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Home My WebLink AboutCOUNCIL - AGENDA ITEM - 11/04/2020 - RESOLUTION 2020-101 AUTHORIZING AN INTERGOVERNMENT Agenda Item 11 Item # 11 Page 1 AGENDA ITEM SUMMARY November 4, 2020 City Council STAFF Jill Hueser, Chief Judge Ingrid Decker, Legal SUBJECT Resolution 2020-101 Authorizing an Intergovernmental Agreement Between the Cities of Fort Collins, Greeley and Loveland for the Exchange of Judicial Services, and Appointing Temporary Judges. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY The purpose of this item is to authorize an intergovernmental agreement (IGA) with the Cities of Greeley and Loveland for judicial services to be used in the event that a conflict of interest or other circumstance prevents the Municipal Judge and assistant judges from hearing a particular Municipal Court case. This agreement is intended to replace an existing 2019 IGA between Fort Collins, Loveland and Greeley. The previous IGA named former Chief Judge Kathleen Lane. This agreement is updated to include all current and eligible judges from each jurisdiction. STAFF RECOMMENDATION Staff recommends adoption of the Resolution. BACKGROUND / DISCUSSION On occasion, the Municipal Judge may be prevented from sitting on the bench by reason of personal conflict of interest, illness, vacation, or other reason, and the Assistant Municipal Judge presiding over and conducting the Municipal Court in such event may also be unavailable. Executing an intergovernmental agreement (IGA) is a cost-effective method of providing for judicial services in the event of an absence of the Municipal Judge. The City Charter gives Council the authority to name the Municipal Judge and any alternate judge. The Resolution authorizes the Mayor to execute the agreement with the Cities of Greeley and Loveland as described in the Resolution. The Resolution names the Loveland Municipal Judge, the Honorable Geri Joneson, and Loveland’s Deputy Municipal Judges, the Honorable Marco Scalise, the Honorable Courtenay Patterson, and the Honorable Carrie Clein as well as the Greeley Municipal Judge, the Honorable Mark Gonzales, and Greeley’s Assistant Municipal Judges, the Honorable Diane Knutson, the Honorable Keith Coleman, and the Honorable Amy Penfold-Rutz, attorneys who are both reputable and qualified to act as the Fort Collins Municipal Judge, to provide judicial services to the City in the absence of the current Municipal Judges, through calendar year 2020. The City Attorney’s Office has reviewed public records related to each of these judges’ status and reputation and has confirmed their good standing as attorneys in Colorado and their reputations and qualifications. • Judge Joneson has been a licensed attorney for 28 years and has been licensed in Colorado since 2000. She has been the Municipal Judge for Loveland since May 2015. Agenda Item 11 Item # 11 Page 2 • Judge Scalise has been a licensed attorney in Colorado since 1994. He has had a private law practice in Loveland since 1998 and has been the Loveland Deputy Municipal Judge since July 2015. • Judge Patterson was admitted to the Colorado Bar in 2015 and appointed in Loveland in 2019. • Judge Clein was admitted to the Colorado Bar in 1984 and appointed in Loveland in 2019. • Judge Gonzales was admitted to the Colorado Bar in 2000 and has been the Greeley Municipal Judge since May 2018. Before that he served as a Weld County District Court Magistrate for nine years. He has also served as a Weld County Deputy District Attorney and a Greeley Assistant City Attorney. • Judge Knutson was admitted to the Colorado Bar in 1980 and has previously served as the Presiding Municipal Judge for the City of Durango and as the Municipal Judge for the Town of Ignacio prior to her appointment as an Assistant Municipal Judge for the City of Greeley in 2012. • Judge Coleman was admitted to the Colorado Bar in 1994 and appointed in Greeley in 2018. • Judge Penfold-Rutz was admitted to the Colorado Bar in 2012 and appointed in Greeley in 2018. -1- RESOLUTION 2020-101 OF THE COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF FORT COLLINS AUTHORIZING AN INTERGOVERNMENTAL AGREEMENT BETWEEN THE CITIES OF FORT COLLINS, GREELEY AND LOVELAND FOR THE EXCHANGE OF JUDICIAL SERVICES, AND APPOINTING TEMPORARY JUDGES WHEREAS, on occasion, Municipal Judges may be prevented from sitting on