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Friday, September 09, 2005
Ind. Courts - Clark County Council restores judges' money
The Louisville Courier Journal reports today:
The Clark County Council, which voted 6-0 Wednesday to withhold a $5,000 annual supplement that it has been paying to four local judges and a magistrate, reversed itself yesterday.The council, which was in its third day of budget hearings, rescinded its earlier decision after Clark Superior Court Judge Steve Fleece asked it to reconsider. * * *
[Council President Barbara] Hollis said called Fleece "convincing" and added that he told those at yesterday morning's hearing that Indiana judges' pay ranks 47th nationally.
Hollis also said, however, that "I personally felt the net cost to the county would be less if we let them have that money" than if council members canceled the payments.
She said, for example, that if the supplements had been cut, some of the judges "might not be as diligent" about diverting inmates in appropriate cases to programs not requiring incarceration. Sending some of them to jail, she said, would cost the county more than the diversion programs do.
The last session of the Indiana legislature increased the pay for trial-court judges by $20,500 a year, from $90,000 to $110,500.
Despite the increase, Fleece said yesterday afternoon that he wanted the council to know that Indiana judges aren't paid as well as those in other states. He said they had waited more than seven years for an increase and that the amount finally approved by the General Assembly was about $10,000 less than recommended by a state advisory commission.
When he heard that the County Council had eliminated the $5,000 supplement, Fleece said, "I felt they were putting the screws to us."
He also said in an interview that he had checked with state officials who told him 73 of 92 Indiana counties supplement judges' pay in amounts ranging from $1,000 to $5,000. He said that Floyd, Scott, Washington and Jefferson counties all pay $5,000, but that Harrison County adds nothing.
In Clark County, the supplements go to Fleece and the other two superior court judges, Jerry Jacobi and Cecile Blau, and to Circuit Judge Daniel Donahue and Magistrate Ken Abbott.
Fleece said his four colleagues had not formally authorized him to speak for them but that all except Jacobi knew about his plan to address the council.
Fleece said that if the $5,000 was eliminated, he and other judges might feel less inclined to assume some duties, such as hearing traffic-ticket cases. That would mean those cases would go to town and city courts, and the fines collected would go to the municipalities instead of the county's general fund.
Posted by Marcia Oddi on September 9, 2005 08:27 AM
Posted to Indiana Courts