5523 AMH JUD PERR 01
By Representative Appelwick
SB 5523 - H COMM AMD ADOPTED 4-7-93
By Committee on Judiciary
On page 1 strike everything after the enacting clause and insert the following:
"Sec. 1. RCW 3.34.130 and 1986 c 161 ' 4 are each amended to read as follows:
(1) Each district court shall designate one or more persons as judge pro tempore who shall serve during the temporary absence, disqualification, or incapacity of a district judge. The qualifications of a judge pro tempore shall be the same as for a district judge, except that with respect to RCW 3.34.060(1), the person appointed need only be a registered voter of the state. A district that has a population of not more than ten thousand and that has no person available who meets the qualifications under RCW 3.34.060 (2)(a) or (b), may appoint as a pro tempore judge a person who has taken and passed the qualifying examination for the office of district judge as is provided by rule of the supreme court. A judge pro tempore may sit in any district of the county for which he or she is appointed. A judge pro tempore shall be paid the salary authorized by the county legislative authority. For each day that a judge pro tempore serves in excess of thirty days during any calendar year, the annual salary of the judge in whose place he or she serves shall be reduced by an amount equal to one-two hundred fiftieth of such salary: PROVIDED, That each full time district judge shall have up to fifteen days annual leave without reduction for service on judicial commissions established by the legislature or the chief justice of the supreme court. No reduction in salary shall occur when a judge pro tempore serves while a district judge is using sick leave granted in accordance with RCW 3.34.100.
(2) The legislature may appropriate money for the purpose of reimbursing counties for the salaries of judges pro tempore for certain days in excess of thirty worked per year that the judge pro tempore was required to work as the result of service by a judge on a commission as authorized under subsection (1) of this section. No later than September 1 of each year, each county treasurer shall certify to the administrator for the courts for the year ending the preceding June 30, the number of days in excess of thirty that any judge pro tempore was required to work as the result of service by a judge on a commission as authorized under subsection (1) of this section. Upon receipt of the certification, the administrator for the courts shall reimburse the county from money appropriated for that purpose."
EFFECT: Limits the authority to appoint lay persons as pro tems to counties under 10,000.