03/18/1994 01:35 PM Senate JUD

 SENATOR TAYLOR thanked her for her testimony and announced  SJR 47            
 (MEMBERSHIP OF THE JUDICIAL COUNCIL) to be up for consideration.              
                                                                               
 SENATOR HALFORD, sponsor of SJR 47, said he had a proposed CS which           
 added two public members.                                                     
                                                                               
 SENATOR HALFORD moved to adopt the CS to SJR 47.  There were no               
 objections and it was so ordered.                                             
                                                                               
 BILL COTTON, Executive Director, Alaska Judicial Council, said                
 their agency is separate from the court system.  It is assigned 3             
 duties by law: to screen and nominate judicial applicants providing           
 the Governor with at least two nominees for each vacancy; second,             
 to review the performance of judges and to provide the voters with            
 information and a recommendation as to whether the judges should be           
 retained; and, third, to do research into the administration of               
 justice as the constitution refers to it.  The Council is currently           
 made up of 3 non-attorney members appointed by the Governor; 3                
 attorney members appointed by the Bar Association; and the Chief              
 Justice sits as the seventh member who only votes to break a tie.             
                                                                               
 MR. COTTON said the Judicial Council voted unanimously to oppose              
 SJR 47 which would change the makeup of the Council giving the                
 Governor more appointees.  The Council believes the current system            
 works well.  He gave a brief background on two of the public                  
 members who had made significant contributions to the Council:                
 Janice Linheart and Jim Arnesson who both oppose changing the                 
 current system.  The reasons are in every trade and profession the            
 ones who know the careers the best are the ones engaged in the same           
 type of occupation.  Attorneys have a self interest in selecting              
 good judges.  They endeavor to base the selection of judges on the            
 basis of merit rather than political correctness.                             
                                                                               
 SENATOR HALFORD commented that his discussion with the members of             
 the Council was based on the version prior to the Judiciary CS.  He           
 asked if they had taken a position on adding two public members.              
 MR. COTTEN said his understanding of their feelings was that they             
 were satisfied with the current system and did not wish to change.            
 That is not true of the sixth member who was not there to vote,               
 however.  He would propose something like the Judiciary version.              
                                                                               
 CHRIS CHRISTENSEN, Staff Counsel to the Alaska Court System, said             
 he didn't have anything to add to Mr. Cotten's comments.  The                 
 Supreme Court had instructed him to state their opposition to                 
 changing the composition of the Judicial Council.  They believe               
 Alaska has the best judicial selection procedure in the country.              
                                                                               
 SENATOR DONLEY said that sections 6 and 10 have concerned him more            
 over the years, because the terms of the judges are really long.              
 Section 10 is where they vote on the conduct of the Judiciary.                
 Because there are only three members of the public on the Council,            
 it is possible to get a quorum with no public members present.                
                                                                               
 SENATOR HALFORD agreed with Senator Donley and pointed out that the           
 public members have to go through legislative confirmation and the            
 attorney members don't even have to go through legislative                    
 confirmation.  He thought it was set up to protect the                        
 establishment.                                                                
                                                                               
 Number 241                                                                    
                                                                               
 SENATOR HALFORD noted that this is where the separation of powers             
 occurs and it is defined by the document they are working on.  The            
 separation in this state is far greater than in other states.                 
                                                                               
 SENATOR TAYLOR said things are structured now so that if a person             
 takes "an elevated position" in this state, we believe that they              
 have just forfeited all of their civil rights - for a trial by                
 their peers and to know what the charges are posted against them.             
                                                                               
 MR. CHRISTENSEN said the system works very well for the criminals             
 and for their civil process.                                                  
                                                                               
 SENATOR HALFORD said that was probably true, but he didn't think it           
 worked very well for the victims.                                             
                                                                               
 SENATOR DONLEY asked what they thought about requiring that a                 
 certain number of public members have to be present for a quorum to           
 occur instead of changing the membership.  SENATOR TAYLOR said he             
 had no problem with that; and said again he thought their terms               
 were too long.