You Be the Judge

No candidates on ballot for Cold Spring justice
The judge's seat at the Cold Spring Justice Court is up for grabs in the Nov. 4 election - but the ballot will not list any candidates.
The unusual circumstance arose after Justice Thomas Costello, who has served for 24 years, decided not to seek reelection to a seventh, 4-year term. However, he did so only after an April deadline for candidates to file paperwork with the Putnam County Board of Elections to appear on the ballot. That meant no one else could file and, as a result, the new justice will be elected by write-in votes. (Costello's wife, Cathy, who has been the court clerk for 15 years, announced recently she will retire on Dec. 1.)

Under state law, only village residents are eligible to serve, unless the Village Board adopts a local law that expands the residency requirements.
The Cold Spring Justice Court has two judges. The second, the associate judge, is appointed by the Village Board. Until June, it was Camille Linson, but she moved out of the area and was replaced by Luke Hilpert, who has said he is considering a write-in campaign to succeed Costello.
Philipstown also has two justices; both are elected. One was Linson, who had been elected in November to her third, 4-year term. When she resigned, the Town Board appointed Hilpert to succeed her until the election. Hilpert said he plans to run as a write-in candidate to keep the seat against Fred Clarke, a Cold Spring resident whose name will appear on the Nov. 4 ballot after he was nominated by the Philipstown Democratic Committee. (The other Philipstown justice is Angela Thompson-Tinsley, a Democrat elected in 2023.)

Unlike judges at the state, county and city level in New York, town and village justices are not required to be lawyers, although they must undergo training. There are nearly 1,200 town and village courts in New York, which handle nearly 1 million cases annually, including vehicle and traffic violations, small claims, evictions and minor criminal offenses.