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Saturday, February 10, 2007

Ind. Courts: More on "Montgomery County judges issue mandate for staff raises" [Updated]

The Paper of Montgomery County's web site has a new report by Barry Lewis on the status of its judicial mandate case:

The judges salary mandate case between the three judges and the Montgomery County Council is within two weeks of going to the Indiana Supreme Court for some type of action.

The judges' attorneys, Kreig DeVault, filed their brief to the Supreme Court this week and now the Council's attorneys, Kincaid, Taylor, Sims, Chadd & Minnette, will have 15 days to submit a rebuttal. Following that, the case rests in the hands of the state's highest court. The Supreme Court then will decide what will happen next. The next step could be court-ordered mediation, a judgment or a hearing.

The case was originally heard in Montgomery County Circuit Court with Special Judge Julian L. Ridlen presiding. After the two day trial in July, Ridlen came back and found in favor of the judges on Sept.21, 2006. Ridlen ordered the county to increase salaries for court employees and to pay for the judges' legal fees. The mandate was originally issued Aug. 22, 2005.

On Oct. 25, 2006, Ridlen's findings were certified and sent to the Indiana Supreme Court.

Attorney Dan Taylor filed the County Council's brief with the Supreme Court on Jan. 4, 2007.

The mandate ordered increases for all nine court employees. The mandate is seeking pay increases of $31,200 for court reporters (up from $23,638), $31,200 for administrative assistants (up from $21,068) and $27,200 for secretaries and bailiffs (up from $19,142).

Should Ridlen's ruling stand, the county would be looking at a little more than $170,000 in back pay since the judges argued the mandate was retroactive to the date it was filed (Aug. 16, 2005) and would also face having to pay combined legal fees which are well above $100,000.

See this Jan. 6 ILB entry for more information. See also this ILB report from yesterday on legislation on mandates pending before the Indiana Senate.

[Updated 6:00 p.m.] The Paper has another story today, again by Barry Lewis:

Two adversaries in the local judges mandate case were on opposite sides once again, but this time it was at the Indiana Statehouse.

A bill authored by freshman Sen. Phil Boots (R-Crawfordsville) was heard in the Judiciary Committee Wednesday. The bill stemmed from the judges' mandate cases. The bill states that if a county challenges a judges' mandate on funds, then the judges would be represented by the State Attorney General. Although the Attorney General would have fees, they would be a lot less than private practice attorneys.

"Judges are state employees and it only makes sense that that be represented by the State Attorney General," Boots said. "There would still be fees involved, but not the outrageous rates that some of the private attorneys are charging."

Boots originally authored a bill calling for the elimination of mandates altogether, but that bill will not be heard this year in committee. This amended bill is an amount to get something on the books to help counties when battling the judges in these type of cases.

Judge Thomas Milligan was in attendance and testified in front of the committee.

"The people from the Judicial Center in Indianapolis suggested that I attend and be in attendance for questions and I actually testified to the bill," he said. "Basically, I talked about how we didn't think it was right to limit our freedom and not be allowed to hire private attorneys. I also talked about the separation of powers between the legislative and judicial bodies."

The committee passed the bill by a 5-2 vote and it will now head to the Senate Floor for a second recording. It would need to pass a third reading before heading to the House of Representatives.

"It didn't really surprise me that it passed," Milligan said. "After both sides gave their testimony the committee members discussed it and the general tone seemed to be they weren't sure if this was the right answer, but they were willing to keep it alive to see what could be worked out."

As reported in the Crawfordsville Journal-Review:
On August 16, 2005, Montgomery County Judges Thomas Milligan of Circuit Court, Judge David Ault of Superior Court, and Judge Peggy Lohorn of Superior Court II, issued a mandate order requiring the Montgomery County Council to increase the salaries for the Montgomery County Court personnel. The judges issued an amended order for mandate of funds on August 22, 2005.

Posted by Marcia Oddi on February 10, 2007 12:42 PM
Posted to Indiana Courts