(C) Ohio Capital Journal
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Measure adding a judge to the Adams County bench advances from Ohio House committee [1]
['Nick Evans', 'More From Author', '- December']
Date: 2023-12-06
An Ohio House committee advanced a proposal adding a judge in Adams County on Tuesday. The measure now awaits a hearing on the House floor.
The sponsors contend Adams County needs a judge immediately to address court delays. In a press release, Reps. Justin Pizzulli, R-Scioto County, and Jean Schmidt, R-Loveland, emphasized how their proposal would help local children.
“This legislation will not only uplift our dedicated court staff,” Pizzulli said, “but it will ensure our children receive the care and protection they deserve.”
“It was proven throughout the committee process that another judge is needed in Adams County,” he insisted.
But while data from the Ohio Supreme Court highlight recent increases in the juvenile docket, caseloads overall have held steady for the past decade.
The proposal also deserves attention because of its electoral and partisan implications. To get the new judgeship on the ballot, the sponsors would have to overhaul the electoral calendar — sharply reducing the timeframe for candidates to file and the public to object.
Meanwhile to some, the push to elect a new judge in the first place — and split up judicial authority in the process — smacks of partisanship. Adams County leans Republican, but in 2022, three-term Democratic Judge Brett Spencer narrowly won reelection. To local Democrats, and Judge Spencer himself, the bill looks like a do-over.
Timeline
The sponsors contemplate electing the new judge in 2024. To do so, they propose a drastic reduction in the candidate filing timeline as well as an emergency clause, so the bill takes effect immediately rather than 90 days later. To tack on that clause, they’ll need the support of two-thirds of members. And without a similar bill in the Senate, they’ll need to drum up that support very quickly.
As it stands, the bill sets a candidate filing deadline of Jan. 4, 2024 — less than a month from today.
The county board must then validate signatures by Jan. 5 and any protests must arrive by Jan. 6. Adams County Board of Elections Director Stephanie Lewis expressed confidence that the board could handle the administrative burden. But Catherine Turcer from the government watchdog Common Cause Ohio questioned whether the public could adequately participate on that timeline.
“It doesn’t make sense to do this to them to have the petitions be in, have to have them quickly certify, and then have that protest process the very next day,” she said. “That’s just too quick.”
Partisanship
In addition to its aggressive electoral calendar, the bill also merits consideration because of its partisan implications. Adams, which sits on the Kentucky border, is one of just five counties in the state with only one sitting judge. Local leaders have contemplated adding a second judge for a long time.
For instance, in 2010, an exploratory committee considered the idea before tabling it over financial concerns. But now, the Republican-controlled County Commission argues, the financial picture has changed.
“Adams County now has the financial capacity to support an additional judge, and the recent acquisition of property guarantees the space required for court hearings and staff,” Commissioner Teresa Diane Ward told committee members early last month.
Left unspoken is the fact that one of Ward’s fellow commissioners, Republican Barbara Moore, narrowly lost to Judge Spencer in his 2022 reelection bid. Local Democrats, and Judge Spencer himself, contend the entire effort appears engineered to rerun that 2022 election.
“I have no opposition to an additional judge,” Judge Spencer told the committee. “My opposition is clearly that I don’t think I should be retroactively — (that) my jurisdiction should be abolished, especially when my passion is in the juvenile court, and that’s the intent of this legislation.”
An amendment to the bill retains the split jurisdiction model — one judge handling civil criminal and domestic relations while the other oversees probate and juvenile cases — but pushes off the division until after Spencer’s term concludes.
Spencer also criticized the timing. He questioned why the apparently urgent need for a second judge never came up during the 2022 election. If supporters really want to add to the bench, he contends, there’s no rush. Local leaders should conduct a feasibility study and lawmakers should put the measure forward as a normal piece of legislation. That way, Spencer said, local attorneys have time to consider whether they’re ready to close their practice and run for office.
Follow OCJ Reporter Nick Evans on Twitter.
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