Changes coming to Columbus Recorder’s Court

Five months before a new fiscal budget is approved, the Columbus Consolidated Government finds itself pumping more money into Recorder’s Court just two years after some alarms were raised.

A fiscal 2017 budget of $873,798 was approved July 1 for the court but the 10-member Columbus Council agreed last month to amend an existing agreement between the city and the Circuit Public Defender Office of the Chattahoochee Judicial Circuit to pay $136,799 to provide two attorneys, one investigator and an attorney for Saturday and holiday sessions through June for indigent defense services. Council is expected to consider the services in budget sessions for the entire fiscal 2018 budget.

“I’m assuming council is going to incorporate it into their budget, assuming everything goes well between now and the end of June,” said City Attorney Clifton Fay. “They have been spread too thin with the number of cases in there.”

Changes go into effect Wednesday in the court that hears traffic, criminal and city ordinance violations at a time when Chief Judge Michael P. Cielinski has been replaced by former Councilor Julius Hunter because he is retiring. Since November, Cielinski also has been at the center of a suit filed by the Southern Center for Human Rights against the city over the treatment of two indigent women who allege their Constitutional rights were violated and the court routinely refuses to grant defendants or attorneys access to court documents.

Other than Cielinski and the city, Mayor Teresa Tomlinson and former Recorder’s Court Clerk Terri Ezell also are named as defendants in the suit.

Fay said changes in the court were under consideration before the suit was filed. The court hears 60,000 to 80,000 cases each year, generating $3.3 million in fiscal 2015.

“They were looking at this anyway with the chief public defender and recommendations he had made to the council,” Fay said. “That is something we can get resolved as time goes on.”

Fay said the changes will make a more efficient operation. “All defendants that are in that court will have access to adequate public defenders when they need it,” he said.

The lone public defender, Charles Lykins, is expected to retire.

The suit also noted some of the same concerns Cielinski raised in March 2015 before he went to budget sessions. The judge said the sound system hasn’t been upgraded in 20 years, and that problems with the system make it difficult for people to hear their names called or hear the judge in their case. Failure to hear their name could make them subject to a fine.

Cielinski also asked the council for better seating, new carpet, and more pay for the judges, who are among the lowest paid in the state in one of the busiest courts. Cielinski earns $43,846 annually and the afternoon pro-tem Mary Buckner makes $40,716 in what is classified as part-time positions. To date, only the seating has been replaced and council has balked at any increases in salaries.

Fay said the two additional attorneys will be full-time employees. Their advertised salaries range from $46,662 to $65,000 a year, all substantially higher than the judges hearing the court cases.

Fay said the council is going to consider the whole structure of the court in its upcoming budget meetings.

“This was just to remedy the problem and get through the end of June,” he said. “This was a good first step.”

Steve Craft, the chief assistant public defender in the office of the Chattahoochee Circuit Public Defender, said his staff is ready to make the changes on Wednesday. “We could do it because of the existing resources we have,” he said. “We can step in quickly and bring in the people they have authorized us to hire.”

Craft wouldn’t name the senior attorney but said the person is extremely experienced, a former prosecutor and defense attorney who worked in the federal and state courts in Florida and state system in Georgia. “We are not putting some rookie over there,” he said.

Craft said his office is essentially a state agency which meets or exceeds all the standards in the courts. From the first time an attorney touches a case, Craft said, it will be better for everybody on both sides of the system.

“I think it’s a win-win for everybody,” he said. “We are putting more resources in there. It will be beneficial to the court. It will be beneficial to people in jail. It will in time filter up to state Superior Court and help with those cases, too.”

This story was originally published February 14, 2017 at 5:03 PM with the headline "Changes coming to Columbus Recorder’s Court."