Lee's Summit City Council debates whether an elected judge should get pay increase during term

LEE'S SUMMIT, Mo. — KSHB 41 News reporter Braden Bates covers parts of Jackson County, Missouri, including Lee's Summit. Send Braden a story idea by e-mail.

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The Lee's Summit City Council is divided on whether a judge can receive a salary increase during an elected term.

Judges Venessa Maxwell-Lopez and Dana Altieri hear cases two days a week in Lee's Summit, even as the city has grown by over 70,000 people in 40 years.

This system has been in place for four decades. Judges can choose how many days they run their dockets, but they need additional resources to do so.

Maxwell-Lopez said the court has been struggling for years.

"I did email you over two years ago saying, please help us. We are drowning over here. Nothing has happened," Judge Maxwell-Lopez said.

Altieri described the strain on the court.

"We lack resources. We lack time. Our employees are under stress, citizens are mad, and it's all due to our overcrowding and our docket times."

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The overcrowding has led to a case backlog and dockets ranging from 300 to 800 cases per day.

A suggested solution would be to add additional days when both judges are on the bench. Judge Gerry Helm, who presides in Independence as well as other cities, compared Lee's Summit's two docket days to Independence's four.

"We always run on time, 4 days a week, and it's just fair, fast, and efficient," Helm said. "Lee's Summit could be the same way if they went to 4 days a week and on court dockets."

Adding days to the docket would mean additional pay, as the judges want more compensation for the time they'd be adding.

That's where legal questions come into play.

Allen Rostron with UMKC School of Law said the legal landscape is unclear.

"The law on this is not, certainly not, crystal clear. It leaves room for ambiguity and controversy," Rostron said.

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The state constitution states elected officials should not get a pay increase during their term in office.

Lee's Summit's charter said the same.

However, exceptions and provisions may allow the judges to get additional compensation. The work the judges would be adding could be seen as additional duties.

Rostron said there is an argument for additional compensation tied to additional work.

"You could argue that that's not really increased compensation for the work you're already doing. It's increased work and increased money that you get paid, but because you're doing more work," Rostron said.

A neighboring city has also done something similar years prior.

"It's totally legal if it is based upon additional duties that are thrust upon them. Raytown Municipal Court Judge Traci Fann got a raise because of her additional duties," Judge Gerry Helm said.

That was after the city increased the number of dockets it ran.

The city council approved a motion last week to draft an ordinance to increase the judges' pay. Mayor Pro Tem Hillary Shields voted no on the motion.

"The discussion always comes back to rather than today's dollars," Shields said. "They were elected knowing the number of cases, knowing the compensation, but are now saying that they can't perform those duties without additional pay."

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Shields said there are more options than immediately increasing pay.

"I think there's a lot of things that we could do to help address this issue. I just don't think that immediately jumping to a doubling of compensation is the only way to address it in the short term, and I think long term we need to look at the big picture before we make any decisions.

Some solutions she brought up were bringing in a temporary judge to support and work through the caseloads.

Shields said she has hired outside counsel to advise the city council on the topic.

The city also hired outside counsel last year for $8,600, as outlined in documents KSHB 41 News acquired.

When asked about the cost of hiring additional counsel, Shields said the attorneys were on retainer, and she didn't have the exact amount.

A year earlier, an attorney concluded the council would be legally justified in increasing judge pay mid-term.

This story was reported on-air by a journalist and has been converted to this platform with the assistance of AI. Our editorial team verifies all reporting on all platforms for fairness and accuracy.

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