Cotter interview with John Potter

at the end of the i don't want to talk about a lot of the local head twenty in the studio with us uh... partner a carter conway is running for reno verdict justice of the peace and uh... this is this your first rodeo my friend i know i've run before so this is a been in a in a uh... campaign before we got the experience you got years of real courtroom experience uh... you covered uh... overflow court cases for our reno judges i bet you've got stories well yeah i know so i i i got thirty two years as a courtroom attorney working for the public defender's office working for the legal defenders and then uh... i've been uh... working as a judge pro tem for eight years and i was appointed by the reno justices as their uh... uh... what's called a court referee and i kind of back them up have been doing that for about three years i have not been sitting through anything courtroom uh... thankfully uh... at all but i would bet that people residents of our area would be shocked and surprised by what comes up in the courtroom what uh... judges have to decide what crime we have out there uh... care what did it surprise you when you started doing this in is it good or is it bad uh... for us in our community well i you know i was joking a lot of us in the defense business joke that uh... we have a a good job there's not there's plenty of cases out there uh... whether that's good or bad i think that uh... you know we we have to have a strong uh... judicial system uh... to deal with this because we do have uh... there's there's cases everyday uh... we go before the court there's always something monday through friday uh... but we also handle in that court uh... civil citations which are the uh... uh... traffic citations we deal with uh... small claims we deal with uh... evictions so there's a lot that goes on in the reno justice court well a lot you said it because you cover specifically overflow court cases this is from too much uh... business shall we say right backups well it's a actually it's actually because we have only had five of the six justices i think four years now uh... we we just we just haven't had the full six we will have full six and in fact uh... when i win my position will be taken away they won't use it anymore they used it because they only had five and you really needed six and so that's why i applied for and was appointed to that position to help them out because we didn't have six of six we had five of six for so long so technically you're a court referee what do you do in that position so uh... the first thing they had me doing was i took on the new civil citations used to be you got a speeding ticket that was a misdemeanor and the legislature changed that to an infraction and so i took over that system uh... that was brand new in twenty twenty three uh... but i also uh... do small claims and now i do about twice twice a week i'm presiding over a small claims case i do evictions uh... and i also come in as what's known as a pro tem and help them with the criminal calendars so i do everything that they do just more as a fill in you love the work? i love it it's a great way to serve my community i really enjoy it uh... i think i'm good at it and uh... i would just like to continue it as an elected justice of the peace it must be so gratifying to have a job where you personally know because i don't know i've always working on camera by the microphone i don't know how i affect people you directly know how your efforts uh... better lives of local people you've seen it and you must be very gratifying it must be uh... wonderful thing it is this is a situation where people are feeling helpless how do you put them at ease how do you get them through this for me the way i handle it let's just talk about like a small claims i really try to talk it out with them so i don't just walk in and go thank you for your story here's what i find for i try to ask the questions i try to go over the exhibits i try to discuss it with them when i reach a decision i explain the decision to them because i don't want them walking out thinking oh i just got shortchanged i want them to know there was a reason for it and i do the same thing with the civil infractions because there's sometimes an officer there and i'll explain what my decision is and what it is because i want people to walk out understanding why what happened and why it happened i don't want them going out going i don't know what happened i don't think i serve the community if i don't explain that uh... what my judicial decision is. Well that is so needed because they've never been in that situation usually before they don't know what's going on why are you running uh... to be the Reno Verdi uh... justice of the peace i think that's what department two it's department one department one okay that's the open spot why are you running to be a judge why are you running to be Reno Verdi justice of the peace codder well i want to continue to serve my community i've been lucky to serve my community over the last eight years as a judge pro tem and then of course three years as the court referee uh... and i'd like to take my thirty two years of experience and give that back to the community it's it's it's uh... it's a good time for me to do it uh... also because we're going to have major changes i think there's three or four of the justice are retiring in the next three to four years so we need proven leadership uh... in that position uh... what would you change if you're elected what what do you what does what does that position need uh... or are you going to go with the status quo as things are well i think it's hard to say that you would go with the status quo uh... quo because there are always changes when i started uh... as a as a lawyer in this town there were no specialty courts there now quite a few each court has one that has at least one if not more i think we have i think we have three right now uh... remissal court right down the hall has four the district court has uh... quite a number including what including the uh... uh... drug court and the d u i court uh... that there's always a change and i think that that's what we have to worry but i think uh... one big thing that uh... i'm interested in addressing is the the homeless or unhoused uh... issues especially in light of the uh... supreme court united states supreme court decision in grants pass where we can