Six Nominees for Second Circuit Vacancy

The names of Six attorneys have been submitted to the governor for him to select a judge for
the new seat on the Second Judicial Circuit:

http://www.tallahassee.com/mld/tallahassee/news/local/12410260.htm

• Linzie F. Bogan, 39, of Tallahassee. He is senior assistant attorney general in the ethics division of the Attorney General's Office.
• Dawn Caloca-Johnson, 41, of Tallahassee. She is administrative general magistrate for the 2nd Judicial Circuit. She reports to Chief Judge Charles Francis, handles her own family-law caseload and supervises traffic and other hearing officers across the circuit and their staff.
• David M. De La Paz, 46, of Crawfordville. He is staff director for the House Committee on Public Safety and Crime Prevention.
• Angela C. Dempsey, 36, of Tallahassee. She is senior assistant general counsel for the Department of Environmental Protection.
• Tim Harley, 54, of Tallahassee. He has been a Leon County judge since 2000, and was formerly an assistant prosecutor under State Attorney Willie Meggs.
• L. Clayton Roberts, 40, of Tallahassee. As executive deputy attorney general, he is the No. 3 man in the Attorney General's Office. Roberts is a former director of the state's Division of Elections, including during the 2000 election.
Bush now has 60 days to interview and select one of the six.
Circuit judges handle all circuit court matters, including felonies, civil suits exceeding $15,000, domestic relations, probate and juvenile justice. They are paid $139,497 a year.

Interview Schedule for Second Judicial Circuit

The Second Circuit Judicial Nominating Commission is pleased to announce the schedule of interviews for applicants applying for nomination to the circuit court for the Second Judicial Circuit. The Commission encourages and seeks comments regarding the qualifications of these applicants from the public, and members of the Bench and Bar. The members of the Second Circuit Judicial Nominating Commission are Peter Antonacci, Kim Bertron, Anne Corcoran, Brian Duffy, Elaine Duggar, Warren Husband, Jose Lorenzo, Jessica Varn and Stephanie Williams. Contact information for the Commissioners is available on The Florida Bar’s website.
Second Circuit Judicial Nominating Commission
Schedule of Interviews
Monday, August 15, 2005
Florida State University College of Law
Room 210G (Dean’s Conference Room)
8:00 a.m. Linzie F. Bogan
8:45 a.m. Dawn Caloca-Johnson
9:30 a.m. John G. Van Laningham
10:15 a.m. David M. De La Paz
11:00 a.m. Angela C. Dempsey
11:45 a.m. Timothy D. Harley
1:15 p.m. Leonard Jackson Holton
2:00 p.m. Errol H. Powell
2:45 p.m. L. Clayton Roberts
3:30 p.m. James O. Shelfer
4:15 p.m. Gordon David Cherr
5:00 p.m. T. Kent Wetherell, II

Applicants for the new Second Judicial Circuit Seat

1. Augustus D. Aikens, Jr.
2. Linzie F. Bogan
3. D. Andrew Byrne
4. Dawn Caloca-Johnson
5. Meredith Charbula
6. Gordon David Cherr
7. David M. De La Paz
8. Angela C. Dempsey
9. Eddie Dean Evans
10. Kim M. Fluharty
11. Timothy D. Harley
12. Leonard Jackson Holton
13. S. Curtis Kiser
14. Dean C. Kowalchyk
15. R. Lynn Lovejoy
16. Martha Martin
17. Errol H. Powell
18. Michael P. Reiter
19. L. Clayton Roberts
20. Steven E. Sellers
21. James O. Shelfer
22. John G. Van Laningham
23. William L. Wallis
24. T. Kent Wetherell, II

Applicant interviews will take place August 15, 2006. The Second Circuit Judial Nominating Commission will send between three and six names to the Governor for selection of the new judge. Three of the applicants are Leon County Court Judges. Three of the applicants are Administrative Law Judges with the Division of Administrative Hearings. Two of the applicants are Magistrate/Hearing Officers for the Second Judicial Circuit.

Second Judicial Circuit Appointment

In the 2005 legislative session 55 judgeships at both the county and circuit level were approved by the legislature and signed into law by the governor. The Second Judicial Circuit, which includes Leon County, received one seat, which will begin November 1, 2005. The Second Judicial Circuit's Nominating Commission will accept applications for the seat ending July 13, 2005. There are nine people on the Second Circuit Nominating Commission, they are:

Stephanie L. Williams is the Associate Dean for Administration for the Florida State University College of Law. She is the chair of the Second Judicial Circuit’s Judicial Nominating Committee.
http://www.law.fsu.edu/faculty/profiles/profiles.php?Department=31&Employee=2
swilliam@law.fsu.edu

Pete Antonacci is a partner with Gray Robinson, he used to be the Deputy Attorney General.
http://www.grayharris.com/attorney.php?ACTION=view&ID=130
pva@gray-robinson.com

Kim W. Bertron is a lobbyist and used to work for the legislature.
http://www.bertronconsulting.com/profhist.htm
kwb@bertronconsulting.com

Anne Corcoran is an attorney.

