About The Islander. (St. Simons Island, Ga.) 1972-current | View Entire Issue (Oct. 21, 2024)
Judges Continued from Page 1 to hire an outside attorney for the job at a cost of $70,000 a year ($5,834 per month). Morgan, a former deputy mag istrate for 23 years, was appointed chief judge last year when Magistrate Judge Wallace Harrell retired. Speaking at the BOC meeting on Tuesday, Morgan updated the BOC on the Magistrate judges duties, which include: • first appearance hearings on Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Sun day mornings; this is when the judges see newly arrested individuals; • they sign arrest and search war rants, which can also happen on Sundays; • on Mondays they hear evictions; he noted that currently evictions in Glynn are “through the roof’; • Tuesday mornings are prelimi nary probable cause hearings, with the bond calendar Tuesday afternoons; • Wednesdays are civil cases or county ordinance violations; currently they hear ordinance violations once a month, but they are increasing so the court will be hearing those twice a month starting in January; • Thursdays the court hears war rant applications, good behavior war rants and restraining orders; that is a full calendar every Thursday; • Fridays are for garnishments and other civil cases. Last year Magistrate Court re corded over 6,000 open cases, accord ing to Morgan, which does not include search or arrest warrants. Last year the judges signed 5,600 arrest warrants and are expecting to go over 6,000 this year. They average signing 500 to 1,000 search warrants a year. Every single warrant has to be signed by a Magistrate Judge with arrest warrants having to be signed within 48 hours of the arrest. “So there has to be a magistrate available at all times of day and night to sign those warrants,” said Morgan. Morgan started as a part time mag istrate judge in January of 2001. “I was a young lawyer at the time and didn’t ask what the job paid,” said Morgan, “When I got my first pay- check in February, 2001, it was $493.” He said he thought it was a little low so he checked to make sure the amount was correct and was told that ‘you don’t become a magistrate for the money, you do it because it is an honor.’ “And it was an honor, I was happy to do it,” he said. He stayed at that pay rate for about 15 years. Then in 2016 Alex Atwood became Chief Magistrate Judge, who was also a former part time judge. At wood asked for and got the part timers about $800 a month. Judge Harrell took over in 2019 and eliminated one of the part time judge positions, so there are now four judges doing what was previously done by five and pay went up to about $1,100 a month by spliting up the pay from the eliminated position. Morgan said the part time judges now make about $1,500 a month, about $18,000 a year gross. He said when he became Chief Magistrate he looked into what other employees in the county legal system made. The part time Juvenile Court judge makes $77,600 a year, about $59,000 more than a part time magistrate judge, he said. The part time probate judge makes $41,600 a year, $23,000 a year more than the magistrate judges. The part time state court prosecu tor makes $79,200 a year. He said he just learned that morn ing that the part time juvenile court prosecutor makes $70,000 a year. “All those people are well paid and they deserve it,” said Morgan, “I’m not here to take anything away from them, but we have part time magis trates that are serving the busiest court in this county, who are the only ones who are on call, who are the only ones who have police officers coming to their house at all times of day and night to sign warrants and I think they need to be properly compensated. I’m here to request that their pay be October 21,2024, The Islander, Page 9 raised to what the part time juvenile court judge gets. The judge in a court room maldng important decisions that affects people’s lives should not be the lowest paid person in the room. So I’m asking for an increase.” He also noted that the part time magistrate judges are all practicing attorneys whose time is limited for their law practice. They also can’t ap ply for other part time legal positions due to a conflict of interest. “They all applied to be part time magistrates, and I want to keep them,” said Morgan. BOC chairman Wayne Neal (Dist. 3) said he had not had a chance to look at all of Morgan’s documentation and asked how many hours a month did the part time judges work. Morgan said it varies and that each judge is on the bench four to five times a month and sometimes the calender can go for hours or last half a day. Each judge is on call one day a week and works one weekend a month. He said sometimes they get a lot of calls on the weekend and sometimes not as many. “But they are putting in, I think, more time than any other part time judges,” he said. When Neal asked on what was their current salary based, Morgan said, “In my 23 years as judge, I have no idea. I’ve been told what we get paid, but it’s Turn to Page 10 Judges or mail to P.O. 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