Minority and Justice Commission
Meeting Minutes

WASHINGTON STATE MINORITY AND JUSTICE COMMISSION

MINUTES OF COMMISSION MEETING

Law Offices of Heller Ehrman White and McAuliffe

6100 Bank of America Center

701 Fifth Avenue

Seattle, Washington 98104-7098

June 28, 2002

Justice Charles Z. Smith and Justice Charles W. Johnson, Co-Chairpersons, Presiding

Call to order

The meeting was called to order by Justice Charles Z. Smith at 10:35 A.M.

Present at the meeting were Justice Charles Z. Smith, Justice Charles W. Johnson, Judge William W. Baker, Judge Monica J. Benton, Ms. Madelyn Botta, Dr.  George S. Bridges, Ms. Myrna I. Contreras, Ms. Erica S. Chung, David J. Della, Judge Deborah D. Fleck, Ms. Lourdes Fuentes, Judge M. Karlynn Haberly, Judge Douglas W. Luna, Judge James M. Murphy, Ms. Denise C. Marti, Judge Richard F. McDermott, Jr., Ms. Mary Campbell McQueen, Ms. Rosa M. Melendez, Tony Orange, Kenneth E. Payson, Ms. P. Diane Schneider, Ms. Mary Alice Theiler, Brian A. Tsuchida, and Judge Dennis D. Yule. 

Persons not in attendance with excused absences were Jeffrey A. Beaver, Robert C. Boruchowitz, Judge James D. Cayce, Judge Patricia Hall Clark, Judge Ronald E. Cox, Lonnie Davis, Dean Donna Claxton Deming, Judge Anne L. Ellington, Larry M. Fehr, Jose E. Gaitan, Guadalupe Gamboa, Charles A. Jardine, Ms. Mary Elizabeth McKnew, Judge Richard A. Jones, Justice Judge Kenneth H. Kato, Michael J. Killian, Ms. Ada Ko, Ms. Lorraine Lee, Ms. Terry Mark, Judge Ron A. Mamiya, Judge Ricardo S. Martinez, Judge LeRoy McCullough, Ms. Esther L. Patrick, Jose Quintana, Judge Albert M. Raines, Jeffrey C. Sullivan, Judge Philip J. Thompson, Judge Vicki J. Toyohara, and Judge Mary I. Yu.

Guests present were Judge Anthony P. Wartnik of King County Superior Court and Ms. Judith Anderson of the Administrative Office of the Courts to discuss the Fall 2002 Judicial Conference.

Justice Charles Z. Smith thanked Ken Payson for hosting the Commission at the law office of Heller Ehrman White and McAuliffe. 

Justice Smith stated that the Commission meeting format is different from the usual. Ms. Erica S. Chung indicated that the format is similar to the Open Agenda meeting held in May 2001, but without a facilitator. The purpose of the work session is for each sub-committee, lead by the sub-committee chairperson, to review and modify their goals established last May and to develop work plans associated with each goal, finishing their goal(s) by the end of the biennium June 30, 2003.  The sub-committees will have two hours to meet with their members, and then a representative from the sub-committee will report back during the plenary session at 12:30 p.m. The Education and Workforce Diversity Sub-committees will meet for forty-five minutes to discuss the Fall Conference, then will break into their respective sub-committees.

Sub-Committees Reports

Education Sub-committee

Judge Monica J. Benton, chairperson, reported that two new goals have been added: 1) Training Commission members to become cultural diversity trainers/presenters. Idea is to develop a toolkit/curriculum for trainers, then develop trainers based on the toolkit/curriculum.   2) Incorporation of diversity in each training session at the Judicial College.  Education sub-committee will incorporate diversity in one education session per year, starting with “Court Management” at the 2003 Judicial College.  Dr. Bridges has agreed to obtain pro bono services from University of Washington Law School students to develop scenarios that could be used by the trainers or used in curriculum development at the Judicial College.

The Education sub-committee is continuing to work with Judge Greg Sypolt, Spokane Juvenile Court, to provide training for decision makers in the juvenile court system, such as police department, prosecutor’s office, juvenile court, and more.

