This is Viewpoints for Sunday, April 2, 2017

‘It ain’t broke’

There may come a time when consolidation of State and Municipal Court is a good idea. Now is not that time.

According to the Judicial Council, Administrative Office of the Courts, in 2015, the most recent data available, the Municipal Court of Macon-Bibb handled 11,208 misdemeanor and traffic cases with one judge and a part time solicitor. This did include parking citations. The State Court of Bibb County handled 5,473 cases utilizing two judges, a solicitor and five assistant solicitors.

Annually, Municipal Court has 50 non-jury trial days, State Court has 15. State Court has one arraignment day each week, Municipal Court has 144 arraignment days annually. State Court has eight jury trial calendars; Municipal Court does not have jury trials. Municipal Court had 24 Environmental Court sessions; State Court has none. Municipal Court has Jail Court three times weekly, State Court once weekly.

Note: all incarcerated municipal defendants have a court appearance within 48 hours except on rare occasions where it might be 72 hours. This includes those locked up for alleged probation violations. If practical, we try to get people out of the jail and back to their jobs or families. We find that a majority of these people do not have the money to pay probation and are afraid to report. We offer them community service to work off their fines. State Court arrestees are seen by the Magistrate Court judges except for probation hearings. State Court probation detainees are routinely held for 14 days or more.

There are 71 State Courts in Georgia with 129 judges. Municipal courts are the busiest courts in Georgia with more than 400 judges managing more than 800,000 cases per year. Municipal Courts are designed to handle huge caseloads in a very efficient manner. State Courts were designed to aid Superior Courts with civil matters. Misdemeanor cases are almost a sideline, but an important one.

Back in 2012 when we were having meetings on the transition to a consolidated government, combining the courts was thoroughly discussed. At the time, Judge Bill Adams, rightfully, requested at least one additional judge to help with their burden. I believe he said that according to state caseload guidelines we should have at least three State Court judges. (At the time he was working with one full-time judge and one senior judge who worked on a limited basis.) We now have two full-time judges. Now we are discussing quadrupling their caseload.

At the time of the consolidation commission, both courts, the Carl Vinson Institute, and the special commission on consolidation all agreed that two courts were the way to go. We modeled ourselves on Athens-Clarke County, which had combined the two courts but within a year decided to separate them. This was at the request of their State Court judge. I would note that, according to the Athens-Clarke Court Clerk, separating the two courts after combining them was an expensive but necessary action.

In Macon, this has been before the commission and has been tabled. At the last meeting, on February 14, the commission tabled the ordinance to combine the courts until they could get guidance from the Regional Commission at the invitation of the mayor.

Note, that the entire budget for Municipal Court for 2017 is $688,000. The Solicitor of State Court alone has a budget of $1,003,100 for 2017. (I should note that one of the five assistant Solicitors General does handle Municipal Court cases.) The budget for the judge’s and clerk’s office is an additional $1,240,100 for 2017. That does include civil cases. But the long and the short of this is that Municipal Court does much more with much less. I also should point out that of the eight consolidated governments in Georgia, only Richmond has only a State Court with no Municipal Court(s) and it has four State Court judges.

I’ll be honest. I feel that putting all of our cases onto State Court would be a disaster. From parking problems to security at the entrances to the huge caseload, I see it as a major issue. Moving our court to the county Courthouse on the first floor with a separate clerk’s office to collect fines seems to be the way to go. Right now, the system “ain’t broke. Why are we trying to “fix it.”? And, if it does not work, as it did not in Athens, it will be difficult and expensive to change back.

Two good things

With all the groans and moans about our city and county, two things right about Macon are District Attorney David Cooke and Sheriff David Davis. Two thumbs up for two conscientious and dedicated public servants.

April Fools

I noticed March 28, Morris Newman’s April Fools opinion. I would very much like for all who spent at least half their life working contributing to Social Security, to actually see the brutalization our politicians have committed to your funds while reaping a secure pension fund for themselves. In revealing such facts is truly a wake-up call about how at least one federal tax program has gone wild making those who contributed to Social Security the April Fools of all times. Then consider a thousand other funds for which the same has occurred with education being one.

Type in www.ssa.gov/OP_Home/ssact/ssact-index.htm. On the left is Index to Topic and on the right Index to Program. Click the first topic under A that reveals on the right A programs under that topic. You will need to click each topic on the left to see all the sub programs under each on the right. This is just under Volume 1 of the Social Security Act. There is also a Volume II Table of Contents and Volume II Alphabetical Table of Contents.

Extreme McCarthyism?

I think even the late Sen. Joseph McCarthy, one of the greatest pursurer of alleged communists anywhere, would be embarrassed by the idiocy going on in Congress today. To quote Charlie Brown again, “Good grief.”

This story was originally published April 1, 2017 at 9:00 PM with the headline "This is Viewpoints for Sunday, April 2, 2017."