Municipal court unchanged

Last October, the council created a five-member task force to analyze the financial viability of municipal court’s operations, with a focus on determining if the court would work more efficiently if it simply handled cases related to traffic infractions.

Members of the task force reviewed the court’s expenses and revenues, impacts of potentially changing the way the court operates, how those changes might affect the Wasco County Circuit Court, which would assume misdemeanor cases, and analyzed projected

revenues and expenses.

The task force review found that the municipal court handles an average of 350 adult misdemeanor cases each year, and transferring that caseload to the circuit court would stress that system’s ability to efficiently conduct business.

In fact, the task force projected that the move would cost the county approximately $125,000 a year; money that would go to hire another deputy district attorney and staff support to take on the cases moving over from municipal court.

“If the additional adult non-traffic misdemeanor cases were transferred … without the hiring of additional staff, it is likely that certain cases would not be prosecuted,” stated the task force report, dated June 13. “[This] could have the potential to create issues related to public safety and quality of life in the community.”

Further, Municipal Judge Tom Peachey has established a “Mental Health Court” that is designed to handle defendants with mental health challenges.

Task force members determined the mental health component of the court has built a solid record of reducing recidivism rates for serial offenders, and the program likely would have been lost if adult misdemeanor cases were transferred to circuit court.

“The judge (Tom Peachey) has been very good about having the Mental Health Court, and I think we need that,” said Mayor Steve Lawrence.

“One of the big questions for us was, the (Oregon) Supreme Court and Court of Appeals have limited our ability to collect on fines. We have a big backlog of overdue fines, so we wondered if these cases should go to circuit court and they could use the tools they have that we don’t to collect those fines. But there are real good reasons to leave it as is.”

The court has operated at a deficit in some years, but the task force felt it would be unfair to shift the financial burden of operations to circuit court.

In the end, it was determined there were no real benefits to revamping municipal court’s existing model of operations.

“The fact is, it’s pretty much revenue-neutral,” explained city council member Dan Spatz, who made the motion to accept the task force recommendations.

“Especially when you look at the long-term social impacts. There is absolutely an advantage to continuing this court broader than just a traffic court.”

Peachey said he was gratified with the review, and with the determination of the importance of the court’s services that came as a result.

“They came to the right decision, and the mayor went about it the right way,” he said.

“What the mayor did was conduct a thorough study, as opposed to considering this just in the context of a budget committee. It isn’t just a money issue. It’s a ‘quality of the community’ issue. I’m happy with the way it turned out, and mostly happy as a member of the community rather than as a judge.”

Lawrence said it was important for the city to review the overall court system to see if there was a way to make it work more effectively.

“It was good to go through this process and get it resolved one way or the other,” he said. “I’m pleased with the result, but it wasn’t a foregone conclusion. It was a good 360-degree look at the whole question.”