THE DALLES — In a regular session March 25, The Dalles City Council determined a process for conducting a performance evaluation for Municipal Judge Jason Corey. Corey was appointed by the council on April 3, 2017, and took his oath of office June 9, 2017.
This evaluation comes alongside upcoming job reports on City Manager Matthew Klebes and City Attorney Jonathan Kara, which factor into city budget decisions in June. These budget meetings have the potential to re-assess these positions’ salaries, Kara said, noting that performance evaluations will need to be timely.
While the city council appoints and oversees the municipal judge, assessing the job performance for this position isn’t necessarily clear-cut.
Following an executive session, Councilor Darcy Long raised an issue with previous evaluations of the municipal judge, in which the mayor interviewed court staff and brought those findings to the council.
“We need to clean up the process,” Long said. “If the city council’s job is to hire and fire, then we need a better way to evaluate the judge.”
Councilor Dan Richardson pointed out that the council doesn’t regularly work with the municipal court, making it tricky for council members to apply the performance rubric provided by city human resources.
Long read off her page, giving viewers a glimpse into some of the community relations criteria, such as “represents the city with a positive outlook,” “is courteous to the public at all times,” “seeks to use criticism in positive ways,” and “is open and honest with the public.”
The council opted to have Kara research other cities’ procedures for evaluating their municipal judges while human resource staff seek letters from individuals who have worked with the judge, including police and animal control officers, city staff and attorneys.
Councilor Rod Runyon quipped, “Attorneys that lost their cases, or won their cases?”
These individuals will supply letters describing the judge’s performance, which the councilors will use to fill out the assessment forms. The council plans to discuss these findings and the judge’s self-assessment, along with assessments of the city manager and city attorney, in an executive session on April 23 at 5:30 p.m.
In the state of Oregon, most municipal judges handle cases involving violations of city ordinances, minor criminal offenses and traffic violations. According to the city attorney’s office, The Dalles Municipal Court transferred jurisdiction of misdemeanors to the Wasco Circuit Court in 2019.
“As to what the court looks like day to day,” Kara explained to Columbia Gorge News, “we are strictly handling traffic violations and code violations, … as well as old criminal arrest warrants that occurred before the transfer.”
The city attorney’s office estimated that the municipal court sees approximately 250 to 750 cases each year. The court meets twice a month, seeing between 10 and 30 cases per session.
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