Sparks flew during Durango City Council’s discussion about whether to replace two part-time municipal judge positions with one full-time position.
City Council on Tuesday voted 4-0 to direct staff members to budget for a full-time municipal judge for 2024, remove funding in the 2024 budget for two part-time judge positions and begin searching for municipal judge applicants.
Councilor Dave Woodruff raised the possibility of hiring a full-time municipal judge at the Oct. 4 meeting, and City Council asked staff members to look at the fiscal feasibility of replacing two part-time positions with one full-time position.
On Tuesday, Durango Chief Financial Officer Devon Schmidt said the city’s current two part-time judges, Sarah Law and Todd Norvell, are contracted for $94,783. Hiring a full-time judge would cost about $130,000, an increase from current spending by $35,217.
Woodruff said at the meeting that a full-time municipal judge position would benefit the city because it would ensure consistency in court rulings, allow regular court hours to be set and the hired person’s first obligation would be to the city.
He said part-time contractual judges might have other responsibilities that could take precedence over city legal business, adding it’s in the city’s best interest to hire someone fully invested in the municipal court.
“I feel that it is critically important that we have one individual that can be fully committed to our courts to provide consistency, accountability and reliability in our process,” Woodruff said. “Having one full-time position allows there to be more consistency across the spectrum for municipal court, from times for the court being available to the public to consistency in rulings.”
But controversy reared its head on Tuesday when Councilor Olivier Bosmans, who abstained from voting on the resolution to seek judge applicants and budget accordingly, said an email that Woodruff sent to current part-time judges had implied the decision to switch to a full-time judge had already been made by City Council.
He said Woodruff’s email was “unfortunate” because it made the municipal judge shake-up out to be “a done deal.”
Woodruff quietly objected, only shaking his head and signaling “no” with his hands.
Bosmans said he wants more information about the efficiency of having one full-time judge over two part-time judges, and he thinks the subject was raised with too short of a notice.
“I just need more information before I say, ‘OK, let’s do a knee-jerk reaction and fund this full-time position’ without really knowing what we need,” he said.
The city’s current part-time judges’ contracts expire on Dec. 31, city attorney Mark Morgan said. Whether the city extends or renews the current judges’ contracts or seeks applicants for a full-time position, it is on a ticking clock to make a decision.
In an interview with The Durango Herald after the City Council meeting, Woodruff said he sent an email to Law and Norvell as a professional courtesy to give them a heads up that City Council would be considering a transition to one full-time municipal judge.
“I just wanted to make sure that, again, I gave them the professional courtesy as one of our appointees that they knew that this decision was being discussed,” he said.
Morgan said in an interview Wednesday he reviewed Woodruff’s email before it was sent to the judges at Woodruff’s request to ensure it was aboveboard, and Morgan didn’t see a problem with it.
“The vote was absolutely not predetermined,” Morgan said in a text message.
In the email, which Woodruff shared with the Herald, Woodruff explained his rationale for bringing up the possibility of hiring a full-time municipal judge for council consideration, saying he wanted to let Law and Norvell know about the topic so they weren’t caught off guard.
In addition to the discussion about hiring a full-time judge, City Council also held executive sessions on Tuesday for annual reviews of appointed staff, including city manager José Madrigal, Morgan and part-time judges Law and Norvell.
In the email, Woodruff said one full-time judge would smooth out interdepartmental communication and make the city’s legal business more efficient. He also said he hopes Law and Norvell will apply for the full-time position.
Woodruff didn’t publicly respond from the dais to Bosmans’ comment about the email on Tuesday, but he told the Herald the two of them talked after the meeting ended and Bosmans extended an apology.
“(City Council has) done a really good job with keeping everything above the belt, being professional, being courteous to one another,” Woodruff said. “So hopefully that was the exception and certainly not the rule.”
In a phone call on Wednesday, Bosmans declined to comment on record about his statement about Woodruff’s email.
Although Woodruff didn’t argue with or rebuff Bosmans at the City Council meeting, Councilor Jessika Buell did.
“What I find ‘unfortunate’ is the consistent negativity and twisting of things that happen to make the public think that what we are doing is somehow backhanded or quick or not thought out,” she said. “There’s nothing in Dave’s email that he sent out saying that this was a done deal. It was just more to inform. Because we had our appointees’ evaluations today.”
cburney@durangoherald.com
