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JR0EN1X, May 24; 1973 PagetBrooklyn Landlord-Tenant CourtIs 'Hellhole of the Civil CourtThe Brooklyn Landlord-Tenant Court is a hurried, harried, shabby, judicially inconsistent and often degrading place where people are merely processed, the Junior League of Brooklyn concluded in a study report released this week.The Junior League, which was advised in the one-year study by the Brooklyn LegaL Services Corporation B, found that %u201ca citizen in Brooklyn LandlordTenant Court meets an institution o v e rb u rd e n e d p h y s ic a lly , emotionally and legally. The judges who preside there and their law' secretaries describe it as a %u2018fish market,%u2019 %u2018the hellhole of the Civil Court-%u2019 a %u2018degrading place to serve as a judge,%u2019 and an %u2018onerous part of the judges%u2019 rotation%u2019.%u201dThe computerized study was conducted from January 1972 to February 1973 by 18 community volunteers from the Junior League of Brooklyn, an educational and charitable organization.The study sought to examine the court, a part of the Civil Court, from a local resident%u2019s viewpoint in the belief that the court will operate better if citizens understand its functions and their rights and responsibilities there.Because most housing disputes brought to court are handled in Landlord-Tenant Court, its operations also influence significantly the condition, quantity and price of the housing available in Brooklyn, according to the report.A main purpose of the report, unveiled May 23, at a press conBudgetBlastedIn a May 19 speech before the American Lung Association at the Statler Hilton Hotel, Brooklyn, Congressman Hugh Carey charged that the president%u2019s budget %u201cis a creature of the same White House philosophy which created the Watergate affair,%u201d and called fo; the Congress to reject the %u201cdiscouraging document.%u201d%u201cThe budget,%u201d Carey said %u201cis not a departmental budget %u2014 not a congressional budget %u2014 not a peoples budget.%u201d He forecast that the Congress will develop its own budget which would reflect current national needs. Citing an example of the outrageous deficiencies%u201d in the budget, Carey pointed to the cuts in health care, vocational rehabilitation and the Neighborhood Health Center Program.%u201cWe cannot allow this high handed budget to go unchallenged for it We di, we are headed for a disaster in the health care field,%u201d Carey said. %u201cLong after the noise and smell of Watergate have disappeared we will be suffering from the impact of the proposed cuts in medical research community health care, rehabilitation and aid for the handicapped.%u201d he continued.ference in the Association ot the Bar of the City of New York building, 42 West 44th Street, is to provide a reference tool in establishment of the city%u2019s Housing Court, which on July 1 is scheduled to take over housing cases nowscattered among Landlord-Tenant Court, Criminal Court and the State Supreme Court.The 62-page report is being turned over to the Advisory Council of the New Housing Court of the Civil Court of the City of New' York, as well as to the administrative judge of the present court and all of the judges observed.In conducting the study, the volunteers observed and followed the course of more than 1000 trials during a four month period. They collected data on every case which came to trial from the opening of court until noon every day that court was in session during that period. The more than 200 hours they sat in trials is approximately two to four times as many hours as any judge sits in Brooklyn Landlord-Tenant Court in the course of a year.The main recommenaations, most of which the report said could be acted upon immediately and all of which could be incorporated in the Housing Court, included: ( l) a requirement that judges attend seminars dealing with frequently changing rent regulations, appropriate remedies involving repair issues, and standard procedures, including the need for clear orders on the record and explanations to the parties; and (2) establishment of an administrative system for regular observation of judges to eliminate inappropriate manners and procedures; the court lacks awareness of patterns of abuse by some judges and seems to lack means of correcting these.%u201c Administrative pressure to dispose of cases rapidly should be elim inated,%u201d the study said. %u201cOvercrowding results as much from poor scheduling and inef ficient use of resources, as from the large number of cases. This pressure to rush and settle cases disadvantages the tenant and obstructs both parties%u2019 right to a fair and full trial.