After handling an increasing caseload for the past few years, the Puyallup Municipal Court will have a full-time elected judge.
The city’s current judge, Stephen Shelton, has worked part time for 15 years handling all Puyallup’s municipal cases, which include traffic tickets and misdemeanors.
But Puyallup’s court filings rose by 14 percent between 2006 and 2007. It was more than Shelton could handle working four days a week, even with the help of an eight-hour-per-week pro tem judge, he said.
The City Council agreed this week, voting Tuesday to make Shelton’s position full-time, starting this month. He will have to drop his part-time service on the bench in neighboring Sumner.
An election will be held to fill the Puyallup position in November 2009.
Under state law, all judges being compensated for more than 35 hours a week must be elected. Starting in 2010, the person elected to the Puyallup post will take the bench. Until then, Shelton will fill the role, working 40 hours a week instead of 34.
Shelton will now hear cases five days a week in Puyallup. He said the change will make Puyallup’s court more consistent.
“One judge will be the only one hearing cases,” Shelton said.
Shelton’s new salary will be $127,521 a year, up from about $106,500 for four days a week. That cost will be offset by $22,000 the city will save by not hiring a pro tem judge one day a week, said City Manager Gary McLean.
The city can also receive up to a $24,000 reimbursement from the state for having a full-time elected judge, McLean said.
The state Administrative Office of the Courts found in 2007 that the Puyallup court’s workload merits 1.41 full-time judges.
The change is especially timely given traffic fines being generated by the city’s new automated traffic cameras, Shelton said.
“There will be probably a significant onslaught of cases where people will be requesting hearings on their photo citations,” Shelton said. “I think we’re certainly at a point in case volume that we need a full-time position.”
Puyallup Mayor Don Malloy agreed that the change was necessary.
“Our judge was working two places at the same time,” Malloy said. “I think it’s just time to face the reality that it was just the next step for our city.”
Sumner Mayor Dave Enslow said he’ll have to appoint a judge to replace Shelton in Sumner, where he has presided over cases for the past five years.
Enslow and city staff have yet to discuss how to find a replacement, he said. The Sumner judge works one day a week, currently on Wednesdays.
“We’re sorry to see him go,” Enslow said. “It’s a very important appointment I’ll have to make.”
Melissa Santos: 253-552-7058
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