Berne election 2017: Rick Otto for town justice

Rick Otto

Rick Otto

BERNE — Rick Otto, once a candidate for town board in Berne, is now looking to give everyone “a fair shake,” by serving as town justice.

A Republican, Otto is running on the Republican, Independence, and Conservative lines.

Otto, 70, has lived in Berne for the last 12 years. Originally from Long Island, he said he moved to the area to “spend [his] golden years.”

“I wanted to get away from Long Island up to some place where I could get a little bit of land and do some farming,” he said.

Otto is retired from the New York City Fire Department, where he worked in its communications division. He originally was a dispatcher and worked his way up to be a supervisor.

He has previously run three separate times for town council in Berne. Otto has also been a member of the town’s zoning board of appeals for the last six or seven years, he said.

Otto said his experience both with the fire company and the zoning board would help him when making decisions as a judge. The zoning board must take into account rules that are already in place as well as how varying from the rules may affect neighbors.

“This is just a larger format than being on the ZBA … ,” said Otto, of the role of town justice. “Same basic thing; you are given evidence and asked to make a decision.”

He noted earlier that, “Even as the supervisor in the fire department, it was my job to make … life-and-death decisions, weigh the good with the bad.”

Otto added that, as a Republican in a Democratic-majority town government, he would not be “constantly trying to impress” the other members of town government. He said that he would like to serve as justice to give people on both sides a fair trial.

“I think they’ll all be a challenge,” he said of the cases he would hear, “to have to figure out what the issues are and how to come up with a solution.”

Determining if he would recuse himself from a case involving someone he knew “would depend on the circumstances,” said Otto.

He said that some cases he would be able to follow the rules and adjudicate without being concerned that there was a conflict of interest, but if he knew someone and his or her extenuating circumstances, he said, he would recuse himself.

Regarding alternative sentencing, Otto said that he prefers to follow the maxim “Let the punishment fit the crime.” While some offenders may benefit more from an alternative to jail time, others may not, he said.

“It would have to be done on a case-by-case basis,” he said.

Regarding the state’s Raise the Age Legislation that will be implemented over the next couple of years so that 16- and 17-year-olds can no longer be tried as adults, Otto said, “there are many factors to be considered.” He said that a decision to try someone as an adult often depends on the individual’s case. While he acknowledged that adolescents can’t make decisions as adults, he said he had seen heinous crimes in New York City committed by minors who get an “easy ride” with their juvenile status.

“I believe that there should be more flexibility instead of less,” he said.

 

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  • On Wednesday, March 27, the state’s Department of Public Service will hold two public hearings — in addition to an ongoing survey — on broadband that will be an important opportunity for state residents to correct previous maps and analyses that determine broadband availability. 

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