Assemblyman Eichenstein and OATH Team up To Provide Help to Boro Parkers who Received Summonses

By Yehudit Garmaise

      Boro Parkers who have received summonses from 24 different city agencies had the opportunity yesterday to attend a pop-up site right on 13th Avenue of the Office of Administrative Trials and Hearings (OATH), which was staffed with employees who answered questions and helped more than 130 grateful passersby.

     Assemblyman Simcha Eichenstein reached out to OATH to come to Boro Park after receiving calls from “countless constituents who have received summonses,” he said, over the last year and a half.

     At least one passerby who spoke to BoroPark24 said that she was scared she would be arrested and “taken away” as a result of a summons she received for staying open for business by appointment only on 13th Avenue during COVID.

     Adding to her frustration was the inaccessibility of the agency that ticketed her, as she had tried to call the number on the summons five times, but no one answered: a complaint that many passersby echoed.

     Some of the summonses, many of which have gone into default due to lack of action on the part of recipients, came from the Department of Buildings, many are Sanitation-related, and many are COVID-related, Assemblyman Eichenstein said.

     Assemblyman Eichenstein reassured that no one would be arrested for civil tickets, “but at the same time,” he said, “a summons is something you have to deal with. You have to clean it up. You don’t want it to be there.

     “You don’t want it to stay on your record.”

     Assemblyman Eichenstein reached out to OATH after he realized that many of his constituents needed help filling out forms, responding to tickets, and scheduling hearings so that summonses do not go into default and fees are not added.

     “I wanted to bring OATH to the streets, so people can just stop by and talk to the experts, talk to all the staff directly and work through their issues with them,” Assemblyman Eichenstein said. “The process can be very confusing, and there is no better convenience than just stopping by on 13th Avenue and hopefully being able to resolve the matter.”

    Readers who missed yesterday’s event, which will be repeated, Assemblyman Eichenstein said, can contact John Castelli, OATH’s deputy commissioner, who helped many people yesterday and who can be reached at OATH's help desk, or the office of Assemblyman Eichenstein, anytime.

     “We are here to help,” said Assemblyman Eichenstein. “Hopefully, we can help you resolve this matter.”

      “The first, most important thing recipients of summonses have to do is to respond to that summons,” said Castelli, who said that the dismissal rate of summonses is more than 40%, due to insufficient evidence. “You have to answer to it as soon as you can.”

     Assemblyman Eichenstein also confided that in September, the mayor will be providing an Amnesty Program that will discount the fees of summonses by 75%. 

   “We will have a lot more to say about the Amnesty Program, once it is official when it is rolled out next month.”