Spokane County District Court can get by with fewer judges, county commissioners say

With fewer cases moving through Spokane County District Court, county commissioners say there’s no need to replace retiring Judge Sara Derr.

They signed a letter Tuesday asking state officials to reduce the number of District Court judges they have to keep on the county’s payroll.

But in making that decision, the commissioners relied solely on a state assessment and didn’t request feedback from presiding Judge Patti Walker’s office.

“We expected that they would request information from us as part of their analysis,” Walker said Wednesday. “They did not.”

Derr is retiring Thursday after 22 years on the District Court. That leaves the seven remaining judges to handle more than 62,000 new cases each year, not including search warrants and probation hearings.

District Court generally handles low-level crimes and infractions for Spokane County and the cities of Spokane Valley, Liberty Lake, Millwood, Deer Park, Fairfield, Latah, Rockford and Spangle. Judges make $154,836 per year, a salary set by a state commission.

The county commissioners suggest in their letter that the court could handle all of its cases with as few as six judges.

Walker said that’s not likely.

“If we lose a judge with that same caseload, the community is going to suffer,” she said.

Each year, the state’s Administrative Office of the Courts uses an algorithm to determine “judicial needs” across the state. Last year’s report said the Spokane County District Court needs 6.45 judges – a number cited in the commissioners’ letter.

But that number doesn’t tell the whole story, according to judges Walker and Derr.

“It’s an incomplete measure of what we do on the bench,” Derr said. “And it doesn’t include a lot of what we do off the bench.”

Derr said the number doesn’t account for local initiatives, such as her therapeutic court for offenders with mental health issues.

But the commissioners’ letter says the state’s method has been updated to account for such initiatives.

The letter – signed by commissioners Shelly O’Quinn, Nancy McLaughlin and Al French – calls on the Administrative Office of the Courts to review the District Court in more detail and recommend fewer judges to the Legislature, which makes the ultimate decision.

“They could say we don’t have enough judges. But I don’t know that,” O’Quinn said Wednesday. “They could say we have just the right amount of judges. Or they could say we don’t have enough judges to deal with everything.”

Commissioners also cited a program taking effect Thursday that is expected to divert up to 3,600 cases per year from the court. That’s about 80 percent of cases where a person is charged with third-degree driving with a suspended license. Eligible drivers will be given a time limit to take part in a “community relicensing” program, rather than consume a judge’s time.

The city of Spokane in 2009 created its Municipal Court, taking some of the District Court’s caseload with it.

O’Quinn said the court was made aware that commissioners were drafting the letter. She and McLaughlin called it “due diligence” to look for savings in the county budget.

State law requires the commission to appoint a replacement for Derr, but it doesn’t say how soon after her departure.

Derr was surprised to learn of the commissioners’ letter from a reporter Wednesday morning.

“Six?!” she responded to the suggestion that the District Court can get by with that number of judges. “We can’t function on six. No way. Good thing I’m retiring.”