Ohio lawmakers propose rapid fire timeline to add an Adams County judge

By Nick Evans

Ohio Capital Journal

The effort to add a second judge in Adams County relies on a dramatically compressed timeline. Sponsors propose an emergency clause so the measure would take effect immediately. What’s more, the proposal lays out just three days for candidates to file, boards to certify and potential opponents to file protests.

What’re we doing?

From the outside looking in, the plan looks a lot like Republicans trying to get a do-over. After Democratic three term incumbent judge Brett Spencer, narrowly won reelection in 2022, the Republican-controlled county commission — one member of which was Spencer’s opponent — came out in favor a plan to add one more seat to the bench, splitting Spencer’s jurisdiction in the process.

The sponsors, Reps. Justin Pizzulli, R-Scioto County, and Jean Schmidt, R-Loveland, as well as the county commission, contend Adams County needs a second judge to handle the exploding caseload.

The problem is caseloads aren’t exploding. Supreme Court data pointed to troubling increases in specific kinds of juvenile cases, but overall, the report stated, “the court’s total number of cases has remained largely unchanged.”

In committee, County Commissioner Teresa Diane Ward pleaded ignorance of the report.

According to the letter, Pizzulli received the data July 26 — two months before even filing legislation.

Emergency?

Judge Spencer’s chief complaint with the measure was the way it split his authority, handing all responsibility for juvenile and probate cases to whomever wins election in 2024.

“I was elected as a common pleas, probate (and) juvenile court judge,” Spencer explained to the committee. “The juvenile division was my desire from the very beginning. But that wasn’t an option.”

“If you want to just add another probate (and) juvenile court judge,” he added, “and let me finish out my term, if you want to do that — absolutely no opposition.”

An amendment added last week clarifies that any delegation of authority will wait until the end of Spencer’s current term.

But more generally, Spencer criticized framing the issue as an emergency. Supporters repeatedly invoked a 2010 committee that considered adding another judge, to demonstrate how long local leaders have been working on the issue. But why rush to hold an election in 2024, Spencer argued, based on the opinion of committee 13 years ago?

When lawmakers pass a typical piece of legislation, it takes affect 90 days after the governor signs it into law. With the primary election in coming up in March, that means to have any realistic hope of getting a new judgeship on the ballot, the bill will have to pass as with an emergency clause. That provision means the law takes effect immediately, but it requires the support from 2/3 of the members in each chamber.

Even if that happens, the bill proposes a separate, rapid-fire timeline for candidate filing.

Filing timeline

November of 2024 is still a long way off, but politicians hoping to win office in the general election have less than a month to file for the primaries. The deadline, under ordinary circumstances, is December 20.

The Adams County measure pushes that deadline to January 4. And that makes some sense. Given the fact the bill has yet to clear committee, much less the House or Senate, gaining passage before the December 20 cut off would be an exceptionally heavy lift.

But the bill goes further. The board’s typical 13-day timeline for validating petition signatures must be complete by the very next day.

In an email, Adams County Board of Elections director Stephanie Lewis acknowledged, “Over the years, we have had several challenges, however, I don’t recall having anything quite like this one.”

Still, she said the board would be able to handle it.

“Fortunately for our county, we are small, and the impact would be minimal,” Lewis explained. “The expedited filing deadlines would require additional office hours for petition verification and to allow for a protest deadline that falls over the weekend.”

Normally, citizens would have three days after certification to file a protest — for instance, if they believed a candidate wasn’t actually a resident of the jurisdiction. Under the Adams County bill, those protests would need to be in the following day, just 48 hours after the candidate turned in their petitions.

What to make of it?

Both of the bill’s sponsors as well as the supporters who have appeared in committee urging the measure’s passage are Republicans. The county is heavily Republican, but those Democrats who live there don’t sound thrilled about the plan.

In an interview, Adams County Democratic Party vice chair Linda Stepp argued, “it appears, in my opinion, that it is an effort to make a job for a crony. That’s the way it looks to me.”

She’s filed written testimony with the committee questioning the motivation and the timing. Rep. Pizzulli was appointed to his position earlier this year to fill the vacancy when the governor tapped former Rep. Brian Baldridge to lead Ohio’s Ag Department. Stepp pointed out Baldridge never filed legislation to add a judge, despite serving nearly three terms in the state House.

Catherine Turcer, who heads up the government watchdog group Common Cause Ohio, was particularly critical of the bill’s timeline.

“it’s especially problematic because they didn’t sort this stuff out until the last minute,” she explained.

Turcer argued there’s nothing wrong with adding a new judge, but insisted the process should be deliberate, rather than rushed. “And it should not be as the consequence of someone winning a race for judge that the community powers-that-be don’t like,” she added.

Pushing the question of whether there will even be a judgeship on the ballot until the last moment limits the pool of candidates Turcer argued. Even with the bill’s extended filing deadline, potential candidates would have only about three weeks to gather signatures, much less decide whether they’re actually prepared to run. The presence of Christmas and New Years during that stretch only raises the level of difficulty.

As for whether county elections officials can handle the compressed timeline for validating petitions, Turcer agreed they probably could, but argued it’s inappropriate to expect them to do so.

“Whenever you adjust kind of standard operating procedure when it comes to elections—for a specific race — it should raise questions, and eyebrows,” she insisted.

Follow OCJ Reporter Nick Evans on Twitter.