Evaluation and Implementation Sub-committee

Judge James M. Murphy, chairperson, reported that proposed changes to CrR 3.2 has been published for comment by the Supreme Court and a decision whether to adopt the rule will be made in July 2002.  The sub-committee is moving towards a second phase of the CrR 3.2 project, training on the proposed rule at the Fall 2002 Judicial Conference.  The sub-committee will be presenting the new rule and its applications, if adopted by the Supreme Court, or the rationale for the need for the change, if rejected by the Supreme Court.  The CrR 3.2 choice session will review the old and new rules, followed by case scenarios designed to stir discussion about its applications.

The sub-committee will review the Harvard University Kennedy School of Government study regarding disparity among drug offenders in prosecution and sentencing in Washington and the role that the Research Sub-committee might play in looking at the Seattle King County’s law enforcement practice of employing buy-bust operations which creates disparity between the break down of membership in our society as opposed to the percentage of minorities who are in jail.  Bob Boruchowitz will take the lead on this project.  Dr. Bridges stated that perhaps there are some resources that could be marshaled to study the application of the Kennedy study conclusions and results in action that could be taken by both the Superior Court Judges Association and the BJA as well as the Minority and Justice Commission, revisiting the ethnic disparity and prosecution considering the role of the Sentencing Guidelines Commission and perpetuating this disparity in light of the stated goal of trying to establish parity in sentencing and the fact that this has not been true. 

The sub-committee will also examine the drug bill from the 2002 legislative session; its application to drug courts and proportionality in sentencing.  The elimination of racial disparity in sentencing is also a project to remedy the issue of wrongs that exist when a charged party gives an address at the time of arrest and there is a subsequent change in address which eventually results in the issuance of a warrant which works as a strike against the individual when they are trying to get out of jail through application of Cr3.2 because they are considered a flight risk at that point. This is a study being done at the present time and the project is to correct the number of warrants going out to the wrong person or the wrong address.

Workforce Diversity Sub-committee

Judge Deborah D. Fleck stated that the primary focus of the sub-committee meeting was devoted to the Recruitment and Retention Manual being developed by Ms. Sheryl Willert.  The Sub-committee discussed how to market the manual project for the Fall 2002 Judicial Conference.  The Sub-committee decided to produce and mail series of post cards to create interest for the presentation at the Fall2002 Judicial Conference.  Members chose “A Smart Court is a Diverse Court” as the title for the recruitment and retention manual presentation because it demonstrated content in a catchy brief statement.  Kevin Payson and David Della were asked to develop the post cards. 

The sub-committee did not discuss the other four goals due to the priority of the Fall Conference. 

Outreach Sub-committee

Brian Tsuchida, co-chairperson, reported that discussion focused on the content and timeliness of the publication of the newsletter.  Examples of content discussed were: more substantive legal information that could be very useful to the lawyers who court staff and judges; articles of interest from sub-committee members; and works of the commission as a whole.  A letter will be sent to Commission members to seek input on “themes” for the newsletter.  Members also agreed that one or two face-to-face meetings of the sub-committee is necessary to develop a work plan for various themes of the newsletter.  

Mr. Tsuchida also reported that the sub-committee discussed incorporating outreach activities; networking with resources such as law schools and bar associations and generating educational forums.  Members are considering incremental steps over the next two years due to the size of the sub-committee and budget.  As a first step, the sub-committee offered its assistance in planning and coordinating a reception for Justice Rodriguez at the Fall 2002 Judicial Conference.

Other Business

Many expressed preference for work sessions at Commission meetings to facilitate more face to face meetings among members and an opportunity to work with other sub-committees on projects

Justice Smith thanked the Commission members for participating in the work session and again thanked Ken Payson for hosting the Commission at his law firm.

Justice Smith indicated that after he retires from the Supreme Court, he is interested in continuing on with the Commission but would need to be appointed by the Supreme Court at the request of the co-chairperson

Adjournment

The meeting adjourned at 12:00 noon.