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Tuesday, August 05, 2008
Ind. Courts - "Stop making judges run for office, Lake County commissioners argue"
John Byrne of the Gary Post-Tribune reports today:
No judges in Lake County should run for election in political campaigns, the Lake County commissioners argue in a memo released Monday.The commissioners contend county government could be run more efficiently, and inexpensively, if the four County Division judges -- Jesse Villalpando, Julie Cantrell, Sheila Moss and Nicholas Schiralli -- were part of a "merit system," like the county's other 12 Superior Court judges.
In the merit system, appointments are made by the governor from nominees screened by the Lake County Judicial Nominating Commission. Once appointed, judges run for retention or rejection on a countywide, nonpartisan basis every six years.
The County Division judges have been criticized by the County Council and Board of Commissioners in recent years because the judges have 27 part-time public defenders -- seen by council members and commissioners as an inordinate expense during tough budgetary times.
Replacing the 27 part-time defenders with five full-timers and one part-timer would save the county $696,000 a year, the county's finance committee reported recently.
Commissioner Roosevelt Allen said the judges rely on the attorneys to raise money for their re-elections and, thus, have no compelling reason to get by with fewer public defenders.
"We feel (merit selection) might make the court system more efficient and accountable," Allen said.
Lake County switched most of its judicial seats to a merit system in the mid-1970s, when state legislator Adam Benjamin of Gary argued judges should be removed from Lake County politics.
Other than St. Joseph County, the rest of the counties in the state have continued to elect their county judges.
The exception in Lake County has been the County Division, where judges have always been elected on a partisan basis.
Superior Court Chief Judge John Pera, himself appointed via the merit system, believes the time has come to unify the selection process.
"Having judges run for election and raise the amount of money required to run effectively has some serious drawbacks," Pera said, pointing out that lawyers who argue before the County Division judges often contribute money to their election campaigns.
"That's not to say the elected judges don't apply the law impartially, but it just looks bad," Pera added.
Posted by Marcia Oddi on August 5, 2008 09:36 AM
Posted to Indiana Courts