May 22, 2013

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Governor Hickenlooper Appoints New Members to Two Judicial Nominating Commissions

June 22, 2012 by Leave a Comment

On Thursday, June 21, 2012, Governor John Hickenlooper announced several Board and Commission appointments, including appointments to the Fourteenth and Nineteenth Judicial District Judicial Nominating Commissions.

Colorado’s twenty-two judicial districts have judicial district nominating commissions that select nominees for district and county judicial vacancies. Each district nominating commission is chaired by a justice of the Supreme Court, who is a non-voting member of the commission.

Commission members serve six-year terms. Non-lawyers, who are the majority of every nominating commission, are appointed by the governor. Lawyer members are appointed by joint action of the governor, attorney general, and chief justice.

The member appointed to the Fourteenth Judicial District Judicial Nominating Commission for a term expiring December 31, 2017, is:

  • David M. Jones of Kremmling, to serve as a non-attorney and as a Democrat from Grand County.

The members appointed to the Nineteenth Judicial District Judicial Nominating Commission for terms expiring December 31, 2017, are:

  • Douglas P. Erler of Greeley, to serve as a non-attorney and as an Unaffiliated from Weld County.
  • Joseph J. Tennessen of Greeley, to serve as a non-attorney and as a Republican from Weld County.
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HB 12-1329: Public Trustee in Certain Counties to Cease Being Appointed by Governor and Instead County Treasurer to Be Public Trustee for Those Counties

April 20, 2012 by Leave a Comment

On March 21, 2012, Rep. Ray Scott introduced HB 12-1329 – Concerning the County Treasurer Becoming the Public Trustee in Certain Counties Where the Public Trustee is Currently Appointed by the Governor. This summary is published here courtesy of the Colorado Bar Association’s e-Legislative Report.

Currently, the 11 counties designated as counties of the first or second class for purposes of the public trustee law have a public trustee who is appointed by the governor. In counties of the third class, the county treasurer serves as the public trustee. On January 1, 2013, certain counties of the second class change to counties of the third class. In such counties, the term of the public trustee appointed by the governor expires on December 31, 2012, and the county treasurer of the county becomes the public trustee on January 1, 2013. Under the bill, certain counties shall no longer have a separate office of the public trustee with the trustee appointed by the governor. The bill is assigned to the Local Government Committee; the bill is scheduled for committee review on Monday, April 16 at 1:30 p.m.

Since this summary, the House Committee on Local Government laid over the bill unamended–their amendments failed.

Summaries of other featured bills can be found here.

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Weld County DUI Court to Celebrate its First Graduation

July 5, 2011 by Leave a Comment

The Weld County DUI Court in Greeley will celebrate its first graduation in a ceremony on Thursday, July 7, when two participants are slated to complete their obligations with the court.

Judge Michele Meyer will preside over the graduation ceremony, which is set for 11:30 am in Division 17. A reception will follow.

The problem-solving court opened over a year ago, in early 2010, with the mission to promote public safety by providing intensive court supervision and prompt treatment for qualifying DUI offenders. The court’s participants receive help in maintaining their sobriety through education, incentives, encouragement for individual responsibility, and sanctions for violations. Support comes from a network of agencies, including the Nineteenth Judicial District, District Attorney’s Office, Public Defender’s Office, Sheriff’s Office, counseling and treatment providers, and private legal counsel. The program’s five phases of treatment take a minimum of eighteen months to complete.

The court currently has nineteen participants. Slated for graduation on Thursday are Alberto Herrera-Antuna, who was the first person accepted into the program on February 4, 2010, and William Bourassa.

More than sixty problem-solving courts are in operation in seventeen of Colorado’s twenty-two judicial districts. Problem-solving courts in the state include adult and juvenile drug courts, family/dependency and neglect courts, DUI courts, adult and juvenile mental health courts, a veteran trauma court, and truancy courts.

The full press release from State Judicial regarding the DUI Court graduation can be found here.

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Weld County Conducting Court Service-Improvement Program This Week

May 16, 2011 by Leave a Comment

This week, judges, magistrates, clerks, and other court employees will collect data to help improve the way the courts of Colorado’s Nineteenth Judicial District conduct their business. The program was first instituted in 2008, using public surveys to gather information and assess the functioning and accessibility of the courts in the district. In the last three years, the surveys have been used at least once in each of Colorado’s twenty-two judicial districts. Weld County was one of the first districts to participate in the initial survey.

