Lower wages become an issue for state justice system

 By Don Davis
Forum News Service
ST. PAUL - Minnesota’s justice system is back to normal speed after recession-induced budget cuts slowed it down, but state court officials now say they face a problem of losing employees to better pay elsewhere in government.
Minnesota’s Bill of Rights requires justice be handed out “promptly and without delay,” a requirement being met better now than during the recession a few years ago. Chief Justice Lorie Skjerven Gildea of the Minnesota Supreme Court recalled those recession days, when courts were 10 percent short staffed.
“We were seeing delays and backlogs all around our state,” Gildea said in a Forum News Service interview. “Public service windows were closed part of the week.”
Things have changed with somewhat improved funding the last two years. “We have opened those windows now and we are making some headway in terms of the backlogs.”
In southeast Minnesota’s Olmsted County, for example, in 2011 about 25 percent of serious felonies took more than a year to resolve. Now, Gildea said, that is down to about 7 percent.
However, a five-year wage freeze continues to take a toll, Gildea said. State and local governments have been able to give their workers better raises, she said, which attracts court workers.
“We are losing staff because of salaries,” Gildea said.
In one recent case, the chief justice said, a court worker left for a county job and thousands of dollars more.
The problem finding employees is not going away. Court officials say that within 10 years, 30 percent of judicial workers will be at least 65 years old.
The state court system’s $600 million two-year budget request, a 7.5 percent increase from current spending, would add $26.3 million to employee wages, with another $8.7 million more for judges.
Judge Kevin Mark, president of the Minnesota District Court Judges Association whose office is in Red Wing, told a Senate committee recently that raising judge salaries is an investment. “I would ask you to consider it more than just a pay raise.”
Mark told senators that a recent northern Minnesota judicial opening resulted in just three applicants, far fewer than for many openings. When others were asked to apply, he added, “they all declined because of judicial compensation.”
Like other court employees, judges received raises the past two years, but not enough to catch up to what was lost during the wage freeze, court officials say.
Sen. Warren Limmer, R-Maple Grove, wondered aloud: “Does a high salary for a judge make a good judge?”
Mark said that “if you are driven by money, you are not going to make a good judge. ...”
The wage issue is affecting who applies to be judges, the chief justice said.
Since private attorneys make more than judges, they less frequently apply for open judgeships. Gildea said that means more of today’s applicants are lawyers paid by governments, lawyers who generally earn less than private ones.
The court system should have a diversified set of judges, said Gildea, who herself was a publicly funded lawyer.
Gildea said that judge salaries need not compete with those paid to lawyers in private practice.
“I agree that serving as a judge is a public service,” she said. “It absolutely is an honor.”
National surveys show Minnesota judge salaries rank 31st. While Gildea said Minnesota does not need to be No. 1, she said that it should be higher than 31st.
Minnesota judicial pay averages $138,318 annually, compared to the country average of $146,521.
The budget request would help fund the biggest change the court system ever has seen: switching from paper documents to electronic filing. The courts plan to require all electronic filing next year.
Mark compared the change to flying an airplane while it is being converted from old-fashioned propellers to jet engines. “It has probably caused a few retirements.”
Gildea said that work on the electronic court system has taken place over several years to give staff and judges time to learn it.
“Some people are worried, are afraid of change, so we wanted to give some more time for our staff to get comfortable with the electronic records,” she said.
The electronic system is more efficient, the chief justice said. For instance, a police officer who now may need to wait an hour in a courthouse for a judge to sign a document will be able to send it electronically while continuing to patrol city streets.
The courts also want lawmakers to double daily pay for jurors from $10 to $20 and to increase mileages they receive from 27 cents a mile to 56 cents.
In addition, Gildea is promoting drug courts, and similar entities, as money savers.
Drug, drunken driving, mental health, veterans’ treatment and other courts are operating in many locations around Minnesota. Called problem-solving courts, they provide ways to fix people’s problems without sending them to jail whenever possible.
The special courts, Gildea said, save money because they reduce prison and law enforcement costs because participants are less likely to reoffend. Participants also are more likely to keep jobs, pay child support and maintain home payments, the courts say.
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