Nominations are being taken to fill the position of La Plata County Court Judge Dondi J. Osborne, who will be retiring.
To be eligible, an applicant must be a qualified voter in La Plata County and must be allowed to practice law in Colorado.
The current annual county judge salary is $165,795. The initial term will be for two years. After the initial term the person filling the seat can choose to seek voter approval for a four-year term.
Osborne announced she planned to retire earlier this year but postponed her retirement at the onset of the coronavirus pandemic.
Osborne was appointed to her position in 2017 when a vacancy was created by the retirement of former Judge Martha Minot.
County court judges oversee traffic cases, minor criminal matters and civil actions involving no more than $15,000.
Application forms are available from the office of the ex officio chairman of the nominating commission, Justice Richard L. Gabriel, 2 E. 14th Ave., Denver, CO 80203; and the office of the court executive, Eric Hogue, 1060 East Second Ave., Room 106, Durango, CO. Applications also are available at http://www.courts.state.co.us/Careers/Judge.cfm, the court’s home page.
The completed application must be emailed to tjudicial.applicants@judicial.state.co.us no later than 4 p.m. Aug. 10.
Late applications will not be considered.
Any person who wants to suggest a candidate to fill the vacancy may do so by letter to be submitted to any member of the nominating commission, with a copy to the ex officio chairperson, no later than 4 p.m. Aug. 3.
Names of applicants will be made public once the application period is closed.
The members of the nominating commission for the 6th Judicial District are: Kathryn Steelman, Ingrid Alt, Barrie Hedges Newberger King, James Cross and Paul DeBell, all of Durango; Albert Northrop of Pagosa Springs; and John Wright of Silverton.
Nominating Commission members’ emails
Here are the email contacts for the members of the 6th Judicial District Nominating Commission:
Kathryn Steelman, ksteelmanlaw@gmail.com.
Albert Northrop, pagosacowboy@gmail.com.
Ingrid Alt, ialt@gmalawyers.com.
John Wright, wrightjo@frontier.net.
Barrie Hedges Newberger King, bnewberger@gmail.com.
James Cross, cross_j@fortlewis.edu.
Paul DeBell, padebell@fortlewis.edu.
