To the Editor:

I believe there are some statements in the article “Court Switch To Save $150K in Potsdam” (November 18 - 24) that need to clarified.

While it’s true the board passed the resolution four years ago, the board re-affirmed that commitment last spring (2015) and by approving the budget for 2015 - 2015, the board left out any funding for the court past the Dec. 7 period. This was known by the village judge and court clerk. The public did not oppose this action, there were no public comments at any of those meetings.

According to New York State, a court cannot be dissolved while there is a sitting elected official (judge). The decision was made not to place the position on the ballot for the November election thereby vacating the position once the sitting judge term expires on Dec. 7.

The Village Board of Trustees is powerless to make any changes or direct the activities of the court. This is well established that the court justices retain these powers with the exception of budget and placing the positions for the ballot. The justice also has all administrative authority over the clerks, so again the village board does not administer the court clerk activities.

So the statement that the village has had time to do anything about this is misrepresenting the reality. Simply stated, the village board is essentially powerless to do much of anything until Dec. 7.

What the village has been doing, Mayor Yurgartis arranged an initial meeting with representatives from the town, village and state to discuss the mechanics of the dissolution and primarily focused on the transfer of records process, closing out of the financial accounts, and retention of the closed files. Ms. Warner was at that meeting and chose to leave in the middle.

Since the first meeting, the village clerk and myself have met with the town court clerk, have received assistance from the Village of Canton clerk, Town of Canton Court clerk on the closed records retention. Those will be our responsibilities after Dec. 7.

The responsibility for the transfer and closeout of the open records (cases) is the responsibility of the current village judge and court clerk.

The process is relatively simple although there is a lot of work for the town clerk and justices once they are in possession of the open cases. Closed records stay with the village, open records go to the town to be assigned to the town judges. Money that is held in the Village Court accounts will also have to be reconciled and final activity reports will have to be filed with the state. The village judge is responsible for filing a monthly report so therefore a report will have to be filed for the period of Dec. 1 through 7. The amount of activity the judge decides to entertain in this seven-day period will determine the activity reported. The village court will still accept payments of fines and this will also have to be reported. It has been mentioned the Village Court could "shut down" and delay these activities until the Town Court takes over. Any action of this nature is up to the village judge.

The success of the transfer of records relies on the preparation and status of the Village Court staff itself. It was discussed the more cases that could be closed prior to Dec. 7 would obviously lower the number of records transferred. The status of the open cases, notations and status updating in the state system or delay of hearing notices would further enhance the transfer. Currently the Village Court has not made it known how many open cases there are or whether there is a significant number which are waiting for payment or whatever. Physically, how the records are arranged and boxed would help the Town Court to sort and be able to integrate these files into their system. These are actions the village board or myself have no control over because we do not supervise the court staff.

Once the court is dissolved, the village clerk is responsible for all closed files which will remain at the village in a secure area. All open records (cases) will be transferred to the Town Court on Dec. 7 as mandated by New York State, not the day before or the day after, but on Dec. 7. The town and village have no control over the timing of this transfer. A physical transfer of paper records will occur on Dec. 7. The state will electronically transfer the records status reporting from the village to the town at the same time.

Everyone (town and village) acknowledges there is going to be a period of confusion for the individuals having to appear in court, trying to pay fines, going to the wrong location, mail still coming to the village vs. town. Everyone is expecting this and we will work through it. So the impression that there hasn't been any planning or effort going into this is simply incorrect.

Everett Basford, Village Administrator

Village of Potsdam