consolidation. I think that's yeah. I think that's what we hope to do with those two is Right. Talk to some that have, in fact, dissolved or consolidated their courts and see what the impact was. Right.

Trustee Katharine Nachtaler said she was "never in favor of court consolidation." Mayor Pugh, who first explored consolidation during the pandemic's fiscal crunch, said flatly: "I do not foresee proposing any study in the future."

The study has a tight timeline because state law only allows village courts to be considered for consolidation at the end of a justice's term. That window closes this year and won't reopen until 2030. If the board moved toward dissolution, a final decision would need to come by July to get a referen…

=== EXECUTIVE BRIEF === • Village manager directed to revise the CGR court study proposal to broaden its focus beyond consolidation • Revised scope must include police department input, public defender and DA perspectives, and a public participation component • Study must exclude COVID-era financial…

discussing with the other communities that have gone through consolidation again. I think that this is needs to be about more than just consolidation. If we're retaining the court, we should have the most efficient version possible, and we should make sure very sure that's within the scope of work. …

=== HEADLINE === Trustees push back as village court study sparks consolidation debate === SUMMARY === Croton's Board of Trustees sparred over a proposed $36,500 study of the village justice court, with several trustees arguing the consultant's proposal was biased toward dissolution. The village ma…

Well, thank you, trustee Nachtell. I'll I I will just say I was looking back at some of my material from 2022 earlier today, and I did find a memo to file where I had detailed the conversation I had with the village of Ossining because they have consolidated their court with the the town of Ossining…

Trustee Nicholson. Sorry. With all all due respect, I I completely understand what you're saying. I mean, the the this study will give is doing the due diligence, right, that we are going to look at the court and really understand up and down from a neutral body how it should be functioning, what ar…

Village Justice Sam Watkins, elected nearly 20 years ago, reminded Pugh and Trustee Leo Simon that they were both on the board four years ago when 73 of 74 speakers opposed a similar court consolidation plan. "Fifty-two letters were against. One was in favor," Watkins said. "Do you remember that?"

In a 5-0 vote, the Board of Trustees rejected Resolution #57-2026, which would have hired CGR of Rochester for a $19,750 study of the court's operations — a step many residents feared was a prelude to consolidating the court with the Town of Cortlandt. Fourteen residents spoke against the proposal, …

No. Thank you. You know, I I think if you look at this study, I think if if we if I applaud efficiency. I I know that manager, you've done a great job, right, helping us on cost savings, driving efficiencies. But when I read this study this study, the first sentence on page one is a request for a pr…

Yeah. You know, mayor, the the word table, I think, is you know, some folks interpret it different ways, but I think it's our intent to to put this aside for for a period. And how and under what circumstances we return to it, I think, is at this point is is very much unknown. I think it's clear, tho…

Yeah. I have some quick comments. First, I wanna thank my colleagues for their very thoughtful statements, and I wanna thank everyone that came out here tonight to speak their minds. You know? And I appreciate that some people were here, four years ago, some folks weren't. And I think it's important…

I just wanna say I I feel like this is a proud moment. Number one, you know, I was completely moved by this whole evening. I we need some tissues here for future meetings because starting with a quilt that was just I was blown away, art with purpose, but the intentionality and the and all the though…

Derek, looks like it's working. Especially given the limitations we have on the volume, can we limit outside noise? Away. Yes. Awesome. Can you see my screen here? Yes. Yes. We can. Yep. Great. So just a little bit of background on CTR. We're based out of Rochester, New York. We've been in the munic…

So I I'm happy to make a comment. I was gonna save mine for my comments at the end, but I very much appreciate everyone coming out tonight. Really good to hear from you all. I know that a lot of comments were made that we talked about this four years ago. I wasn't here four years ago, so I appreciat…

how efficiently the court is running.

Right. Well and and just, you know, similar kind of just mirror image kind of thing on page five. You talk in in the middle of that page about talking with the justices in the communities in which another community's court has been absorbed to see how it's going. Is it without impacting, you know, y…

cost of the court remained what they are, but revenues, you know, fell off a cliff because of COVID. So clearly, ROI on a court is gonna look terrible during COVID versus an improved ROI and efficiency score

Both. And if I can just ask a clarifying point. So if this becomes I guess the question is, is the board of trustees able to approve or vote on the dissolution of the court to Cortland without a ref permissive referendum? I'm not saying that that's what we're gonna do, but is that something that we'…