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Thursday, April 03, 2008

Ind. Courts - More "Governor appoints Bluffton City Judge"

Updating this ILB entry from Feb. 28, quoting from the Governor's press release appointing Bob Bate, and this one from Jan. 19, quoting a Fort Wayne Journal Gazette story that reported in part:

Markley took office Jan. 1 and quit 14 days later. The part-time job pays less than $9,500 and involves handling traffic tickets, ordinance violations and other small civil matters.

On Jan. 15, Markley submitted his resignation to Bluffton Mayor Ted Ellis, blaming poor record keeping by his predecessor, Markley’s own “limited technology skills” and a “lack of knowledge of the requirements of the court system,” according to his resignation letter.

Yesterday the Bluffton News-Banner reported, in a story by Glen Werling:
April 15 is the target date to reopen city court, according to newly-appointed Judge, Bob Bate.

Bate was appointed to the position by Gov. Mitch Daniels Feb. 28 following the resignation of Gary Markley, who defeated long-time incumbent Lyle Cotton in last November’s election.

Even though the court has been essentially “closed” since Cotton’s last day on the job in December—Markley never held court before resigning—Bate said that payments for tickets are still being accepted at the Bluffton Police Department.

“We’re still taking care of people, we’re just not holding any court right now,” said Bate. However, if anyone wishes to pay a ticket, they may bring it to the Bluffton Police Department during business hours of 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. and pay the receptionist either cash or money order for the fine and fees.

“We will not accept personal checks,” iterated Bate. * * *

The delay in getting started with court has partly to do with the changes that Bate plans to implement to make the court more user friendly.

“We’re going to hire a full time person who will split time between the police department and the city court so that people can come in and pay tickets anytime. They won’t have to come in on just Tuesdays or Thursdays,” said Bate.

The delay has also been caused by a need to do some house cleaning, admitted Bate.

“We’re going through and rearranging some things and we’ve applied with the state to get some of the older records destroyed,” said Bate, adding, “Some of those records go way, way back. We’re just trying to clean house.”

Posted by Marcia Oddi on April 3, 2008 03:20 PM
Posted to Indiana Courts