Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed said he wants to appoint two more city judges because he expects the municipal court to help pay for the expansion of the police department through imposing more fines.
Reed said he wants police writing 200,000 tickets a year again -- as he said they did more than a decade ago. That would add millions of dollars more annually to the city budget that could be funneled into the police department.
"We want to use all the resources from traffic enforcement," Reed told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. "I intend to have all the judges working hard."
Reed vetoed City Council legislation reducing the court from 10 judges to eight. There currently are two judge vacancies because of retirements.
The council made the cut to eliminate two vacancies after a city auditor report found the court's workload -- the judges average 11 hours a week on the bench -- only justified five judges. The audit said eliminating five positions would save at least $2.3 million annually and council figures showed each judge position costs taxpayers $870,000 annually.
The mayor said policy, not patronage, will drive his decision. However, Reed would not commit to not picking a council member or a member of his staff for one of the posts if they were a finalist from the city's judicial nominating committee.
"I won't make any commitment that will limit my ability to appoint a judge," he said.
But Reed said he had no plans to appoint his chief of staff, Candace Byrd, a former city chief public defender, who has been mentioned as a potential judge candidate.
"I think she is qualified," he said. "I don't think she has any interest at all."
He declined to comment on whether he would appoint another mentioned potential candidate, Councilwoman Keisha Lance Bottoms, a former city public defender and former part-time judge in Fulton State Court.
"Anybody who is appointed would have to be well qualified," Reed said.
The council, which voted 9-5 for the court reduction, will discuss Monday whether to override the mayor's veto. Councilman Kwanza Hall, who missed the last vote, said Saturday he doesn't know if he'll vote for the override, for which 10 votes are needed.
David Edwards, a policy adviser on courts for former Mayor Shirley Franklin, said Reed is reversing the trend of making the courts more financially accountable. When Franklin became mayor in 2002, the city had two court systems: traffic court and municipal court.
Franklin found financial waste, mismanagement, possible corruption and patronage in the courts, Edwards said. As late as 2010, Edwards asked the council to reduce the court to seven judges.
"They were way overstaffed," he said. "We were able to cut the costs so the court became a net contributor to the general fund. I can't think of any rationale for expanding the court."
Reed, a state legislator at the time, introduced the state law to dismantle the traffic court and move its cases to the municipal court. The court still has public defenders for traffic or ordinance violators who want a bench trial.
Reed said accusations he is not interested in cost savings are laughable because as a legislator he helped slash the court budget $10 million by cutting judges from 17 to 10 and massively shrinking staff.
Reed said the information he got while crafting the legislation years ago allowed him to feel confident in challenging the conclusion of City Auditor Leslie Ward and her team of four certified public accountants.
“I believe 10 judges is the right number, and I think it is fair to say the judges should work harder,” Reed said. He offered no studies to support his stance that Ward's audit is wrong.
The audit said the police -- which Reed said are currently writing about 150,000 tickets a year -- would have to double the amount of tickets to provide enough volume to get the judges to a normal work week.
About the Author
