be omitted.
                                                           LBD05644-01-5

Comments

Open Legislation comments facilitate discussion of New York State legislation. All comments are subject to moderation. Comments deemed off-topic, commercial, campaign-related, self-promotional; or that contain profanity or hate speech; or that link to sites outside of the nysenate.gov domain are not permitted, and will not be published. Comment moderation is generally performed Monday through Friday.

By contributing or voting you agree to the Terms of Participation and verify you are over 13.

The New York State Senate

senate Bill S4979

Sponsored By

Archive: Last Bill Status - In Senate Committee Judiciary Committee

Your Voice

Actions

S4979 (ACTIVE) - Details

S4979 (ACTIVE) - Summary

S4979 (ACTIVE) - Sponsor Memo

S4979 (ACTIVE) - Bill Text download pdf

Comments

senate Bill S4979

Share this bill

Sponsored By

Catharine Young

Archive: Last Bill Status - In Senate Committee Judiciary Committee

Your Voice

Actions

S4979 (ACTIVE) - Details

S4979 (ACTIVE) - Summary

S4979 (ACTIVE) - Sponsor Memo

S4979 (ACTIVE) - Bill Text download pdf

Comments