Five mayors had made moves to block Christie from nominating a judge in shared court agreement among the towns
While taking questions from the audience during a town hall meeting today at St. Judes' Parish Hall, Gov. Chris Christie points to the back of the room as he calls on Douglas Wick, from Basking Ridge. MORRIS COUNTY — Gov. Chris Christie wants "local input" on nominees to joint municipal courts, but he will exercise his legal authority and exert final control over the appointments, his spokesman said today.
Responding to a dispute over the Dover Joint Municipal Court, Christie spokesman Kevin Roberts said the governor will likely approve the five Morris County towns’ nominee for presiding judge — former Parsippany mayor Michael Luther.
"Mr. Luther by all appearances is qualified," Roberts said. "But he’s still going to be vetted by this office. We won’t be a rubber stamp."
After publication of an article in The Star-Ledger on Tuesday, Christie called two mayors who were quoted, in an effort to resolve disagreements over the court. The article reported that the mayors drafted a plan to convert the joint court into a shared court, which would enable them to appoint a judge themselves.
SHARED SERVICES
The joint court was started just two years ago under a shared-service agreement that was expected to save $2.65 million over 10 years. With a shared court, the towns would share a building but would have to run separate courts, which would require more bookkeeping and would likely cost more money.
Christie’s call to Mayor William Chegwidden of Wharton proved so encouraging to the mayors that they decided to put the shared court plan on hold. Christie "is looking out for what the municipalities want, and he wanted the input of the mayors," according to Chegwidden.
"I told him we put a lot of time into this (joint court) and we’d still like some local control."
Christie "agreed he would appoint our recommendation," Chegwidden said.
Roberts acknowledged Christie had called Chegwidden, but said the towns still need to formally submit their nomination of Luther.
Dover Mayor James Dodd said Luther’s nomination papers, including his résumé, were turned in Jan. 5.
"We’ll be glad to submit them again," he said.
Christie’s office released three letters sent to the five mayors in January and February.
The letters, from the governor’s appointments counsel, Michele Brown, noted the towns had "taken steps to dismantle the joint municipal court in order to avoid the required gubernatorial appointment process, which may result in additional financial expenditures to your municipalities."
WANTS A LOOK
"Rather than take this drastic step, we would encourage you to forward Mr. Luther’s résumé to this office, and we will have him go through our vetting process," Brown said in a letter dated Jan. 21.
Governors have always had authority over appointment of judges to joint courts, but in the past they quickly accepted the towns’ recommendations, according to municipal and judicial spokesmen.
The post in the Dover court has been vacant since the former presiding judge, Philip Maenza, was promoted to the state Superior Court in January 2010. The second judge in Dover, Arnold Miniman, has been serving as acting presiding judge. The towns were preparing to announce Luther’s nomination when someone from the governor’s office called Dover Mayor Dodd in late 2010 and said the governor would name the judge himself.
"What was said was the governor was going to come into town and put this ship right," Dodd recalled.
"It took us aback because the court is a huge benefit to all the communities involved."
But the mayors’ tone changed after Christie’s call to Chegwidden on Tuesday.
"I give (Christie) all the credit in the world because he called me directly," Chegwidden said.
"A lot of times, if you’re not dealing with someone directly, the message gets lost with the messenger."