NLV court ramps up as county tries to cut back

By Jeff German

Tuesday, May 5, 2009 | 2 a.m.

The severity of the budget crunch has Clark County clashing with North Las Vegas Justice Court over the court’s costly decision to ramp up its work on criminal cases.

“We’re being made the whipping boy for the fiscal woes of the county,” Terri March, the North Las Vegas Justice Court administrator, said. “It’s very disingenuous. We have judges who want to work and be full-time judges. That’s what they were elected to do.”

Beginning this morning, the North Las Vegas Justice Court will conduct three more courtroom sessions each week to make full use of its recently added third judge, Chris Lee.

That means Lee and his two colleagues start conducting four morning sessions a week each, spread out over the five-day workweek. Since Lee took office in January, the North Las Vegas Justice Court had an arrangement with the county to limit its judges to three sessions of criminal cases each week each while Lee’s courtroom was being built. (The judges also have sessions for civil cases.) The courtroom was completed last month.

Assistant County Manager Jeff Wells said Monday he had hoped to persuade the justices of the peace to delay increasing their courtroom hours until after the Legislature finishes its work this summer and the county’s clouded budget picture clears up.

“These are excellent judges who work very hard,” he said. “I’m just disappointed they’ve chosen to go this way.”

To keep up with the additional sessions, Wells said, the county must find $545,000 to fund four new positions when it is trying to reduce a projected $126 million shortfall for fiscal 2010 and faces more potential funding cuts by the Legislature.

The county has to hire two new deputy district attorneys, a clerk in the district attorney’s office and a deputy public defender and pay two private defense lawyers to represent defendants at the extra criminal sessions, Wells said.

March, however, said the extended courtroom schedule can be accommodated by simply contracting with the two defense lawyers. She said she previously was told the district attorney and public defender, although not happy about it, would be able to handle the heavier criminal caseload with their existing staffs.

“Now suddenly, everybody is posturing and coming up with new positions and throwing us under the bus,” she said.

District Attorney David Roger and Public Defender Phil Kohn insisted Monday that they don’t have enough attorneys to handle the added courtroom time.

“Both offices are incredibly thin and stretched as much as they can possibly be stretched,” Kohn said.

This week Roger, Kohn and their top assistants are handling arraignments and preliminary hearings for their respective offices during the three additional sessions in North Las Vegas. Roger and Kohn will be in court Thursday morning, and Assistant District Attorney Christopher Lalli and Assistant Public Defender Daren Richards are handling cases today and Wednesday.

Roger and Kohn said they expect to spend time in North Las Vegas the next couple of weeks, until the county funds the new positions or the court goes back to its lighter schedule.

Wells said the matter likely will be on the agenda of the County Commission’s May 19 meeting.

Creating new positions is contrary to the direction the county is headed as it struggles to meet the budget shortfall, Wells said.

To avoid layoffs, the commission recently approved a 2 percent cut in cost of living raises for thousands of county workers represented by the Service Employees International Union.

“These organizations have been stepping forward because they recognize the county is in tough fiscal shape,” Wells said.

At a public meeting of top county and court officials Friday, an SEIU leader opposed the North Las Vegas court’s push to increase its courtroom hours.

As the budget crunch continues, Wells said, the county faces another money crisis in Las Vegas Justice Court.

Wells said he also has asked Las Vegas Justice Court officials to delay July 1 plans for two yet-to-be-appointed justices of the peace to specialize in domestic violence and drunken driving criminal cases.

The move will cost the county another $580,414 to hire five new deputy public defenders, Wells said.

Ed Friedland, who runs Justice Court as the county’s executive court officer, said he has been looking for alternative funding.

“We’re working to defray the costs, but we’re still committed to those special calendars on July 1,” he said.