I would like to thank all of you for the honor of serving as President of the New York State Magistrates Association this year (2023). As with every year there will be numerous issues and challenges that our time honored Town and Village Court System will face. For a lot of these challenges we will need all of our Town and Village Judges help. Please take a very close look at our 2023 Legislative Agenda and I ask you to contact your Assembly Members and Senators in your respective Districts and impress upon them the need for changes to the Bail Reform Legislation in regards to to giving back to the Courts the discretion to impose Bail at arraignments and the ability to Suspend a Defendant’s Driving privileges for failure to abide by the terms of their payment plans for the payment of fines and surcharges owed to our Courts. Hopefully with your help we can affect these needed changes.

As always, if there are issues that arise within your Court, please feel free to contact myself or our Executive Director, the Hon. Tanja Sirago.

Sincerely,

Dennis W. Young

President

NYSMA