HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) - Connecticut Gov. Dannel P. Malloy’s nominations of 32 state judges over the past month are drawing questions and criticism from Republican lawmakers over the number of state jobs the Democrat is offering in his final year in office as well as new costs amid a budget deficit.
Many of the nominations are up for votes in the state House and Senate this week, the final full week of the legislative session. House lawmakers on Monday approved nearly a dozen of Malloy’s nominees for Superior Court judges by slim party line votes, with Republicans opposing them on the grounds of cost - not qualifications.
Democrats hold a small majority in the House but are tied with Republicans in the Senate, where Democratic Lt. Gov. Nancy Wyman can break tie votes. One nominee has withdrawn, leaving 31 nominations pending.
“We don’t need all these judges,” Republican Rep. Themis Klarides, the House minority leader, said Monday.
Republican state Sen. Heather Somers of Groton also questioned whether there were politics in the nominations.
“Is this just the governor’s parting gift?” Somers asked, in an interview with The Day newspaper. “I don’t know.”
The Senate approved some judge nominations Tuesday afternoon, with several Republicans breaking ranks to support the nominees.
Malloy has nominated triple the number of judges that the previous governor, Republican M. Jodi Rell, recommended in her final year in office in 2010.
The governor counters that the current number of judges is the lowest it has been in a decade and all his nominees would refill the positions of judges who will leave because of retirements and elevations to higher state courts by 2019. He says that when he leaves office, 21 of the maximum 185 Superior Court judge positions allowed by law would remain vacant.
The number of new criminal and civil cases in state courts has decreased over the past several years, judiciary records show. And there aren’t enough staff members for the nearly 160 judges on the payroll now, resulting in cases often being delayed, according to Judge Patrick Carroll III, the chief court administrator.
The cost of hiring a judge includes about $168,000 for the judge’s salary and more than $120,000 for three support staff. Hiring 31 new judges and support staff would cost about $9 million a year. The cost would be offset by about $3 million already in the budget for 11 judges who will retire by June 2019 and their staff, Carroll said.
The state’s budget deficit this fiscal year is estimated at $380 million.
Malloy’s nominees include James Spallone, chief legal counsel for Democrats in the state House of Representatives and a former Democratic state representative; Eric Coleman, a former Democratic state senator; and Nuala Droney, a Hartford lawyer and daughter of a former state Democratic Party chairman.
Malloy, however, can only nominate people who applied to be judges and were approved by the state Judicial Selection Commission. The 12-member panel of lawyers and non-lawyers cannot have more than six members who belong to the same political party.
The number of total judicial employees has dropped by about 600 to just over 3,200 since 2010. There are about 250 fewer employees than there were in 2016, when there were layoffs.
“Any new judge you put on there is going to take its toll on the whole judicial system,” said Charles DellaRocco, president of a judicial employees union. “We’re working at bare minimum levels. There’s just no way our members could take it.”
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