Why add nine more Cook judges?
Right now, 272 full circuit court judges in Cook County are in the process of casting secret ballots to select nine new associate judges.
The judicial vacancies are about to be filled, as a matter of course. As a matter of cost, they will add $2.1 million to our tax bills statewide in their first year of work. Those judges will get automatic raises each year thereafter.
Those associate judges are not needed.
The current 272 circuit judges, and an additional 143 associates in Cook, represent a county with a shrinking population, census data show.
And, as staff writer Jake Griffin reported last week, a 2010 Illinois Supreme Court study found that Cook County’s judges had caseloads that were more than 12 percent lower than the state average.
Cook County judges averaged 3,710 new cases that year. That number was nearly 90 percent less than the 7,030 new cases taken on then by DuPage County judges.
And yet, despite the trend toward fewer people and fewer cases, Cook County Chief Judge Timothy Evans is proceeding with a vote to seat nine new judges. Those judges will cost state taxpayers $1.54 million in salaries in their first year of work and another $576,141 in pension costs.
What is as disturbing is that the county’s top officials are mum on this significant topic. Evans did not respond to repeated requests for comment. Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle declined to comment.
As we said one week ago in this spot, judges perform critical and courageous work. And they should be well compensated. They are. As we also said one week ago, circuit court judges are paid more in Illinois than in any other state nationwide. And now in Cook County, judges are about to add to that tax burden with nine new associates.
Two suburban Republican Cook County commissioners, Tim Schneider of Bartlett and Gregg Goslin of Glenview, are speaking up and questioning this significant expense.
“We should not hire those people unless it’s absolutely necessary,” Schneider said.
“You go to Rolling Meadows (courthouse) at 2:30 in the afternoon and you can roll a bowling ball through there and not hit anyone,” Goslin added.
We understand judges need to do some work and thinking in their offices, but Goslin’s not the first one to make that observation.
One week ago, we called for the governor and legislators to put an amendment on the ballot so voters can consider changing the state constitution to stop annual, automatic pay raises for judges statewide. Again, we believe our judges should be well paid, but not the best paid.
Today, we call upon elected officials to stop the seemingly automatic hiring of these nine associates. The silence on these expensive, taxpayer-funded salary matters has been deafening, and shameful.