Brian S. Duffy is a civil defense attorney and leads the civil litigation group at McConnaughhey, Duffy, Coonrod, Pope & Weaver. http://mcconnaughhay.com/index.cfm/ps/PageId=168/SubPageId=51/Duffy
bduffy@mcconnaughhay.com

Elaine Duggar is a certified Marital & Family lawyer practicing with Gardner, Wadsworth, Duggar, Bist & Wiener, P.A.
elaine@gwdbw.com

Warren H. Husband is an administrative lawyer with Metz, Hauser, Husband & Daughton.
http://www.metzlaw.com/profiles/1025782.html
whh@metzlaw.com

Jose B. Lorenzo is the Director, Program, Policy & Institutional Review, in the Office of Student Financial Assistance at the Florida Department of Education. He is also an attorney.
JOSE.LORENZO@FLDOE.ORG

Jessica E. Varn is a Commissioner on the Public Employees Relations Commission.
jessica.varn@perc.state.fl.us

These nine people will review the applications and interview candidates. Traditionally, only some applicants were interviewed, but the current governor likes the Commissions to interview all applicants and most do so. Then between three and six names are sent to the governor for him to select a candidate. The current governor prefers to have more choices rather than fewer, so most Commissions send six names.

Appointments are quite different from elections, requiring much less time to make application. It would be interesting to know if fundamentally different candidates are selected by appointment vs. election.

This is a test

We're getting Lisa set up here!

Private to public life

So I begin the transition from private life to public. Julian Dozier wrote in a letter to the editor in the Tallahassee Democrat today:

"While maintaining separate business and personal lives is certainly a healthy idea, those who serve the public must be aware that such service may not always be needed at the most convenient time." http://www.tallahassee.com/mld/tallahassee/news/editorial/letters/11942120.htm

He was writing about a County Commissioner's recent public outburst of temper, but he could have been writing about any number of aspects of public life. During the four hurricanes last year, I worked nearly 100 days straight without a whole day off. It was axiomatic that the service was inconvenient, but necessary. When I was young and enlisted in the Navy, we toiled on 12 hour shifts, six days a week, to keep aircraft maintained to support the Libyan bombings. Considering that young servicemen were dying in their barracks and in nightclubs from suicide bombers, it was also not a particularly convenient time to be on active duty. This morning, in a more mundane public/private life inconvenience, my kid was sick, my sitter had a grandchild in hospital and I'm working on a brief.

As I prepare to become first a candidate, and then possibly a judge, I am thinking about the changes I am making to pursue the next level of public service. Thinking about becoming a judge is something most lawyers do at some point in their career, and in Florida, there are two ways to become a trial court judge. First, and the method by which most judges attain the bench, is by appointment.

A candidate submits an application for a vacant seat and the application is reviewed by the local Judicial Nominating Commission. The Commission interviews candidates, and sends a short list to the Governor to select an appointee. Unlike the federal system, there is no consent by the Senate required. In some ways the process is little different from applying for a job, except that you are interviewed by a panel of about 15 people. http://www.flsenate.gov/Statutes/index.cfm?Mode=Constitution&Submenu=3&Tab=statutes#A05S11

The alternate method is by election. Trial court judges are nominally up for election every 6 years, but their seats are rarely in peril, and trial court judges are routinely unopposed. From time to time, though, a seat is available for election. Next year, Judge Modisett will retire at the end of his term, and his seat will be open for election. The last time there was an open County Court seat, 8 people ran for it. So far, only one person has filed, I will not file until October, but I'm sure more people will declare as the deadline for commencing qualification by petition approaches.

Seeking a judicial seat by election is very different than seeking one by appointment. Appointment, while certainly intensely political, is simply not the same investment of time and money as an election. Even judicial elections have become expensive, there was a circuit court election in Jacksonville in 2002 where one candidate raised over $320,000 and the other over $270,000. In our own circuit, Judge Cooper raised over $70,000 in his 2002 election campaign. In the same year, Judge Francis raised over $65,000 for his re-election. By qualifying time, both were the sole candidates for their seats. http://election.dos.state.fl.us/

Keep in mind that neither Judge Cooper nor Judge Francis asked anyone for a campaign contribution. While all candidates must abide by election laws set out by state statute, judges and judicial candidate must also follow canons of ethics set out by the Florida Supreme Court. Those canons prohibit judicial candidates from asking for campaign contributions, but permit members of a judge's campaign committee to request for campaign contributions for the judge's or judicial candidate's campaign. http://www.floridasupremecourt.org/decisions/ethics/index.shtml

So in order to become a judge by election, a judicial candidate must become a public figure, and is subject to both elections laws and the code of judicial conduct. For most of us mere mortals, such a move requires some adjustment.

Some are simple to do and not particularly onerous: brush your hair and glance in the mirror before you walk out the door. Some are harder to accept: The decision to become a public person is to be permanently subject to media scrutiny.

Penny Herman, who has been out of public office for nearly a decade, had the grave misfortune to run over her next door neighbor in her driveway. It resulted in a lengthy article on the front page of the local section. But for her involvement, I suspect the incident would have received less in depth coverage. I do not envy her situation, shocked and grieving, and the entire community knowing it.

Becoming a candidate and growing accustomed to being noticed in public and held to a high standard of behavior is just one step en route to becoming an elected judge. It appears that the entire process is the antithesis of convenience.

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