Editorial: Judicial mandate not popular device



Opinion: The Goshen (Ind.) news





Mention a judicial mandate to a county council member and it is guaranteed to cause an increase in blood pressure.

A judicial mandate ordering pay hikes for court employees in Montgomery County was recently upheld by the Indiana Supreme Court, which again confirms the legality of the action.

But that doesn’t make it any more palatable for other county officials. Just because a judge can issue a mandate doesn’t mean he should do it.

Consider the Montgomery County case. The judges said they were losing staff to higher-paying jobs, but county officials said they couldn’t afford the raises. The County Council had cut $1.2 million from the budget.

Yet the judicial power of the state reaches from the Supreme Court at the state level all the way to the courts of general jurisdiction at the local level. So even though staffers who work for the courts are considered county employees, their pay can’t be controlled by the county council.

If a private sector company had to cut back on expenses, it would likely be done in a democratic fashion with everyone feeling a measure of the pain. Americans take a dim view of CEOs and other executives cashing in stock options and collecting bonuses as their company implodes around them.

Similarly, an inequality in the public sector creates ill will between employees who are treated differently.

It is interesting that the original case law on judicial mandates stemmed from a dispute about use of an elevator. A judge mandated the commissioners to keep the elevator running while the court was still in session.

Other cases have involved such minutia as which judge should use a particular office in the St. Joseph County Courthouse or whether the reassignment of a courthouse room from the clerk to the welfare department was appropriate.

A judicial mandate is a device that should be used sparingly, if at all. If a need is compelling, judges should be able to draw on their background of advocacy to persuade county officials to go along with the request.