(Radio Iowa) – Iowa Supreme Court Chief Justice Susan Christensen says there’s an urgent need to raise the pay for Iowa judges. Christensen is asking legislators to approve a four-point-three percent increase in judges’ pay, alongside a plan to reduce the number of magistrates who work part-time in courtrooms around the state.  “The way we pay magistrates and distribute their work doesn’t make sense and, more importantly, it’s not fair,” Christensen said. “All magistrates are paid exactly the same, even though there is a huge disparity in workload.” State law currently requires a magistrate in each county — and a total of 206 statewide — to handle things like preliminary hearings, issuing warrants and simple misdemeanor cases.

“We have perhaps 60 more magistrates than the work requires. This is not sustainable,” Christensen said. “…As stewards of taxpayer dollars, we have a responsibility to make choices to serve all Iowans.” Magistrates get a salary and benefit package of about 65-thousand dollars a year to spend roughly 13 hours a week on judicial duties, but Christensen says some magistrates in low-crime areas are working a couple of hours a week. This is the second year Christensen has used the annual “Condition of the Judiciary” ask legislators to approve significant changes in the magistrate system.  “Over the past year I spent a lot of time thinking about what it means to lead an institution like ours,” Christensen said. “What I learned is this: doing what is right for the long term is rarely easy.”

Christensen says her plan to consolidate and restructure the magistrate system would save the state at least two-and-a-half MILLION dollars a year. She also told lawmakers the pay for district court judges is nearing a point where no attorneys will apply.  “This is not tomorrow’s problem. It is today is reality. District 8A which is in the southeast corner of the state had an opening for a district court judge this past April. District 8A and its contiguous counties are home to about 540,000 people and of those about 940 are licensed lawyers,” Christensen said. “Want to guess how many applied for that job? Two.” And Christensen says one judge who recently resigned is now earning a higher salary — as a county attorney. “Can we even hang on to the judges we have? When we experienced judges leave the bench for other public sector jobs that pay better, we no longer have a recruitment problem,” Christensen said. “We have a retention problem.”

Governor Reynolds appointed Christensen to the Iowa Supreme Court in 2018. In February of 2020, the justices chose Christensen to be chief justice.