Northfield approves sharing municipal court
Nov, 23-2009 3:26 pm
By SUZANNE MARINO
Staff Writer
NORTHFIELD – Following the lead of its neighbor, Northfield City Council unanimously passed a resolution Tuesday, Nov. 17 to consolidate its municipal court with Linwood.
Linwood City Council passed an identical measure Nov. 9. The towns will share the services of the municipal court judge, the public defender and the prosecutor, and they will alternate from year to year which municipality appoints the judge and which appoints the defender and prosecutor.
Linwood will make the first judge appointment, in 2010, while Northfield will pick the public defender and the prosecutor. Currently Judge Henry Broome is the municipal court judge in both cities.
The action was recommended by a shared court committee comprised of City Council President Cindy Kern, Councilman Brian Smith and Mayor Vince Mazzeo. Linwood’s committee was comprised of City Council President Donna Taylor, Councilman Alex Marino and City Solicitor Joe Youngblood.
The cities will share the services of court clerk Donna Clark. They will split her salary 50-50 and re-evaluate the ratio at the end of the year. She is currently the court clerk in Northfield.
“Donna has been kept in the loop every step of the way,” said Kern, “and the committee is very respectful of what Donna does in the course of her duties as the court clerk. I think she will continue to do a great job for Linwood and Northfield.”
Sharing the municipal court is a great example of what can be done if the towns are willing to work together, she said, and keeping city services at the level residents are accustomed to and maintaining a tight budget means that Northfield will have to continue to look for ways to save.
Kern said she has been contacted by other municipalities that are looking into sharing services.
Linwood City Councilman Alex Marino said after the Northfield meeting that he was pleased the neighbor communities found a common ground to begin sharing services and suggested that they look for other opportunities to share costs.
