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Erica Techo
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Erica Techo
Chelsea Mayor Tony Picklesimer, Municipal Court Judge Jeff Hester, Public Defender Andrea Graham, Court Magistrate Kim Mims, City Clerk and Court Clerk Becky Landers and City Attorney Mark Boardman at the Aug. 9 Chelsea Business Alliance luncheon.
The city of Chelsea appointed its municipal court staff toward the end of June, and Wednesday members of the Chelsea business community got to hear an update on the court’s progress.
Municipal Court Judge Jeff Hester was the guest speaker at the Aug. 9 Chelsea Business Alliance luncheon. He started off the luncheon by recognizing everyone else on the municipal court team and gave an overview of what everyone can expect from him.
“Obviously I’m going to be fair and impartial. I’m also going to do my best to see to it that justice is done for all the citizens of Chelsea,” said Hester. “I can also be firm, and will be firm, for the situations that arise.”
The municipal court will only deal with misdemeanors, so Hester said they will not be dealing with “hardened criminals.”
“A lot of times we’re talking about folks who made a bad decision or bad choice. We do get some of the bad folks coming through the municipal court, but for a lot of folks, their only court experience will be the municipal court,” Hester said.
Crimes that come before the court could range from misdemeanor marijuana possession to traffic offences to violations of city ordinances.
The presence of a municipal court, he said, can benefit the city because it will provide more sovereignty and independence to Chelsea.
“I think having jurisdiction, exercising our jurisdiction over local ordinance violations will be a welcome addition to Chelsea,” said Mayor Tony Picklesimer.
City Clerk Becky Landers, who will also act as municipal court clerk and magistrate, said she is excited to see the court up and running so that the city can enforce its ordinances.
“I don’t know how many calls I get about it, and they don’t have any teeth. But that’s going to change,” Landers said.
Picklesimer said he hopes the municipal court will also slow offences. While before, people were just asked to follow ordinances, now there could be a monetary cost for those offences.
“As the city of Chelsea has grown, I think the need for a municipal court has,” Hester said, adding that as the city continues to grow, he expects the court will as well.
The municipal court will start with one day of court a month, but that could expand if there is a need to hold court more frequently, Hester said. At this time, a date for the first day of court has not been set, but Hester said it should be announced soon.
“There’s just things that have to be done, and we’re hoping to have maybe a dry run or two,” Hester said. “Just because, in starting a new court, there are so many things that you don’t think about until you do something like that.”
Hester said he hopes to go over everything and work everything out before starting the court and realizing more needs to be done.
“Frankly, it takes more than one mind to think of those things, and that’s why we’ve got this great team here,” Hester said, “and I think we’re going to do a great job.”