MINOA — The Minoa Village Board passed a resolution March 10 to abolish the village’s office of justice, but in the meantime, the recently vacated associate justice position in the village has been refilled.
Subject to permissive referendum, the board’s decision will dissolve the village justice court come March 2026, once the current term of Minoa Justice Janet Stanley expires.
Until then, Jenna Spendle has been appointed Stanley’s associate justice, taking the place of Jeanette Zacharias, who resigned from that seat this past December.
By day, Spendle has worked as the court clerk in the village of Manlius for 13 years, and now she’s stepping into her new role during the evenings when court is held in Minoa. That usually happens once a month in the court room of the village hall on North Main Street, where she’ll be joining Stanley and court clerk Brigid Lindsley to handle the court calendar.
Stanley started as court clerk in Minoa in 1998 and then occupied the acting justice position Spendle just took over beginning in 2000 prior to becoming village justice in 2002.
Stanley said it was “upsetting” and “a bummer” to be told that the village will be dissolving the court, since she was all set on running for reelection to another four-year term as justice next March.
“I’ve been doing this a long time, and I’ve loved every minute of it,” Stanley said. “It’s just been a wonderful ride, so I’m sad to see it end.”
Minoa Mayor Bill Brazill said getting rid of the court or any department, and downsizing as a result, is the last thing he ever wanted to do. But he said “as unfortunate as it is” it became harder to justify keeping it.
Though the court isn’t supposed to make money and seeks mainly to get as close as it can to breaking even every year, it’s not expected to lose as much as it has either, Brazill said, with its annual revenue steadily declining over the last six years and a larger and larger gap forming between those totals and its costs to operate.
He said it’s reached a point where the court could no longer be sustained from a fiscal standpoint, its losses in part due to factors like New York’s bail reform legislation that took effect in 2020, a drop in tickets for speeding and other infractions on its main thoroughfare and other streets, and simply a lessening amount of court activity and cases altogether.
Brazill said “things have changed so much” since he was justice in Minoa, back when arraignments were done in the village rather than at the centralized downtown Syracuse location, the village often having a packed, busier court room despite being a quieter community. That was also before live court proceedings went virtual, he said.
“We tried holding onto the court as long as we possibly could,” Brazill said. “But the numbers speak for themselves, so that’s where we’re at.”
Brazill said, however, that he can understand where Stanley’s coming from in her feelings about the decision, referring to the village court as “near and dear” to his heart too as his starting place with the municipality in the early 1990s.
Stanley was also his court clerk too for a time. Brazill said she has done an “outstanding job” in her role of justice.
“She’s been an excellent judge through the years she’s been on the bench,” Brazill said. “She really knows the system and everything else.”
As much as she wanted it to continue, Stanley said she can understand the reasoning for abolishing the court and that she’s happy to have Spendle by her side for the final year, looking at her appointment as the good news of the night.
Though the original plan was for Spendle to take over not just whenever there’s a timing conflict or when she’s otherwise unable to run court as the acting judge does, serving as a “second hand with whatever’s needed,” but fully once she retired as well.
Nonetheless, Spendle said she will take pleasure in serving her home village of Minoa as the associate justice.
“I’m honored and privileged to be able to do this,” she said. “I’m very excited about it—I just wish it was longer.”
Stanley called Spendle a “go-getter” and a “motivated, wonderful and knowledgeable individual” who plenty of other court clerks in other towns and villages call up to ask for guidance.
Spendle said in return that Stanley has been a mentor to her and a “lifeline” all through her 13 years as Manlius’ court clerk.
“She’s done a lot for me, and I’ve learned a lot from her,” Spendle said of Stanley. “I’m really lucky to have had her, and still have her, because there’s nobody better.”
Stanley said being village justice has been a tremendous learning experience, as she’s worked with different agencies numerous times over the years, the Onondaga County probation department, the district attorney’s office, and the Albany offices of court administration included.
“I’ve met a lot of great people through this, now longtime friends,” Stanley said.
After the village court’s dissolution, any of the cases it would’ve handled will shift over to the Town of Manlius’ court, with the village still earning revenue from code violations that carry a fine.