On Wednesday, court employees will spend time talking to people about their experiences as jurors, parties to a case, or as recipients of other Judicial Branch services. Attorneys, law enforcement officers, and anyone who does business with the courts will be encouraged to participate. People exiting the buildings at the Weld County Court Complex will be asked whether they had business with the courts and are willing to fill out a brief anonymous survey. Survey forms will be available in English and Spanish.

The survey is designed to measure public opinion about access to and fairness of the courts. Questions include whether people felt safe in the building, whether they could easily understand the forms they needed, and whether they felt their case was handled in a fair manner. Participants also are asked whether they felt the judge or magistrate listened to them, whether they had all the necessary information before making a decision, and whether they felt they were treated with courtesy and given clear information about the next step in their case.

The new information will be used not only to check the progress of changes initiated since the first round of surveys, but also to support the possibility of further improvements. Two areas initially identified as needing attention were the website and setting performance goals. The website has been completely redesigned to improve access and usability. The district also now regularly monitors case processing, data integrity, and case closure rates to further help ensure the second area is being addressed.

In Fiscal Year 2010, more than 43,100 cases were filed in the Weld County Combined Courts, including 12,615 cases filed in District Court, 509 in the Water Court, and 30,039 in Weld County Court.

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Congratulations to the Colorado Judicial Department’s Outstanding Employees of 2010

March 25, 2011 by Leave a Comment

The Colorado Judicial Branch annually recognizes a handful of outstanding employees for exemplary work contributing to the high quality of service provided throughout the state’s twenty-two judicial districts. On Friday, March 25, 2011, the Judicial Department announced its 2010 awards recipients:

  • Court Employee of the Year - Gayle Tenorio
    • Tenorio is division clerk in the Boulder County Court and was nominated for the award by a judge, magistrate, and handful of court judicial assistants serving the Twentieth Judicial District. Tenorio’s positive attitude, work ethic, and attention to detail were all traits noted by those who nominated her.
  • Judicial Officer of the Year – The Honorable David A. Bottger
    • Bottger is chief judge of the Twenty-first Judicial District. His thoughtfulness and caring of the trial court employees and community in Mesa County, trust in his management team, refraining from micromanagement, and challenging his team were qualities noted by those who nominated him.
  • Manager of the Year - Karen Salaz
    • Salaz is district administrator of the Nineteenth Judicial District. She was noted as being a role model for all employees by assisting in many areas during staff shortages, striving for fairness, and working after hours and on weekends with representatives from Weld County and contractors on a recent construction project to add five courtrooms.
  • Probation Employee of the Year - Karoline Borega-Kern
    • Borega-Kern is an officer in the Female Offender Program in the Fourth Judicial District (El Paso and Teller counties) Probation Department. Those who nominated her noted that she always goes above and beyond her normal duties, taking on extra work while maintaining a positive attitude, and being a serious advocate for the women in the Female Offender Program to help them successfully complete their probation terms.
  • State Court Administrator’s Office Employee of the Year - Shane Bahr
    • Bahr is program coordinator for Colorado’s problem-solving courts. Since joining the Judicial Department in 2007, he is noted as having worked tirelessly to ensure the successful implementation and maintenance of these courts throughout the state by securing grant funding for problem-solving courts such as drug court, truancy court, and DUI court, helping to develop their data-gathering capabilities, and helping lead annual conferences attended by hundreds of professionals.
  • Team Award – Michael Arriaga, Grace Cozzetto, Amanda McGowan, Lisa Padilla, Mike Ramirez, and Janet Sisneros
    • The recipients of this award comprise the six-member juvenile probation team in the Tenth Judicial District (Pueblo County). The team members were commended by those nominating them for their dedication to children and the program, along with their collaborative approach within the community to problem solving and professionalism.

The Colorado Judicial Branch includes the Supreme Court and Court of Appeals, as well as the state’s district and county trial courts. The branch is also home to the Department of Probation Services, which employs more than 1,100 people including nearly 900 probation supervisors and officers. The department’s officers are responsible for supervising approximately 6,400 juvenile offenders and 55,500 adult offenders. As of July 1, 2010, the Colorado Judicial Branch employed approximately 3,400 employees, which includes 316 justices, judges, and magistrates. In fiscal year 2010, the latest for which full statistics are available, there were 541,591 cases filed statewide at the County Court level, 236,671 cases filed in District Court, 2,890 in the Court of Appeals, and 1,518 in the Supreme Court. There were 1,215 cases filed in the water courts.

