EDITORIAL: Make judicious decision on fifth judge

A fifth judge has been proposed for the 11th Judicial District that serves Flathead County, and that has the county commissioners pondering how they’ll pay for the additional courtroom and office space that will be mandated if the 2017 Legislature approves the plan.

Now that the county is moving forward with a $1.3 million project to add 26 beds to the adult detention center on the second floor of the Justice Center, there is literally no room left for another judge. Some kind of addition would be needed, and roughly $1 million to $2 million has already been tossed out as a projected cost.

One could argue that the jail expansion — a temporary Band-Aid fix to the county’s chronic jail overcrowding — is a knee-jerk reaction that should have been studied more thoroughly to see what other temporary options there may have been. But the commissioners have hired the build team and are moving full speed ahead. That ship has sailed.

The Montana Supreme Court administrator made a compelling case for a fifth Flathead judge last week during a meeting with the commissioners: a 20 percent increase in the caseload over six years; a 43 percent increase in child abuse and neglect cases and 22 percent increase in criminal cases. A workload study indicates Flathead needs not one additional district judge but the equivalent of 2.44 more judges.

But then Flathead County Clerk of Court Peg Allison shared her statistics with the Inter Lake, showing a downward trend in the number of new court cases and not as dire a need for an extra judge. She acknowledged that the current four judges are extremely busy, but the investment needed to seat a fifth judge is so significant that we must study all options.

Both the state and county have an obligation to provide a court system that can process criminal and civil cases in a timely manner. Flathead County is one of the fastest-growing areas of Montana, so it seems reasonable that growth will extend to the court workload as well. If approved by lawmakers, the fifth judge would take office here in 2019.

The commissioners say they want to make sure all the components of the judicial system, including the sheriff, county attorney, judges, staff, public defenders and state, are working together as efficiently as possible. That’s a reasonable expectation. If the county is going to shell out millions for a new courtroom and judge’s chamber — and even if the Legislature turns down the proposal for more judges — Flathead County citizens deserve an effective court system that is hitting on all cylinders.