enforce uh... laws against the unhoused that's exactly what gavin newsom has taken advantage of in california and they're clearing out uh... some homeless encampments right and my concern is if they come before me i don't want to throw them in jail that doesn't solve the problem uh... had a uh... a sit down with judge has a stevens of the reno reno municipal court he runs the uh... community court uh... and he's working trying to work for example one one solution he's trying to work is have the washoe county sheriff's site people right into community court this community court is a court that has resources for those that are unhoused so we need to continue to find ways to get those resources uh... to the unhoused i'm going on monday i'm going to the ribbon-cutting for the cares campus which is another uh... organization that uh... uh... will help the unhoused i've been to i went to the recent meeting a few months ago of the uh... homelessness advisory board so there are a lot of things and they're looking to have put a judge on that board so there's a lot of things that are always going on so to say that there's a status quo tough to say there's always something that can be improved upon and can be done to uh... provide for this community it's a frustrating thing i don't think there's a solution i've heard of people with all their ideas and everything and you know then they don't work and uh... i i just don't see it you just gotta place a band-aid here and a band-aid there and you might be right but i think the you know i think the citizens the constituency they don't want to see the homeless encampments uh... they don't want it they want that cleaned up they don't want the people on the street uh... you know we make a lot of money for from uh... people coming to our casinos and to have that impact them doesn't do us any good so i think we gotta keep working for a solution you might be right there it may be just a band-aid but we've got to keep uh... trying to find a way to get these people back on their feet because that's what they deserve they don't deserve to be in jail uh... but we need to find a way to uh... get them the resources that's the toughest thing uh... there's a big contingent of homeless admittedly have mental health issues and there's a segment of our population that thinks oh put them in a mental hospital and uh... hey uh... california they they close the mental hospitals and that's why we have all the the homeless and people don't realize you cannot take somebody against their will and put them in a mental hospital that there was uh... a lawsuit uh... in uh... years and years ago in california which forced those mental hospitals to close they have individual rights you just can't do that uh... so that's off the table uh... but it's a big problem and uh... i hear that the homeless shelter is is full if you took everybody off the street and put them there they are not going to go voluntarily uh... i think more than half like the life they live and that's a weird thing to say what we call the chronically homeless uh... those the ones that just you know they're resistant to the help that's being offered but i think we have to keep trying because there's a there are people who find themselves unhoused because they lost a job or or they had an injury or they had some other issue going on and we can't just ignore them and and we want to find a way to help them and things like the uh... community court that's run by judge haslett stevens is a great uh... a great remedy or a great opportunity to get the resources out there the number of uh... resources in our community that work with the community court to provide assistance to those that are unhoused and living on our streets you said that this position would deal with the civil cases family cases and all what percentage do we currently have of these cases that are involved in local crime would you say i would say that uh... with regards to the criminal calendar that uh... we have to uh... address in the reno justice court it's a substantial amount of the calendar that more than half more than half absolutely but i think you know we also have a pretty strong because really just a couple judges over there including me that uh... do the small claims uh... we don't do a lot there we can do other civil cases up to fifteen thousand uh... but usually those end up going over to district court is usually for more and uh... but we also have the evictions that's kind of an important thing uh... that we have to deal with landlord tenant law you know for the second year in a row the fbi stats say that crime is uh... going down violent crime murders that sort of thing uh... have been going down for the past two years i'd i don't buy it you know i uh... cheese i mean the catalytic converters thing now the shoplifting now every neighborhood has stories about uh... break-ins and think i can't i i don't believe it i really don't you do you sense that crime is actually going down i would say that i think violent crime may very well be going down i don't have those stats in front of me but but from what you see in the courtroom no there's plenty of crimes uh... there'd be a i mean but i mean we're talking over here number crimes go all the way from the violent crimes to property crimes which are just as important uh... to local citizens they don't want their houses broken into they don't want their businesses broken into uh... we need to find solutions which again takes me back to why i favor uh... specialty courts because a lot of times these people you get them off the street yet treat their mental health you treat their drug abuse hopefully they won't turn to crime uh... but whether it be property crimes or violent crimes uh... cotter conway running for reno verdi justice of the peace good luck in the election my friend you want to make a final pitch to voters right now i just want to say that uh... if you look at my record you look at my thirty two years of experience you look at my courtroom experience you can see that i'm the right choice i have the right experience and i am the right choice as your next reno justice of the peace alright folks if you're in that uh... department one uh... election uh... just remember cotter conway easy to remember well that's a good radio name that is uh... you gotta be for me cotter nice to meet you my friend nice to meet you john i appreciate being passed on here