Northport Village Justice Court expected to reopen April 8, new deputy clerk hired

The Northport Village board approved on March 20 the hiring of a new deputy clerk for the justice court, which has been closed since February 5 after both clerks resigned. The court is now expected to reopen on April 8, according to Mayor Donna Koch. 

Daslin Castillo was hired after the review of over 60 applicants at a full-time salary of $55,000, plus benefits and stipends for court nights. “We’re happy to say that it’s great, she’s bilingual, which is a huge plus for what we’re looking for,” Koch said earlier this week. Castillo’s hiring was also approved by Village Justice Brian Trodden, who has been advocating for clerk salary increases since January, he told the Journal. 

The blame for the court closure has been placed primarily on Mayor Koch, especially leading up to this past Tuesday’s Village election. Koch has said publicly, however, that she was in favor of increasing the deputy clerk’s salary, but three board members were against it. 

“We were hiring new employees at $50,000 and Dawn [Belmonte] was making less – I wanted to bring her up to that,” Koch said of the circumstances surrounding the double resignation. Senior court clerk Tanya Karpf was making $53,000, Koch explained, and she also asked for a raise. “I wanted her to wait until the entire Village got the 2.75% raise, which was March 1. She chose not to, and she left for a better paying job.”

“When you have one employee who wants to be paid more, then there's a line at the door of everyone else,” Koch said at the board of trustees meeting. “Northport Village historically has been on the shorter scale for our salary. It is something that Deputy Mayor Dolan and I have talked about, and it’s something that’s really going to have to be looked at in the next budget cycle.”

During the public participation portion of Wednesday night’s board of trustees meeting, two residents asked about the costs associated with the court closure. Trustee Ernest Pucillo wrote on his re-election campaign Facebook page that the closure cost the Village $40,000 per month, but Koch told the Journal that court fines are roughly $12,500 per month, on average. “The court is closed, but tickets are still being written, money is still coming in, although it needs to be processed,” Koch said. Many tickets were scheduled for processing at a later date, awaiting the court’s reopening.

Recent correspondence from Village Chief of Police Chris Hughes indicates that the police department has incurred no additional costs from transporting arrests to Central Islip, Koch added.