Glendale lays groundwork for consolidated court

The Glendale Common Council approved a shared services agreement tonight which, if approved by Brown Deer at an upcoming meeting, will create a shared North Shore Municipal Court between the two.

One judge would take over the work of the two existing municipal judges, said Glendale City and Brown Deer Village Attorney John Fuchs, and would be on the ticket for election in April.

Cost savings would be minimal up front, said Fuchs, since the shared judge would be paid roughly what the two judges make now, with each municipality contributing the approximate cost of their individual judges.

"If you use the relative size of the communities you'd come up with the same number," said Fuchs.

However, savings could accumulate as the consolidated court finds potential efficiencies over time. More significantly, officials hope that other North Shore municipalities will be drawn to the consolidated court in coming years and thereby create additional savings.

"Eventually, as the computer systems are combined, as clerk positions are combined, and more communities are added, that's when the substantial costs (will be saved)," said City Administrator Richard Maslowski. "If this is successful, in the long term is where the savings will be."

The Brown Deer Village Board is expected to vote on the shared services agreement at its Oct. 15 meeting.