Clinton Twp. could net $160K this year from its new court
Hunterdon Review

By CLAIRE KNAPP, Contributing Writer
September 4, 2008

CLINTON TWP. – There was a lot of controversy last year when local officials decided to leave the North Hunterdon Municipal Court (NHMC) system and strike out on their own, but the facts and figures of the first seven months of operating their own court system indicate it may have been a wise decision.

Instead of absorbing a loss of $50,000 last year while a member of NHMC, Clinton Township is likely to realize $160,000 in revenue this year after deducting fees that have to be paid to the state and county.

“Some cases had remained at NHMC through May, so we weren’t up to handling 100 percent of our own cases until June,” said Township Administrator Marvin Joss on Aug. 29. “In June, we netted $30,300, and in July $29,000.”

‘Right Decision’

Mayor Nick Corcodilos is very happy with the numbers from the new municipal court. “We absolutely made the right decision, not only for our court but also for the taxpayers,” said Corcodilos last Friday. “Our analysis at the time showed that staffing (at NHMC) was way over the top.”

This year’s budget for operating the Clinton Township Municipal Court is $207,000, or $17,250 per month. That means a monthly profit in excess of $10,000, or $100,000 per year, that can be used by the Township to control property taxes.

“All that shows us that we were accurate in our estimates when the decision was made to establish our own court,” said Joss. “That’s money in the Clinton Township budget we don’t have to raise in taxes.”

In 2007, Clinton Township had paid a fee of $320,000 to the NHMC to cover their assigned share of court operations and the prosecutor’s annual salary of $110,000.

“I had investigated operations of other courts, and we felt NHMC had too much staff and the salaries being paid were too high,” said Joss. “Our prosecutor is being paid $25,000 this year.”

Joss said the NHMC had been resistant to change when Clinton Township challenged costs and how much of that cost was being paid by the township.

“They insisted they could not operate with less staff,” said Joss.

Joss said Clinton Township’s court, at 100 percent operation, processed 905 tickets in May, 823 in June, and 814 in July.

“I think North has been doing about 950 to 1,000 tickets each month since we left,” said Joss. “We are handling almost as much work with two full-time and one part-time employee working 12 hours each week, while they have a staff of seven.”

“The North court had said Clinton Township accounted for 36 percent of their volume in 2006, but after we left they reduced their budget by only 15 percent,” said Joss.

“The revenue side of the formula the North court used for charging Clinton Township its’ share of costs was uncomfortable, too,” said Joss. “We only got a percentage of the fines back after the state and county share was deducted. It was hard to verify if it was adequate. We felt Clinton Township was subsidizing other towns, and that is not fair to our taxpayers. Our job is to do things efficiently as possible. We took a beating for leaving North, but the numbers show it was the right thing to do for our taxpayers.”

The good news is only partially known at this time. Joss said the Clinton Township Municipal Court was set up to handle not only the township’s court needs, but that of up to three other towns depending on size.

More Revenue

Additional revenue of about $2,000 per month rent will be coming from the Union Township Municipal Court, which is in the process of moving its operations to the Clinton Township Public Safety Building on Route 31. Renovations of third floor office space are nearly complete.

The lease agreement between the two townships will be presented to for approval at the Sept. 10 council meeting in Clinton Township. Under the agreement, Union Township will pay a monthly rental fee for office space and use of the courtroom. The agreement also provides that they could join the Clinton Township Municipal Court in the future when their judge retires or should their court administrator decide to leave.

“They’ll have their own office space and staff,” said Joss. “They will only be using half the space available, so other towns could consider a similar arrangement. All along we’ve structured our court to bring in additional towns. We would never get as big as North, but we could take up to three other towns besides our own.”

Previously serving 10 area towns, the North Hunterdon Municipal Court now serves eight towns since Clinton Township left and Califon Borough decided to become part of the Washington Township (Morris County) Municipal Court as part of their agreement to contract for police services.

NHMC administrator Robin Manfredi could not say on August 29 how many traffic tickets the court was processing this year, but last year when Clinton Township was still a member, about 14,000 tickets had been processed, she said.

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