Budget does not support city court

Whitefish's city manager, city attorney and city financial officer are paid base salaries comparable to Montana's governor ($96,462); Montana's attorney general ($85,762) and Montana's comptroller ($69,720). Many of Whitefish's department heads are paid base salaries close to what Montana's directors of state agencies make.

These salaries are justified by city manager Gary Marks because of Whitefish's significant growth problems and the transformation of Whitefish from a town to a municipal city. However, when it comes to funding city court and paying the city judge a comparable salary, these arguments are ignored or discounted.

Marks has been quoted as stating that city judge Brad Johnson's salary has "increased 136 percent over the past six years, from $24,330 in 1999 to $57,500 today."

In contrast, since 1990, Whitefish's costs for all legal services, not counting city court, have increased from $30,000 a year to well over $300,000 annually, depending on the number of lawsuits pending against the city.

This represents a 1,000 percent increase of non-city court legal costs. These included salaries for the full time city attorney, his legal secretary, contracted costs for two prosecutors for criminal and civil matters before city court, and attorney fees for the hiring of outside counsel to defend the city against pending lawsuits.

The Whitefish Police Department has expanded considerably — as have citations and the corresponding workload associated with the prosecution of violations before city court. In addition, the city council continues to pass a significant number of ordinances and laws since the late 1990s, which have contributed to additional criminal and civil actions before city court.

City staff and corresponding salaries have appreciably increased since the late 1990s, based upon the argument advanced by the city manager of the problems associated with city growth and Whitefish's moving more and more to a municipal city.

Yet the only salary that city manager and city council reviews and makes public each year during the budget process is the city court judge's salary.

It is city court where city council flexes its budget oversight responsibility, requiring data, statistics and comparisons to other Montana communities and city courts. In contrast, budget increases, including increases in city staff, are routinely approved with little or no probing inquiries and without comparisons to other cities in Montana. Such decisions are left to the city manager's discretion.

City court is a quasi-independent arm of city government, elected and answerable to the electorate, but funded by city council. The citizens of Whitefish have been overwhelming in their support of city court and, in particular, Judge Johnson, returning him to office by overwhelming margins for the last two decades. This is remarkable in light of the fact that Judge Johnson has sat in judgment of many of us.

The city council and city manager operate Whitefish like the municipal city it has become. However, when it comes to city court, both the council and city manager appear to view city court as a branch of Whitefish city government that can be operated understaffed and underfunded — especially in comparison with the other Whitefish departments.

Since Whitefish is being managed more and more like a municipal city, Whitefish needs to change from a city court to a municipal court and fund such a court accordingly. Johnson is an ideal individual and ideal judge to handle the transformation from a city court to a municipal court.

Based on the salaries currently being paid to other Whitefish city employees, a salary for either a Whitefish city judge or municipal judge should be at least $70,000. In the alternative, the city manager should reduce his and other city employees' salaries to bring them more in line with the pitiful salary currently being paid to Judge Johnson.

Tom Muri is a former Whitefish city attorney and councilor.