by Ivan Foley
Landmark editor
Not one, but two judge positions need to be filled in Platte County, and the process to do so gets rolling very soon.
The recent appointment of Platte County Circuit Court Judge Gary Witt to the Western District Missouri Court of Appeals created an obvious opening in Platte County.
The second need wasn’t as obvious to observers on the outside: When Judge Daniel Czamanske turns age 70 in May, he will be forced to step down per state statute on the age limitation.
As a result, the Sixth District Commission is accepting applications for two associate circuit judge positions to be filled in the coming months.
And interested Platte Countians should get used to the process, as Platte County has two other judges who are not all that far from the mandatory retirement age of 70. Both Judge Lee Hull and Judge Abe Shafer will turn 70 in 2013. Their birthdays are only about six weeks apart; both were born in 1943.
Applications and instructions for those seeking to apply may be obtained at the Missouri Court of Appeals, Western District, 1300 Oak Street, Kansas City, Missouri. Applicants may also download an application and instructions from the Missouri Judiciary's web site (http://www.courts.mo.gov under Judicial Vacancies). A single form will serve as an application for both openings. The commission will conduct a single set of interviews of all applicants for the two vacancies.
As reported in last week’s Landmark, members of the commission are Thomas H. Newton, Chief Judge, Missouri Court of Appeals, Western District; attorneys Scott L. Campbell and James D. Boggs, of Platte County; and lay members Judy Stokes and David B. Barth, of Platte County.
The commission will select from the applicants which candidates it wishes to interview.
All applications must be received before 4:30 p.m. on Thursday, March 4.
Names of those applying will be released to the public prior to the interviews, which will be conducted a week after the application deadline.
The commission will meet on Thursday, March 11, at the Platte County Courthouse to interview applicants and select a panel of three nominees for the vacancy created by Judge Witt’s appointment to the Missouri Court of Appeals, Western District.
Gov. Jay Nixon will make the selection from that panel of three. The two who are not chosen will go back into the pool of candidates to fill the judgeship opening that will be created with Czamanske’s retirement.
Just because a person was selected to the panel of three on the first go-round does not necessarily mean that person will be included on the second panel of three to fill Czamanske’s spot, observers told The Landmark.
Following the governor’s selection of one of the nominees from this panel, the commission will meet to select, from the same applicant pool, a second panel of three nominees for the vacancy created by Judge Czamanske’s impending retirement.
As the commission doesn’t know the date the governor will select a nominee from the first panel of nominees, it cannot yet announce the date for the commission’s meetings to select the second panel. It will do so as soon as feasible following the governor’s selections, according to a commission spokesperson.
The Missouri Constitution, Article V, section 21, requires that an associate circuit judge be at least twenty-five years old, licensed to practice law in Missouri, a citizen of the United States for at least 10 years, a qualified voter of Missouri for the three years preceding selection, and a resident of the Sixth Judicial Circuit for at least one year.
(EDITOR’S NOTE: For commentary on this topic, including a list of names of folks who may show interest in getting an appointment, check out the Between the Lines column on page 2).
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