Judicial hopefuls list lacks diversity
No women or minorities among city-court finalists
The race, religion, sex and political affiliation of candidates chosen as finalists for Phoenix Municipal Court judge positions aren’t supposed to be considerations. In fact, city rules expressly prohibit it.
But concerns about the diversity of the city’s bench, which rules on things from traffic violations to Class 1 misdemeanors, are overshadowing the search for a new leader of the court.
Some in the Valley’s legal community are accusing City Council members of inappropriately meddling in the search because at least one council member doesn’t like that all finalists
for the job are White males.
Phoenix is hiring a replacement for former Chief Presiding Judge Roxanne Song Ong, who retired in November after nine years leading the court. Ong, who is Chinese-American, was the first woman and the first person of color to be the city’s chief judge.
An advisory board made up of some of the state’s most prominent judges and attorneys recently recommended three candidates for the position, all of whom are white men. Two Latina women were among the five candidates the board interviewed, but neither made the final cut.
City Councilman Michael Nowakowski has delayed hiring a new presiding judge by canceling interviews with the finalists that were scheduled for April. On Wednesday, the council subcommittee he leads is supposed to discuss next steps. That subcommittee vets finalists before a full council vote.
He said he most likely will vote to ask the judicial-selection board to come back with a larger list of candidates. Nowakowski, who is Latino, said the next chief judge doesn’t have to be a woman or a minority, but the candidate pool should be more inclusive and look “like the city of Phoenix looks.”
“To be honest with you, that was my concern,” said Nowakowski, referring to diversity on the bench. “If they’re all qualified and capable, then send them all up. I have no written explanation, no verbal explanation why the other two weren’t sent up.”
Concerns also have come from the AfricanAmerican community. A group of seven Black ministers, political leaders and attorneys sent a letter to the council on Monday, lamenting that the pool of finalists is “devoid of any people of color.”
“The fact that not one person of color emerged as a candidate, post-vetting, is a sign that the process is flawed,” the letter states. “Exclusion, conscious or unconscious, does not lend itself towards positive community building.”
The letter alludes to recent unrest in the wake of police shootings of Black men in Baltimore, Ferguson, Mo., and other American cities, saying the city must “act in intentional ways” that allow people of color to have trust in the justice system. One of the letter-writers, the Rev. Jarrett Maupin, said the group believes that protests in those cities were, in part, fueled by a perception in minority communities that a lack of representation in key positions has helped stack the justice system against them.
City code charges the Judicial Selection Advisory Board with interviewing applicants for the position and recommending candidates for the City Council to choose from. While the board is prohibited from considering a candidate’s race, religion, sex or political affiliation, that prohibition doesn’t apply to the council’s final decision.
The position is highprofile given the city has one of the largest court systems in the state, handling about 250,000 cases per year. Phoenix’s presiding judge functions as the court’s administrative head, overseeing about 280 employees and preparing its budget of $35 million.
Members of the city’s judicial-selection board are adamant that the three candidates they selected are the most qualified, more so than the two women who weren’t recommended.
“I value diversity on the bench quite a bit,” said Arizona Court of Appeals Division 1 Chief Judge Diane Johnsen, who serves on the advisory board. “But having said that, I voted for the applicants that I thought, after giving the matter a lot of consideration, were the most qualified.”
Councilwoman Thelda Williams, who sits on Nowakowski’s subcommittee, said the council’s questioning of the selection process has caused a stir, which she characterized as “disappointment” and “outrage,” in the legal community. She said Nowakowski and the council must follow the meritbased precedent that has served the city well.
Councilwomen Laura Pastor and Kate Gallego, who also serve on the subcommittee, were not available for comment.
Mayor Greg Stanton, an attorney, said the council should follow the process outlined in the city’s rules and interview the three finalists before deciding whether to ask for additional names.
“Phoenix’s judicial selection process, which is based on Arizona’s incredibly successful meritbased system, has produced a stellar and diverse judiciary of which we should all be proud,” Stanton said in a written statement. “We have a responsibility to respect the process, see it play out, and keep politics out of it.”
Nathan Kunz, a Phoenix attorney, said it appears some council members want to throw out the process to score points with specific interest groups. The city should look at diversity on the bench more broadly and examine recruiting practices, but starting over now would set a bad precedent, he said.
“The legal community doesn’t like politics interfering with courts, and here we have politics directly interfering with courts. It’s disappointing,” said Kunz, who is supporting Kevin Kane, a Phoenix Municipal Court judge and finalist for the position.
In addition to Kane, the selection board recommended Judge Robert Carter Olson, former chief presiding judge for the Pinal County Superior Court, and B. Don Taylor, the executive court administrator for the Phoenix court. Kane is the first openly gay man to serve on the city’s bench.
Board members also interviewed two Latina women with lengthy legal and judicial careers: Barbara Rodriguez Mundell, former presiding judge for the Maricopa County Superior Court (she was the first female and Hispanic in that position), and Francisca Cota, a judge for the Phoenix court.
Several advisoryboard members interviewed by The Arizona Republic said they couldn’t talk about details of the selection process because the deliberations occurred in a closed-door executive session. However, the seven-member panel, including judges, attorneys and city resi- dents, was unanimous in its decision.
Nowakowski said Phoenix, which recently approved a plan to combat pay disparities for women, must practice what it preaches by providing opportunities for women and minorities. He said his subcommittee has worked to increase the diversity of the city’s bench.
According to the court, half of its 20 sitting fulltime judges are women and eight are Hispanic or African-American.