Putnam to Investigate Court Consolidation

Putnam lawmakers will be forwarding a letter to the Office of Court Administration next week asking for a waiver and enabling legislation allowing local courts to utilize Putnam's new county courthouse facility in Carmel.

News of the pending correspondence came from the chairman of the county legislature Vincent Tamagna who told the Courier: "Government can no longer be looked at as individual fiefdoms. Thanks to our Committee on Fiscal Vision and Accountability and its good work including the implementation of video arraignment, the county's next step is to seek additional courses of action making government more cost effective."

In an exclusive interview Monday evening, Tamagna said there was "absolutely no reason why court services should not be consolidated or shared. Logjams exist in many of our local village and town courts. Why should the taxpayers of Putnam pay for more capital projects including bricks and mortar and buildings—when we can all work together to share facilities by making the judicial system more affordable?"

Putnam Legislature vice chair Mary Ellen Odell of Carmel who chairs the fiscal vision committee has promised to bring the matter to next Thursday's meeting: "By using town and village personnel when local courts were in session, local municipalities would save on building more facilities in each jurisdiction if the county was able to share its facility when needed."

Putnam's multi-million courthouse that opened last year is state-of-the art consisting of multiple court rooms and conference rooms along with top notch security. The four story building located off Route 52 in the county seat is vacant each day after 6 pm.

Odell said the meeting on July 29 will take place at 10 am in Room 318 at the Putnam County Office Building in Carmel.

When the issue of possibly implementing the county courthouse as a temporary home for the Patterson Justice Court was discussed earlier this year, Patterson Judge John King was not in favor since he felt bringing court records to and from the county building would be unyielding as well as the question of security since King said court clerks collect large sums of money from fines levied during each court calendar.

Tamagna also expressed concern over the court system currently found in the greater Philipstown area: “Within one square mile, western Putnam finds itself with two village courts and one town court—none of which are ADA compliant. By sharing services and instituting a single court to serve the entire community we would be much better off in the long run since services would be provided while being consolidated making the judicial system more sustainable and much more affordable."

Tamagna plans to sit down with administrators and officials from each of the courts in Philipstown along with town and village officials and County Executive Robert Bondi in the weeks to come to discuss the possible merger.