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Six New Judges Appointed to Colorado District and County Courts

January 5, 2011 by Leave a Comment

Last month, Governor Bill Ritter announced the appointments of six new county and district court judges:

  • John Joseph Briggs of Windsor will become a new Weld County Court judge, effective January 1, 2011. Briggs has been an associate attorney in the Law Office of Robert E. Ray since 2004. His practice focuses on criminal law, domestic relations, and appeals. He also worked as a law clerk for the Kansas Court of Appeals. He received his law degree from Washburn Law School in 1993.
  • Francis Stephen Collins of Parker will become a new District Court judge in the 18th Judicial District (Arapahoe, Douglas, Elbert and Lincoln counties), effective February 1, 2011. He is currently a shareholder at Ducker, Montgomery, Lewis & Bess, P.C., where he has practiced since 2000 and is now a commercial litigator. Prior to that, he was an associate and partner with Pendleton, Friedberg, Wilson & Hennessey; an associate with Parcel, Meyer, Schwartz, Ruttum & Mauro; and a law clerk to the Alaska Supreme Court Justice Edmond W. Burke. Collins received his law degree from the University of California, Hastings College of the Law, in 1979.
  • Julie Kunce Field of Fort Collins will become a new District Court judge in the 8th Judicial District (Jackson and Larimer counties), effective January 1, 2011. Field is currently a sole practitioner. She previously worked as a litigation associate with Nutter, McClennen and Fish; associate professor and clinic director of Washburn University Law School; clinical program director for the University of Denver College of Law; adjunct faculty and guest lecturer for the University of Colorado-Denver Masters’ Program in Public Policy; and as a special consultant to International Monetary Fund and World Bank. She earned her law degree from the University of Chicago in 1985.
  • Debra Marie Gunkel of Springfield will become a new Baca County Court judge, effective January 11, 2011. She is currently a sole practitioner. She previously worked as a deputy district attorney in the 16th Judicial District Attorney’s Office. She earned her J.D. from Southwestern University in 1989, and an LLM in taxation from Boston University in 1991.
  • Stephen Enderlin Howard of Fort Collins will become a new District Court judge in the 8th Judicial District, effective January 1, 2011. He is currently a partner at Howard and Francis. He previously worked at Fischer and Wilmarth as an associate and a partner. He earned his law degree from the University of Colorado School of Law in 1978.
  • Cindy Lu Wilson of Coalmont will become a new Jackson County Court judge, effective February 9, 2011. She is currently a certified public accountant with her own practice. She previously was the owner/operator of the Shamrock Ranch and she was a CPA with Tredway, Henion and Kerr and with Wilson & Co.

District court judges serve an initial provisional term of two years. Then, if retained by voters, they serve six-year terms.

County court judges serve an initial provisional term of two years. Then, if retained by voters, they serve four-year terms.

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Finalists Selected to Fill Judgeship in Weld County

December 27, 2010 by Leave a Comment

Last week, the Nineteenth Judicial District Nominating Commission nominated three candidates for a Weld County court judgeship created by the appointment of the Honorable Timothy Kerns to the District Court bench, effective January 1, 2011.

Nominees for the bench are Katharina Clarissa-Graham Booth of Erie, John Joseph Briggs of Windsor, and Keith Coleman of Greeley. All were selected by the commission on December 14, 2010.

Under the Colorado Constitution, Governor Ritter has until December 30, 2010 to appoint one of the nominees as county court judge for Weld County.

Comments regarding any of the nominees can be emailed to the Governor’s office.

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Weld County Court Seeks Successor to Judge Kerns

November 23, 2010 by Leave a Comment

The Nineteenth Judicial District Nominating Commission will meet on Monday, December 13, 2010, to interview and select nominees for appointment by the governor to the office of county judge for the Nineteenth Judicial District, serving Weld County. The vacancy will be created by the appointment of the Honorable Timothy G. Kerns to the District Court bench. The vacancy will occur on January 1, 2011.

Eligible applicants must be qualified electors of Weld County and must be admitted to the practice of law in Colorado. The application deadline is December 6, 2010. The appointed judge will serve an initial provisional term of two years before facing a retention election. Retained judges serve four-year terms.

Further information about the new appointment of Judge Kerns and applying for the vacancy can be found at the Colorado Judicial Branch website.

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