(Host) A proposal that’s designed to save the Vermont Judiciary at least a million dollars a year is moving through the Legislature.
The bill restructures the state’s five different courts into one unified system overseen by the Vermont Supreme Court.
But as VPR’s Bob Kinzel reports, there’s disagreement over the future role of side judges in the new Court system.
(Sears) "What we need to create is a win – win situation rather than the current win- lose situation."
(Kinzel) That’s Bennington Senator Dick Sears – the chairman of the Senate Judiciary committee.
While Sears supports many of the recommendations included in a restructuring bill passed by the House last month, he doesn’t back a plan to reduce the responsibilities of assistant judges.
Currently, these elected judges often sit on cases in Superior and Family Court as "finders of fact" and they work in Traffic Court. The House bill would limit them to just the Traffic Court cases.
Sears is working a compromise that would maintain the current judicial duties of the side judges but it would place the management of these judges under the new unified court system:
(Sears) "It may take compromise on the part of the assistant judge. It’ll take compromise on the part of the probate judges and it’ll take compromise on the part of the Court, but I think that’s the way to achieve this."
(Kinzel) In a recent interview, Chief Justice Paul Reiber said this kind of management plan is one of his top priorities:
(Reiber) "What I’m talking about are the management functions that they hold that interfere with our ability to make management choices, implement management policy in a way that accomplishes something for the betterment of the Courts and therefore for the people of the state."
(Kinzel) Here’s one reason why Reiber doesn’t like the current system. He says that while the state pays the salaries of most court employees, it’s the side judges who make the hiring decisions about a number of Court positions:
(Reiber) "If a vacancy occurs, for instance, where a Superior Court clerk retires and we’re under tremendous downward budget pressure and we want to leave that position open so that we can pay the other bills, we may be at odds with the side judges who have this statutory authority. And this in fact has happened to us over the last few years."
(Kinzel) Right now the state’s courts are closed two and a half days a month because of budget problems.
Senator Sears is optimistic that this situation can be reversed if the restructuring bill is passed:
(Sears) "One of our goals in this bill is to eliminate the furloughs and have our courts open every day, five days a week.
(Kinzel) The legislation is expected to be on the Senate floor for a vote in the next week or two.
For VPR News, I’m Bob Kinzel in Montpelier.