The Town of Babylon faced two challenges last week. One was a

The question on the community court is whether the Town usurped the state’s authority by establishing it under home rule instead of getting state approval. The problem, according to the Town, has been that while it had asked for state approval, the request was stalled in the legislature with no sign of moving forward. In the meantime, the Town and its 220,000 residents had already endured decades of abuse at the hand of code violators whose cases had lingered, to their devious advantage, at the District Court level. These included illegal boarding houses, unapproved home and building expansions that were both unsightly and dangerous, abandoned and unkept buildings and more. Their impact was that the violations continued flying in the face of the efforts made by the Town to resolve them, and government—and the courts—appeared to be impotent and unable to resolve the matters. More important, both appeared to have failed those law-abiding residents who rely upon government to protect them, their property and their way of life.

In some ways, the lawsuit is positive because it focuses broader attention on to the problems that Babylon and other towns in the state face. Prior to that, Town officials were allowed to speak and express their concerns at the state level, and were then patted on the head and sent home. Despite efforts for years to find a functional way of dealing with the problem of lingering code violations, nothing was done. The establishment of the court, and its ability to force compliance against those whom the District Court had allowed to thumb their noses at local government, changed that.

Whether the Bellone Court will withstand the scrutiny of the technical legal review it is now bound to undergo as a result of this lawsuit is yet to be seen. What we do know, however, is that Babylon is mad and it is not going to take it any more. That’s one for the good guys.

As for the banner on the steps of Town Hall, Bellone is right. It is on the right side of the Constitution and represents the sentiments of the community at large. It should be taken down—and replaced with a bigger one.