The Village of Ossining Abolishes Village Justice Court

The Village of Ossining Board of Trustee’s passed the resolution to abolish the village Justice court and the position of the Village Justice at Tuesday’s Board of Trustee’s meeting in order to prepare for the court consolidation with the Town of Ossining.

“The resolution tonight is to abolish the court,” said Village Trustee Marlene Cheatham. “It is a tax saving for the court. It’s going to be a 2-4 year process. Today is not the end. This is not easy. We know change is difficult and we are willing to work through the process… we will involve the people who need to be involved. This is not the end.”

The Village and Town of Ossining have been working for three years to consolidate the courts as a way to save money and make the justice system more efficient.

“The town taxes will go up since there is a third judge,” said Ossining Mayor William Hanauer, echoing the statements made at last week’s joint town and village meeting. “But the Village taxes will go down since we are not supporting the extra court.”

The village has the ability to bring back their own courts should the consolidated court system prove to be a failure.

“It is in the state law if it doesn’t work we can restart our courts,” said Hanauer.

The vote had to occur Tuesday night under the timeline set forth from the New York State Legislature or the opportunity to consolidate the courts would have to wait another four years unless the local government chooses to buy out the reminder of the Justices terms.

“In terms of postponing the decision [to abolish the court and consolidate] the enabling legislature requires us to vote tonight,” said Mayor Hanauer. “If we don’t vote today then we have to wait four-years.”

Not everyone in attendance at last night’s meeting was convinced that consolidating the courts was a good decision at this time; in fact some felt the board should be wary of entering into an agreement with the town until all the details could be worked out. The Town of Ossining still has to okay the consolidation plan.

“I’m a little bit confused,” said one village resident. “As a taxpayer I want to make sure we are getting into an agreement where we are getting a fair shake… Once you sign to abolish the court there is no turning back… I think it would be a poor decision to enter into an agreement with the town.”

“This has been three years of discussion, investigating, negotiating and very careful thought pattern by the board,” said Hanauer. “We have been making some difficult decisions, but not all decisions have been made… There are still items left to negotiate with the town. One of them at the top is prisoner transport.”

The issue of prisoner transport is one of the hot button issues surrounding the court consolidation that has angered the Police Benevolent Association. Tomorrow Patch will deliver an update on that issue.