Judicial Council braces for uncertain future

Listen to this article

An independent body that studies and proposes revisions of the state court system’s procedures and organization is preparing for a future without staff and money.

At the Judicial Council’s meeting on Friday, Sherry Coley, a council member who will be presenting two petitions to the State Bar Board of Governors next week, wondered during a teleconference what she should say when asked what’s happening to the council.

“Goodbye,” suggested Christian Gossett, a council member and Winnebago District Attorney.

The Judicial Council – a 21-member body consisting of judges, lawmakers, lawyers and other stakeholders in the state’s court system – has been put on the chopping block twice by budgets initially proposed by Gov. Scott Walker. Both times, lawmakers have intervened later in the budget process to retain a state statute requiring the council’s existence.

And they did so once again this year, with one little wrinkle – lawmakers chose this time to allocate no money to the council.

That decision will most likely leave the council high and dry. The Wisconsin Supreme Court, for its part, has let it be known that it’s not willing to continue footing the bill.

The Judicial Council’s executive committee voted in June to give its only employee, the staff attorney April Southwick, a raise. Two months later, the supreme court told the State Department of Administration that it would cease paying for the council once Walker signed the state’s 2017-2019 budget. Days before, the new Director of State Courts, Randy Koschnick, had sent an email to the DOA noting that the state law would prevent the raise from being official without the approval of the full council. In other words, the executive committee’s vote wasn’t enough on its own.

The court provides the council with $111,400 a year. Of that, $59,600 is for Southwick, who has gone without a raise for several years. The remaining money is used to compensate members for expenses related to travel, renting the council’s offices and similar things.

Council members are now preparing to move forward without the council’s only employee and without money.

A quorum of the council met on Friday. In a two-hour closed session, members voted 7-4 to uphold the executive committee’s vote and 6-3 to recommend that the DOA adjust Southwick’s job title from staff attorney to executive director and adjust her pay accordingly.

The council voted in open session to allow the council’s chairperson, Tom Bertz, and the executive committee to explore how the council should move forward amid greatly straitened circumstances.

Bertz and the committee don’t have long. Walker is likely to sign the budget next week, said Dennis Myers, the governor’s designee to the council.

During the meeting’s open session, Southwick said the council is in an unusual situation because it will soon have neither staff nor money yet will be required by state statute to keep meeting. The council also receives mail at an office, where files are also kept.

In addition, the council still has petitions pending before the court. Typically, Southwick and a council member defend the petitions, fielding questions from the justices during public hearings.

“The problem is we won’t have funding,” member Tom Shriner said. “People won’t work for nothing, and landlords need rent.”

The Associated Press contributed to this report. Follow @erikastrebel