The Haines court. (Emily Files)
The Haines District Court will host a community meeting this evening to get feedback from Haines residents about the court’s services.
Due to budget cuts, the Alaska Court system has been consolidating magistrate positions in small towns throughout Southeast Alaska.
In 2016, John Hutchins announced that he was going to retire from his appointment as the Haines Magistrate. The court system decided to pass his responsibilities over to Yakutat Magistrate Mary Kay Germain.
In addition to handling Yakutat cases, Germain presided over Haines and Hoonah as well. This required her to hold some hearings over the phone.
Judge Linn Asper, a retired Haines resident who served as the local magistrate for six years in the early ‘90s, thought this situation was unfair.
“I just didn’t like the idea of things done long distance. So since I am an appointed district court judge, all it took was a signature by the supreme court chief justice to put me back here in Haines acting as what they call a pro tem judge, a temporary judge,” Asper said.
Since the end of 2016, Judge Asper has performed the magistrate’s duties on a part-time basis, working three mornings a week.
He has been extending his appointment each fiscal year, and his current appointment lasts until the end of next July.
However, the plan to have one magistrate preside over Haines and several other communities is ongoing.
“The plan has been all along to—through retirements and attrition—eventually they would consolidate magistrate positions in Yakutat, Haines and Skagway into one position. A magistrate, full time, sitting in Haines and serving the other communities by going there, but mostly by telephone,” Asper said.
According to Asper, this arrangement won’t be implemented until 2020.
This kind of consolidation will take place in other communities across Southeast Alaska as well. For example, since Wrangell Magistrate Chris Ellis retired last month, the Petersburg magistrate will now preside over that community as well.
The reason for this paring down of magistrate appointments comes down to budget cuts.
“It’s just the court system has been real proactive in cutting their own budget and making due with less, and as a result, the legislature hasn’t cut them any more than they’ve asked to be cut. But we’re kind of down to the bare bones now,” Asper said.
Monday’s community meeting will address a few recent changes for the Haines District Court. Haines is normally covered by a superior court judge and a district court judge. They come to town to conduct jury trials or significant civil cases.
District Court Judge Tom Nave retired last month. He took on the misdemeanor cases in Haines. His position will be upgraded to a superior court judgeship. For the time being, Superior Court Judge Philip Pallenberg who has handled Haines felony cases will handle misdemeanors as well.
“Since Judge Pallenberg has a trial scheduled for next monday, I think the purpose of that meeting is to get him up here and have him participate with the court administrative people to meet the community,” Asper said.
In addition, the court has installed new video technology since its last public meeting and is seeking feedback from residents on the devices.
The meeting will take place at the Haines District Court Monday, July 9 from 7 to 8:30 p.m.
