Agenda Packets - 2003/08/25 (2) - Laserfiche WebLink

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Item No: 08H Meeting Date: August 25, 2003 Type of Business: CA City of Mounds View Staff Report To: Honorable Mayor and City Council From: Kurt Ulrich, City Administrator Item Title/Subject: Resolution Opposing Closure of Suburban Court House Recently, Ramsey County Chief Judge Mott has announced that the District Court was considering closing the Maplewood Suburban Court in response to proposed state funding decreases. In spite of the fact that this action will have a significant impact on surrounding cities, very little was done to include us in the planning process. Importantly, closing the north suburban court will have the following impacts: • There will be much longer court calendars and overcrowding at the downtown courthouse, which does not have the space to absorb additional defendants and the court staff needed for the increased workload, • Police officers will be off the streets for longer periods of time to travel longer distances and to wait longer periods of time for overcrowded court schedules, • Suburban police departments will incur increased costs to pay for longer waiting times, parking costs, and additional officers to cover the longer absences, • Suburban citizens will suffer major inconvenience from traveling longer distances and waiting longer periods of time to be heard, • Cooperation of civilian witnesses and crime victims with the prosecution will be lost, particularly in domestic abuse cases, due to the remote location and increased waiting time, and • Prosecution costs will potentially increase if each city’s cases are spread between more courtrooms. The attached resolution is being distributed to local cities for passage. The resolution recognizes the need to cut costs, but clearly, objects to the fact that this appears to be a case of the County shifting operational costs to the Cities and asks that there be cooperation in looking at alternatives. It is recommended that the Council adopt the attached resolution and forward to Ramsey County, the Ramsey County District Court and Judge Mott. Respectfully submitted, ________________________ Kurt Ulrich Reviewed by City Administrator: ________