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Board for Judicial Administration
Members Present: Chief Justice Gerry Alexander, Chair; Judge Vickie Churchill, Member Chair; Judge Marlin Appelwick; Mr. Stan Bastian (by phone); Judge Leonard Costello; Judge Sara Derr; Judge Susan Dubuisson; Judge Deborah Fleck; Ms. Paula Littlewood; Justice Barbara Madsen; Judge Larry McKeeman; Judge Robert McSeveney; Judge Marilyn Paja; Judge Linda Portnoy; Judge Christine Quinn-Brintnall; Judge Stephen Shelton; and Mr. Butch Stussy Guests Present: Mr. M. Wayne Blair, Ms. Roni Booth, Mr. Ron Carpenter, Judge Anne Ellington, Ms. Kathy Martin, Mr. Joseph McGuire, Mr. Paul Sherfey, and Ms. Renee Townsley Staff Present: Ms. Beth Flynn, Mr. Doug Haake, Mr. Jeff Hall, Mr. Dirk Marler, Ms. Mellani McAleenan, Mr. Ramsey Radwan, Mr. Chris Ruhl, and Ms. Caroline Tawes Judge Churchill called the meeting to order. November 16, 2007 Minutes It was moved by Judge Shelton and seconded by Justice Madsen to approve the November 16, 2007, meeting minutes as written. The motion carried. Access and Accommodations Coordinator Judge Ellington stated that courts need an ADA resource in order to come into compliance with ADA legal obligations. Washington is one of the very few states that do not have a statewide ADA coordinator for the judiciary. Judge Ellington wants to raise awareness of this issue and is hoping to find legislative support for an ADA coordinator bill. There are many advocacy groups with this issue as their legislative priority for 2008. Judge Ellington wants to let everyone know how important this is and that a lot of work can be done with a small amount of resources. The budget request for two years is approximately $210,000 as a start-up budget. Chief Justice Alexander agreed that this is an important issue that should be addressed. However, the Supreme Court made a conscious decision not to ask for funding of any new “policy” budget items in the 2008 supplemental budget request. Chief Justice Alexander indicated that it would be most appropriate for the court to consider this request for inclusion in the 2009 budget submission. 2008 Legislative Agenda and Report Ms. McAleenan received correspondence from Benton County District Court requesting an additional judicial position. One court commissioner is getting ready to retire and they would like to replace that court commissioner with a full-time judge position. A request for support for creating a new judge position is pending before the Board of Benton County Commissioners. It was moved by Judge Appelwick and seconded by Judge Fleck that the BJA support the request for one additional judicial position in Benton County District Court contingent upon the approval to support the request by the Board of Benton County Commissioners. The motion carried. Ms. McAleenan also shared that there is no plan by the BJA to pursue the interpreter legislation this year but Representative Patricia Lantz is pursuing it. The most recent draft legislation was included in the meeting packet. The bill may need some changes and Ms. McAleenan is looking into the costs to comply with the bill. JIJ Implementation Committee Mr. Hall reported that at the most recent JIJ Implementation Committee meeting the approved a revised committee membership. Following the meeting, there was considerable discussion by a large group of committee members regarding the adopted membership structure. A consensus developed that the adopted membership list should be scaled back to that originally proposed in the meeting materials with the only addition being Ms. Jan Michels. Mr. Blair shared that they wanted to name Ms. Michels to the Committee in order to benefit from her experience. She was involved in the Justice in Jeopardy Initiative from the beginning. It was moved by Judge Fleck and seconded by Judge Costello to approve the revised committee charter and membership as described in the meeting materials with the addition of Ms. Jan Michels. The motion carried. Court Operations Committee The proposed membership for the Trial Court Operations Funding Committee was distributed in the meeting materials. Judge Fleck would like to have nine members on the committee instead of six. Judge Fleck moved and Judge Shelton seconded to have three committee members from each group (SCJA, DMCJA, CMC) on the Trial Court Operations Funding Committee. The motion carried. Access to Justice Board Mr. Blair presented a recommendation from the ATJ Board and WSBA Board of Governors that Judge Steven González be reappointed to the ATJ Board as the BJA representative. Currently, Judge González serves on the ATJ Board as a representative of the WSBA Board of Governors. His current term is due to expire and the Board of Governors would like to advertise for his upcoming term as a Board of Governors representative. It was moved by Judge McSeveney and seconded by Judge Portnoy to name Judge González as the BJA representative on the Access to Justice Board for a three-year term beginning in May. The motion carried. Washington State Bar Association Ms. Littlewood reported that the WSBA is undertaking several efforts to help with Washington flood victims.
The Board of Governors meeting was in Everett last week and they met with the leadership of the Snohomish County Bar and all Snohomish County Superior Court judges. They discussed the unified family court issue along with a number of other issues. Mr. Bastian authored an op-ed piece that was published in the Seattle Post-Intelligencer on December 5. It was somewhat in response to R-67 and the negative advertisements associated with the initiative and listed all the important work attorneys do in the legal community. The WSBA is currently working on the following projects:
There being no further business, the meeting was adjourned.
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