The Alaska Judicial Council is holding a hearing in Nome on December 8th, taking public comments on candidates for the Nome Superior Court Judge vacancy. Five attorneys have applied for the seat after the departure of Judge Tim Dooley, who has been on leave since January due to illness.
The Alaska Judicial Council is responsible for screening individuals who want to become judges, in addition to reviewing performances of sitting judges. It’s made up of three attorneys selected by the Alaska Bar Association and three public members appointed by the governor. The Chief Justice of the Alaska Supreme Court serves as the seventh member and chair and will be presiding over the hearing tomorrow.
Susanne Dipietro is the Executive Director for the Alaska Judicial Council. She says her job is to assist members in selecting only “the most qualified” candidates for judicial vacancies. “They apply, and then, we do a very extensive evaluation of their careers, including every job they’ve ever had. We go to the bar association, people who’ve worked with them, and people who’ve worked against them. We also go to the judges who may have seen their practice, and we ask all those people to tell us how they did. Were they good attorneys? Were they not so good attorneys? Were they smart? Were they diligent? Were they ethical? Did they have a good temperament? That’s a very important quality.”
The list of applicants for the Nome Superior Court Judge seat includes John A. Earthman, Brooke Browning Alowa, Romano D. DiBenedetto, Tara Logsdon, and Bride Seifert. A sixth applicant, Joan Wilson, withdrew her application on Friday afternoon, and Judge Dooley chose not stand for retention.
At the December 8th hearing, Dipietro says the Council wants to hear not only about the qualities and support for candidates, but also about the community of Nome and the needs of the region. “What is the community looking for in a Nome Superior Court Judge? What are the special qualities of Nome? What are the special challenges, and what are the qualities or characteristics or skills or knowledge or abilities of a person who would be a Superior Court judge there?”
Three other communities also have judicial vacancies: Kenai, Bethel, and Dillingham. Nome is the last stop on the Council’s public hearing tour, which started December 3rd.
After tomorrow’s hearing, the Council will conduct final interviews with each candidate, deliberate, and then return for a vote in public. Once that vote is finalized, those nominees go to the governor. According to the Alaska Constitution, the Council must send at least two names to the governor, who must fill judicial vacancies within forty-five days.
But with Governor Walker battling health issues and scheduled for surgery out of state this month, an extension to that requirement was unanimously approved November 22nd. Dipietro explains that Walker “felt that factor and the fact that there are so many vacancies to fill, it would be difficult for him to make his decisions in 45 days. So the Council is just delaying submission of the names to the governor by a few weeks, so his 45 days will start on January 2nd.”
Nome’s public hearing on the Superior Court judge vacancy will be held at the Nome Courthouse tomorrow, Thursday, December 8th, starting at 1:30 pm. The public is encouraged to attend or call-in with comments.
