12/20/2006: "A Local Judge For SJC?"

After hearing the pros & cons of San Juan County having it's own elected Superior Court Judge, or simply adding a third judge to the pool currently shared by SJC and Island County, the County Council hesitantly agreed to move forward on the idea of requesting the State Legislator to approve "splitting" San Juan County off from it's current judicial partnership with Island County. If approved, this would result in SJC having it's own elected judge, and accompanying court administration.

The sudden interest in the matter resulted from a realization that with the election of Judge Churchill to the presidency of the Superior Court Judges Association, this may be the moment in time -perhaps the only moment- to make the move toward SJC having it's own judicial district and it's very own locally elected Judge. Superior Court Judge Churchill is an advocate of the idea, and according to the second hand discussions between the Council members and local attorneys, there are indications the request may be looked upon favorably at the State level, where a decision to grant or reject the request would be made.

Newly elected Councilman Gene Knapp, a former SJC Prosecuting Attorney, told the Council that from his perspective there are more reasons to take advantage of this moment in time than not; and not the least of which is the County "may never get another chance" to do this.

Knapp pointed out that since judges are elected, SJC is at the mercy of voters who do not live in our County. Knapp said SJC currently has 16,000 voters, while Island County has 70,000, so while we share the same judges, the voters of SJC do not determine who they will be; in effect Island County does. While Knapp and other supporters would like SJC to be independent, all are in agreement that the County has been very fortunate in having had excellent Judges, but there is no guarantee that will always be the case. As an example, Knapp said that in the last election there were "strong property rights candidates for State Supreme Court" and it is possible that Island County could generate such a candidate, and in Knapp's opinion that would be "very damaging for a lot of what we do".

As is normal in these matters, there was much discussion about money. The question was would staying with the current program, and adding a third judge, save money, or would it be more cost effective to have our own judge? An observer could not help but think that no one knows, as there were plausible arguments and cost projections on both sides of the argument, but perhaps the more cogent comment came from County Administrator Pete Rose, who once again displayed his dry humor by observing that the potential cost savings of having a third judge would seem to "go against the "Murphy Law' of government". When asked directly for his opinion, Rose said he was in support of "local control".

Not everyone in the local legal community thought leaving the current system was a good idea. According to Prosecutor Randy Gaylord, a poll was conducted by the local Law and Justice Committee, and the attorneys were split one third against, and two thirds for the County being a separate judicial district. Gene Knapp had listed one of the main "cons" against, which was a concern that if a judge is asked to step down from a case, the judge must do so, and a locally elected judge may receive more demands to step down than a judge that does not reside in the county.

This concern was also given voice by local attorney Bill Weissinger, who pointed out that any potential cost savings would soon vanish if the court had to fly in a new judge to preside over a case; -which is how the current two judges arrive to hear cases. Weissinger said that he felt such requests for a judge to step down from hearing a case would be the result of perceived potential conflicts of interest, as opposed to actual ones, but the result would be the same. Attorneys John Linde and Carla Higginson both appeared before the Council to speak in support of SJC being a separate district.

The Council voted to move forward in formally requesting a independent judicial district for San Juan County be created. It will now be up to the legislature to decide. If they decide against, then SJC will likely end up with a third judge that does not live in the county.