The Issue
At this weeks County BOC I voted in favor of authorizing Chair Brace to draft a letter of support for SB 361 a judicial compliment bill pending in Harrisburg. If added to the bill an 11th Judge in Lehigh Co. would take office in 2026. A Judge has not been added to the Lehigh Co. Court of Common Pleas for almost 20 years.
President Judge Johnson on behalf of all 10 current Court of Common Pleas Judges made the request along with a compelling argument including increasing complexities and volume of caseloads. But the most straight forward rationale is simply the fact that our population continues to increase. Since 2004 when a 10th Judge was added the County population has increased by 20% resulting in an increased demand on the courts. Further, over the next 3 decades the LVPC is forecasting this trend to continue. Valley wide LVPC predicts another 100,000 residents. The majority in Lehigh County. According to Judge Johnsons letter, Judges in Lehigh carry some of the highest caseloads among 3rd class counties despite having as many as 5 fewer Judges. He also cited a now almost 10 year old steady that in 2004 concluded the County required 10.59 Judges. Again, the population has increased since then and will continue to. Important to remember, the window to take action on these items only comes every few years.
Why is this necessary? Why does this matter? And why is the cost necessary? The way I see this, the US Constitution obliges us. The 6th amendment deals with the rights of the accused. This includes impartial Juries, a public trial and one without un-necessary delays. Courts are a core function of County government and among our prime responsibilities. Basically, this is core rule of law stuff we’re considering.
As a matter of background, I’m often pushing back on (even if well meaning) efforts by some to engage Lehigh county government in areas that are “outside of our lane”. This happens fairly often in County Gov because our responsibilities are so clearly defined. What we deal with and what we don’t deal with are specifically laid out.
As per the expense, yes this is going to be a significant expense. But it’s within our core functions and so it’s not just validated but required and necessary. A constitutional obligation.
The Cost
While the state bears (in theory) the cost of salaries, ancillary costs are high estimated at over 400,000 dollars a year. This includes operating costs (software, transcriptions etc) and personnel costs (support staff + sheriff wages).
Looping back to the Judge salary, while the state is obligated to fund it (70k per year) in recent allocations they have not entirely. Most recently only funding at a level of 45k per Judge. As judges are added across the state, the allocation pool has not increased. A problem is that while counties like Lehigh have seen increasing populations across the majority of the state most have seen decreases. Counties with decreasing population have not reduced their number of Judges even if possibly warranted based on population and caseload. This means everyone gets less pie. Including those who need it.