Subcommittee approves funding increase, one full‑time post for Commission on Judicial Fitness

The Public Safety Subcommittee on May 19 approved the Legislative Fiscal Office recommendation to fund House Bill 5,013, increasing the Commission on Judicial Fitness and Disability’s general fund budget and converting its executive director position from permanent part time to permanent full time.

The LFO recommended a 2025–27 general fund budget of $642,142 and one full‑time equivalent position, including $23,324 for extraordinary expenses, an increase the LFO said is roughly $215,484 (50.5%) over the 2023–25 legislatively approved budget and $248,505 (63.1%) over the current‑service‑level budget. The single major investment in the package is the executive director FTE increase, which the LFO said carries a general fund cost of $248,505.

Why it matters: the Commission on Judicial Fitness and Disability investigates complaints of judicial misconduct and disability; proponents said additional staff capacity would allow the agency to handle investigations and preserve due‑process timelines for cases that proceed to deeper investigation or prosecution.

Mr. Borden of the Legislative Fiscal Office presented the LFO recommendation to the subcommittee and described the recommended budget figures and the single policy package (executive director FTE increase). The subcommittee moved the LFO recommendation and, after no objections were recorded, the motion carried.

The subcommittee also voted to approve the agency’s six key performance measures and updated targets for the 2025–27 biennium. Representative Lewis asked about key performance measure No. 6, noting the last reported result was 97% and asking why the target would be reduced. Mr. Borden said the agency and LFO had discussed the target and the agency was more comfortable with 95% given operational realities. Rachel Mortimer, executive director of the Commission on Judicial Fitness, told the subcommittee that a 100% target would implicitly expect no matters to proceed to full investigation or prosecution and that “if you’re asking for 100% of our complaints to be resolved in this period of time, then you’re expecting none of them to proceed to full investigations or prosecutions.” Mortimer added that procedural timelines — including 30‑day response windows to judges and other notice periods — make it infeasible for some cases to be completed within six months.

A dash‑1 amendment to House Bill 5,013 that the LFO had posted to OLISS was introduced, described as modifying a single section of the measure and reflecting the LFO recommendation in total. The subcommittee adopted the dash‑1 amendment without objection.

LFO recommended that the amended measure be moved to the Joint Ways and Means full committee. A motion to move House Bill 5,013 as amended to the full committee with a “do pass” recommendation carried with no objections. Subcommittee members then assigned carriers to take the measure to the full House and Senate floors.

The work session was procedural and noncontroversial: members debated targets for performance measures and approved the LFO’s funding and amendment package. The subcommittee closed the session and reviewed the next days’ agenda, which includes budgets for the district attorney, Board of Parole and Post‑Prison Supervision, and Department of Public Safety Standards and Training.

Details: the LFO documents and the dash‑1 amendment were posted on OLISS; the Commission cited its rules and procedures in explaining timelines for investigations and prosecutions.

The measure will now advance to the Joint Ways and Means full committee for further consideration.