Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Court Budgets topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
County approves judges’ departmental budgets (salaries left for later); judges request supplements, furniture and interpreter funds
Summary
The council approved departmental budget items for the courts while excluding salary adjustments. Judges asked the council to consider $5,000 judicial supplements authorized by statute and requested funds for furniture, interpreters and increased attorney-fee coverage for trials.
The county council approved a series of court-related departmental budgets while excluding salary increases from immediate approval, and judges used the budget workshop to flag items for future consideration.
Judge Kinkade said he has historically received a $5,000 supplement from the council and urged consideration of extending a similar $5,000 supplement to other judges; council members noted there is a statute that authorizes counties to pay such judicial salary supplements. The council approved the court budgets with salaries excluded and recorded the motion carried.
Judge Bruce Pettit (Superior Court 2) requested two specific changes: a furniture-and-fixtures allocation (he asked that roughly $2,500 be budgeted to replace personal furniture he plans to take when he leaves office) and an increase in interpreter funding after the county transitioned to court-specific interpreter contracts rather than central procurement. Pettit said interpreters are constitutionally required for litigants whose first language is not English and that those costs are now being paid out of court budgets. Commissioners discussed potential courthouse renovations, security upgrades and staff-space needs; the council approved the budget item (salaries excluded).
Judge Shine asked to increase the allocation for corporate counsel/attorney fees to cover costly trials; he and the council agreed an additional $500 for attorney-fee coverage should suffice based on recent trial experience. That motion also passed.
Discussion versus decision: the meeting separated requests for one-time capital items (furniture) and operating needs (interpreter and attorney-fee lines) from salary supplements. While budget adjustments for furniture, interpreters and attorney fees were approved, the council deferred salary-related decisions to later action.
Next steps: county staff will process the approved allocations for furniture, interpreter expenses and attorney-fee coverage; commissioners will consider judicial salary supplements separately and in the context of statute-based allowance for such supplements.
