SAVANNAH, Ga. () — Savannah city leaders are considering a plan to withdraw from the county’s recorder’s court and create a city run municipal court.

On Thursday, Savannah city leaders discussing the future of their judicial system: a city owned municipal court. Recorder’s court has elected judges and serves the county while a municipal court, in this case, will include either appointed or elected judges and serve only the city of savannah.

As of now, Chatham County Recorder’s Court serves unincorporated Chatham County and the city of Savannah.

“We are bringing this discussion because of the visioning session, because of issues that we hear from you and constituents about code compliance cases moving too slowly, about  traffic dockets being continued, and other issues of the court where I think there’s layers, levels of improvements that need to be made and discussed”

Savannah Mayor Van Johnson said this has been in discussion for years said the current court no longer serves the growing city. He added a Savannah municipal court would give the city more control over public safety, code and housing enforcement and restorative justice efforts.

There are only three recorder’s courts in the state of Georgia.

“Cities have moved from the antiquated practices of recorder’s court to municipal court,” Johnson said. “And so, for us, this creates opportunities to expand our scope.”

However, discussions were heated. Council members raised concerns about whether Savannah will have the manpower to make this change and if this will benefit residents.

In 2024, recorder’s court dealt with over 22,000 Savannah cases.

“How many of our shooting cases where we’ve had shootings, or a gun discharge has been a domestic violence situation or family violence situation,” Alderman Kurtis Purtee said. “A lot a lot here in Savannah. We take away all opportunity to have that occurred in recorder’s court.  It automatically goes right up state court.”

Purtee added, “We are not fully staffed at the police department.  I am not willing to put public safety at risk because we have to pull officers off the street to transport, to play bailiff at the courthouse and provide security there.”

Alderwoman Alicia Miller Blakely also was against the change.

“From my understanding and from what I’ve seen,  going to that court is operating like it’s supposed to,” she said.

Johnson said withdrawing from the recorder’s court will allow the city to direct funds and personnel elsewhere. What is left is to determine how much this will cost the city.

“The staff number that we have right now in our recorder’s court, a municipal court of Savannah, would not need as many judges because the case volume would go down,” city staff said.

Alderman Nick Palumbo said, “I see it would be an enormous undertaking to develop our own municipal court. And I just want to make sure that we exhaust every opportunity before we have to go to those measures.”

Purtee said, “We’re seeing across the state of Georgia is a combination of services, a merging of services, not demerging. We made that mistake years ago when we do merge the police departments.  Big mistake.  Hopefully, we can find some more areas to merge in the future.”