LAKE PLACID – With this village’s June 28 special vote approaching on whether or not to get rid of its court, the group that originally recommended the consolidation is re-emphasizing its importance.

The referendum was prompted by a petition of 388 village residents who who wanted a say in the village board’s decision to dissolve the court.

The Lake Placid-North Elba Community Development Commis-sion’s Efficiency Study Group cites a financial savings of $45,000 a year for village taxpayers and a less complex court schedule as primary reasons why they advocate for the consolidation.

The group’s response touts a financial benefit will occur because, with the court’s dissolution, any cost associated with operating the village court will be eliminated. The group adds that the village will continue to receive revenues from cases heard in the consolidated town court because fines are distributed to municipalities based upon the offense involved, and double taxation of village taxpayers would cease.

“A conservative estimate of the savings benefit for the village taxpayers is $45,000 per year,” the group wrote in its five-part outline it issued this week. “State law prohibits a court from being dissolved until the end of a judge’s term in office. This makes consolidation a multi-year, multi-step process.

“If the restructure does not take place at this time, the $45,000 per year becomes a four-year taxpayer commitment to $180,000.”

The vote will be held between noon and 9 p.m. at the North Elba Town Hall on June 28, with a simple choice between yes or no.

The man who circulated the required petition to put the court consolidation up for the referendum vote is the village court’s lone remaining justice, William Hulshoff. He said he estimated the dissolution would save the village $30,000 to $35,000 a year. Estimating a cost of $40,000 to taxpayers, he said that would only save taxpayers $12 to $15 per year for a home assessed at $200,000. Hulshoff is also a justice for the town of North Elba.

The CDC estimated originally that the village would save $110,000 a year by dissolving the two-judge court.

The Efficiency Study Group said the taxation model would be the same as the village fire department and code enforcement office – one based upon the assessed value of their property and not affected by whether people live in the village or town.

The Efficiency Study Group is led by CDC Chairman and North Elba Justice Dean Dietrich and also includes Lake Placid Deputy Mayor Art Devlin, North Elba Trustee Jay Rand, former Lake Placid Mayor Jamie Rogers, former village Trustee Pat Gallagher and Michael Clarke, the former chairman of the Lake Placid-North Elba Planning Commission.

On April 4, the Lake Placid village board voted unanimously to abolish its remaining justice position, completing a dissolution process of the village court system that began early last year. The North Elba town court, which meets in the same room as the village court, would take village cases.

The June 28 vote came to be after Hulshoff attained the requisite number of signatures of village residents to put the decision to a referendum vote.

“Virtually everyone that I talked to felt that closing the court should be a voters’ choice,” Hulshoff said last month, “not a board choice.”

The board’s initial decision to complete the dissolution of the court was set to take effect on the first Monday of April 2017. Hulshoff’s term is scheduled to end that same month.

To put the vote to a special election, Hulshoff compiled the requisite number of signatures (at least 323) – more than 20 percent of voters (1,614) from the prior general election. Hulshoff compiled the 388 signatures and submitted the petition to the village board on May 4 – within the scheduled 30-day period to file such a petition.

The CDC created its Efficiency Study Group in September 2014. After some study, the group approached the village board and recommended it take advantage of the then-pending retirements of former village Justices Margaret Doran and James Rogers III, who each retired within the past two years. The village board voted to abolish its other justice position, held by Doran, last January.

The Efficiency Study Group mentioned this “fairly unique opportunity” of 50 percent of judges retiring within one year, as a logical reason for the consolidation, saying no one would lose his or her job. They also pointed to a 2008 study by the Center for Government Research that “specifically targeted the judiciary as an area where (savings) could occur.” Simplifying the court system was also highlighted

“The complex scheduling (of the village and town courts) creates a situation where people often appear at the incorrect court session or have to make multiple appearances,” the group wrote.

Hulshoff disagrees. He said “service has got to be affected somewhere” and added that Lake Placid is “not your typical Adirondack village,” with workload for justices demanding enough for two village justice positions.

“Personally, I find now, doing town court is very busy,” he said. “I can’t imagine loading the village court load into that.”

The neighboring village of Saranac Lake dissolved its court in 2014, and three towns inside its borders are taking these cases: Harrietstown, St. Armand and North Elba.

The structure of two town justices, two village justices, one town court clerk and one village court clerk had been in place since 1974. The justices, who generally are not lawyers, hear cases involving violations of local laws such as parking and zoning, traffic laws, misdemeanors, small claims and evictions.