the bench by reason of personal conflict of interest, illness, vacation, or other reasons, and the Assistant Municipal Judge presiding over and conducting the Municipal Court in such event may also be unavailable; and WHEREAS, in order to provide cost-effective special judicial services to temporarily replace the services of its Municipal Judge in the event of a conflict of interest or other circumstance, the City should cooperatively exchange the services of the City’s Municipal Judge with those of other entities; and WHEREAS on April 16, 2019, the City Council approved Resolution 2019-046, authorizing an intergovernmental agreement (“IGA”) between the City and Loveland, with the option to add Greeley, for the exchange of judicial services through 2020; and WHEREAS, since then, Fort Collins Municipal Court Judge Kathleen Lane retired, and the parties wish to enter into an updated IGA to include Fort Collins’s new Chief Judge Jill Hueser and new assistant municipal judges from each City; and WHEREAS, because of residency requirements in the Greeley City Charter, Judge Hueser is currently the only Fort Collins or Loveland judge who can provide special judicial services to the City of Greeley; and WHEREAS, City staff has discussed with Loveland’s and Greeley’s representatives the proposed terms of an updated IGA to provide for the exchange of judicial services if needed to temporarily substitute when a Municipal Judge and temporary or assistant judges are unavailable, including the provision of replacement judicial services and compensation for costs directly incurred to provide such services; and WHEREAS, the new IGA would replace the current IGA and expire October 31, 2022; and WHEREAS, the Loveland City Council voted to approve the proposed IGA at its regular meeting on October 20, 2020, and the City of Greeley is scheduled to vote on the matter at its regular meeting on November 3, 2020; and WHEREAS, Article VII, Section 1 of the City Charter sets forth the requirements for the appointment of the Municipal Judge and temporary judge, including that the temporary judge be a reputable and qualified attorney; and WHEREAS, the City Council has the authority to designate reputable and qualified attorneys to serve as temporary judges through October 2022; and -2- WHEREAS, based on research conducted by the Chief Judge and the City Attorney’s Office, the City Council recognizes that the Loveland Municipal Judge, the Honorable Geri Joneson; the Loveland Deputy Municipal Judges, the Honorable Marco Scalise, the Honorable Courtenay Patterson, and the Honorable Carrie Clein; the Greeley Municipal Judge, the Honorable Mark Gonzales; and Greeley’s Assistant Municipal Judges, the Honorable Diane Knutson, the Honorable Keith Coleman, and the Honorable Amy Penfold-Rutz, are all reputable and qualified attorneys; and WHEREAS, pursuant to Colorado Revised Statutes Section 29-1-203, governments may cooperate or contract with one another to provide any function or service lawfully authorized to each of the cooperating or contracting units of government; and WHEREAS, the City Council has determined that it is in the best interests of the City that the Mayor be authorized to execute an IGA between the Cities of Fort Collins, Loveland and Greeley in support thereof. NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED BY THE COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF FORT COLLINS as follows: Section 1. That the City Council hereby makes and adopts the determinations and findings contained in the recitals set forth above. Section 2. That the City Council hereby authorizes the Mayor to execute an intergovernmental agreement between the City and the Cities of Loveland and Greeley, consistent with this Resolution, for the purpose of appointing Judges Geri Joneson, Marco Scalise, Courtenay Patterson, Carrie Clein, Mark Gonzales, Diane Knutson, Keith Coleman, and Amy Penfold-Rutz, as the temporary judges for Fort Collins, with such language as the City Manager, in consultation with the City Attorney, determines to be necessary and appropriate to protect the interests of the City or further the purposes of this Resolution. Passed and adopted at a regular meeting of the Council of the City of Fort Collins this 4th day of November, A.D. 2020. _________________________________ Mayor ATTEST: _____________________________ City Clerk