Atlantic County Receives $ 150,000 Grant to Consolidate Court Sys

That’s one small step for man. One small leap for consolidation.

Atlantic County Executive Dennis Levinson has been actively pursuing the concept of shared and consolidated services for at least two decades.

“Atlantic County has been awarded a $150,000 Local Efficiency Achievement Program (LEAP) Challenge Grant from the state Department of Community Affairs to support a countywide municipal court system,” said Levinson.

Levinson has proposed the consolidation of all Atlantic County courts, “seeing a shared services opportunity to promote greater efficiency and cost savings for taxpayers,” said Levinson.

Levinson shared the “variety of costs associated with municipal courts. In addition to salary and wage, judiciary, legal, administrative and security, there are costs for facility maintenance, utilities, capital, health benefits and pension, office supplies, travel and more,” said Levinson.

Presently, each and every separate Atlantic County based court has to, “pay for these same Each court is responsible for these same expenses that could be shared in a countywide system, concluded Levinson.

Levinson recently hired former long-time Ventnor Mayor Tim Kreischer to serve as Atlantic County Shared Services Coordinator.

According to Levinson, “the consolidated court system could provide some towns as much as 30-40% in savings, which he believes would be of great interest to taxpayers,” concluded Levinson.

NOTE: The LEAP Challenge grant supports projects that demonstrate collaboration and innovation with the potential to produce expansive and efficiency-generating shared services.

SOURCE: Atlantic County Executive Dennis Levinson