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Judicial Council faced with elimination under SPD pay parity amendment

By: Michaela Paukner, [email protected]//February 21, 2020//

Judicial Council faced with elimination under SPD pay parity amendment

By: Michaela Paukner, [email protected]//February 21, 2020//

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The Wisconsin Judicial Council could be eliminated under an amendment introduced to a bill to restore pay parity to Wisconsin State Public Defenders.

The Wisconsin State Assembly voted unanimously on Thursday to pass an amended version of the pay-parity bill and send it to the Senate. The legislation would provide money for merit pay for assistant state public defenders in 2020 and 2021. The amendment, from Republican Rep. Mark Born of Beaver Dam, would eliminate the Wisconsin Judicial Council, a 21-member body that makes recommendations relating to court procedure and operations.

The council met on Friday, a meeting scheduled months in advance, and discussed what many viewed as an attack on the group.

“I’m so upset with this whole thing  that this was done in the 11th hour,” said Sen. Van Wanggaard, R-Racine and member of the Judicial Council. “This is a slap in everybody’s face who’s been on the council. This is unconscionable to me.”

Wanggaard said he thought Born brought the amendment forward because the Civil Justice Council was still upset about the judicial council’s involvement with a tort-reform bill from 2018, a bill sponsored by Born.

“It’s becoming clear that some people don’t want the council to exist,” said Bill Gleisner, chair of the Judicial Council. “We’ve been in existence for 70 years. I’m not going to be alarmed. We’ve had other threats in the past.”

Council members agreed that they wouldn’t advocate for changes to the bill ahead of the state Senate’s final floor session on March 24. Sending an amended bill back to the state Assembly would kill the proposal entirely because the Assembly isn’t coming back into session. No one wanted to risk the public defenders working without pay progression for any longer.

If the bill passes in the Senate on March 24, it will go to Gov. Tony Evers. He could do a line-item veto to the amendment to save the judicial council but still provide pay progression to assistant state public defenders.

Wanggaard and Gleisner called on members to make legislators, former council members, people in the Wisconsin legal industry and those in the governor’s office aware of the amendment and its possible effect on the council and courts.

“If they eliminate the council, (work) is going to get dumped on the Supreme Court,” Wanggaard said. “That’s the way I see it.”

A staff employee from Born’s office said the representative didn’t have time for an interview on Friday.

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