The announcement comes about a month after Scott declared he had a plan to address public safety concerns in Burlington.
Gov. Phil Scott announced Friday afternoon that he's creating a new court in Chittenden County that will address the county's backlog in legal cases by trying repeat offenders.
The new court, called The Community Accountability Court, is part of Scott's "response to increased concerns about quality of life crimes and disorder in Burlington," according to a press release from his office.
The initiative comes about a month after Scott declared he had a plan to address public safety concerns, many related to drug use, in the Queen City. Burlington Mayor Emma Mulvaney-Stanak previously claimed that Scott wasn't doing enough to help the city combat persistent social and economic challenges.
The new court will target additional resources for three to four months toward trying repeat offenders who have many pending legal cases against them, the press release said. It's part of a multi-step plan Scott plans to roll out in the coming days.
"These additional resources for the Chittenden County Superior Court will help alleviate the backlog, ensure people receive a trial, and provide the kind of immediate follow up that is necessary for (Burlington Police Department)'s enforcement activities to be most effective," Mulvaney-Stanak said in the governor's release.
She and Scott are discussing immediate solutions, like the new court, as well as long-term strategies, Mulvaney-Stanak said in the release.
Chittenden County Criminal Court, from July through September of this year, has seen a large uptick in criminal cases, Defender General Matt Valerio told a legislative committee Thursday. Public defenders in the county are handling a 37% increase in criminal cases compared to the same quarter of last year, he said.
That's a big issue because 39% of total legal cases in the state come from Chittenden County, Valerio said. So when that county's courts are backed up, it has a really outsized impact on the state, he said.
In Vermont criminal court, public defenders represent over 90% of people accused, Valerio said in an interview. That makes their caseload pretty representative of how many cases the courts are handling more broadly.
A dedicated judge will be appointed by the judiciary to oversee the new court, and Scott will select a prosecutor to handle the cases litigated within it, the release said.