\The study was carried out through individual interviews with the 20 judges observed, using a standardized questionnaire, and with a system of observation covering 75 variables any of which might take place in a given trial. The volunteers always worked in pairs. The information they gathered was tabulated by a computer and analyzed to establish a profile of the court.Lerner, who received the endorsement of the Mitchell-Lama Development Council, has been endorsed by the Tenants Council and the Center for Tenants Rights in her race for Borough President of Brooklyn.Mrs. Lerner was commended for her work in senior citizen rent exemption and for her MBR vote in 1970 as well as her continuing work for an appeal against the MBRf%u2018Landlord-Tenant Court deals with people at a level of basic human need, that of decent shelter for themselves and their families. It often provides a citizen%u2019s first encounter with our courts. Yet it presents a scene of noisy, crowded confusion and procedural mystery into which people come, often ignorant of their rights and responsibilities. They often leave more bewildered than they were when they entered its doors.%u201dformula.The letter of endorsement she received, reads, in part: %u201cWe are pleased to endorse you. . . on the basis of the record you have established during your four years as Brooklyn Councilwoman-atLarge in the area of tenants rights. We feel your continued perseverance in city government as Brooklyn borough president and as a member of the Board of Estimate will serve the advancement of tenant rights in N.Y.C.%u201dThe report observed thatRuth Lerner EndorsedBy Tenants RightsCouncilwoman-at-Large RuthCourt StudyDue SoonThe NYC Board of Estimate recently approved a preliminary planning study of the space requirements of all the courts and agencies scheduled to go into the new Livingston St. Criminal Court Building in downtown Brooklyn.A planning report is scheduled to be presented to the Mayor and the Board of Estimate in July at the termination of the planning study and an architect is expected to be selected by the end of 1973. Target date for completion of construction is fall 1978.A councilman should act as an advocate for our neighborhoods against the huge bureaucracies which seem more concerned with their own survival than the survival of our neighborhoods. Councilman Richmond has, and will continue, to pressure the City to clean up S R O hotels in the Heights He is nressina thp M T A to rannx/ato:he Clark Street IRT Station He is oushing the City to install new street lighting and is fighting to prevent the expansion of a paper machinery factory that threatens the destruction of the Northside neighborhoodBut a City legislator has to do morethan fight off bureaucrats He has to promote reforms in the governmental process to alleviate the source of these disputes. That's why Councilman Richmond introduced New York City s first hotel security legislation for the residents of SRO hptels and why he s presently working to have the Cityr'ry , *.1%u2014 %u2022>i __ii__ %u2022%u2022 ..W lly u iv * IIIC HUI IIIOIUCdispute.Richmond knows that nothing is more threatening to bureaucrats than an organized and active community He started Brooklyn's first Councilmatic Advisory Committee, to insure that our neighborhoods would have an official representative at City Hall who had trulyworked on the problems of the community-with the community That s why Richmond has actively supported programs in the Council which provide City assistance for neighborhood groups to act on their own problems The new Block Security program passed by the City Council will provide 9 to 1 iTiaiCniMy grafiiS tut uiuuk asauuicitions and tenant groups to solve their own security problems. However, Fred Richmond also knows that there are some problems that can t be fixed with a phone call to the proper government official or by the passage of a new piece of City legislation. For instance, our schools are so farbehind the rest of the nation that children are simply being processed; instead of being educated That's no easy problem to solve, and it's going to take the efforts of everyone There has to be a better solution to the dilemma of quality education other than parents. who can afford to, sending~u.i %u2014 u. %u2014 ~ i~ UIVII UIMIUI VII IV |VII%u00abUIV JVIIVVIUThis is only one of the massive problems that our neighborhoods face But we must face all of them, together As your City Councilman, Fred Richmond will continue to work, fighting for our neighborhoods and seeking solutions to our common problems Because that's what a Councilman should do.COMMI rTEE FOR COUNCILMAN RICHMOND, 147 MONTAGUE ST, BROOKLYN N V . 11201