Supreme Court Chief Justice nominee Justice Paul A. Suttell.

The Providence Journal / John Freidah

PROVIDENCE –– Later this month, the General Assembly is expected to consider Governor Carcieri’s nomination of Supreme Court Justice Paul A. Suttell, a fellow Republican, to be the court’s new chief justice, the head of a state judiciary that disposes of more than 200,000 cases per year.

Suttell, once a member of the House of Representatives, would replace Frank J. Williams who stepped down as chief justice last December, eight years after his appointment by Gov. Lincoln C. Almond.

If confirmed, Suttell will inherit a state court system that has been through a period of dramatic physical and budgetary growth. He also will take over during a time when the state is seeking ways to plug a $590-million deficit in the next fiscal year budget.

The chief justice nominee, who has been a part of the court system for 19 years, declined to sit for an interview until after his appointment as chief justice is confirmed by the state legislature.

But his testimony before the Judicial Nomination Commission earlier in the spring provides some insight into how he will approach the job.

Suttell indicated that, from a financial standpoint, he would focus more on maintaining the court system than growing it.

The judiciary’s budget request for the next fiscal year, submitted by Williams last October, asks for $4 million more in funding than was approved by the Assembly last year. Based on recent revisions due to the budget crisis, that is almost $7 million more than has been actually allocated this year.

“There have been many improvements” in the state court system under Williams, Suttell said. But the courts face “a very difficult challenge … in light of ever-shrinking resources. The judiciary has to take its own budget cuts as other departments do.”

He said the court administration will “have to look for economics, perhaps in the sheriff’s department,” where overtime for the past few years has cost taxpayers millions. To effectuate a savings, he spoke about perhaps making changes in the courts’ schedule and increasing the use of video-conferencing so that fewer inmates at the Adult Correctional Institutions will need to be transported to court. On a typical day, deputy sheriffs transport more than 200 prisoners to courthouses and must also provide security in all the state courtrooms.

Suttell also talked about abandoning, at least for now, plans for a new courthouse in the Blackstone Valley. The courthouse was to have cost $71 million; taxpayers have already spent more than $300,000 for design and site planning. “I don’t see any new buildings or structural changes coming” unless Rhode Island gets more federal stimulus money, he said.

Suttell described himself as being an even-tempered jurist and a good listener. He told the commissioners that if he were selected as chief justice, he would work collegially and collaboratively with his fellow jurists. “I would not intend to micromanage the other courts. My philosophy has been to find creative people and if they have good ideas to get out of their way and let them carry through.” A chief justice, he said, “can’t get involved in all the details.”

He said his first priority would be to meet with the chief judges of the state’s lower courts “and try and establish a working relationship” and “see what needs to be done.”

After he announced he was stepping down, Williams said that part of the reason was administrative burn-out from a job, he said, that for him was 24/7.

He “ran the show his way and that was it. He really didn’t seek much input from anyone else,” said Superior Court Presiding Justice Joseph F. Rodgers Jr. “We haven’t met I bet in five years as a group,” Rodgers said in an interview the day Williams announced his retirement. “I’ve had very limited communications with him in the last five years.”

THE COURT SYSTEM the new chief justice will inherit is a very different one than existed at the beginning of the millennium. It is one that relies less on incarceration for nonviolent offenders and more on community-based treatment and sanctions. It is also a system where judges are sending more violent offenders to prison in an era when parole rates are only about 35 percent. It is a court system that, due to initiatives launched by Williams, does many things for the citizenry of Rhode Island besides dispensing justice. There’s a cadre of lawyers, judges and court staffers who go into most of Rhode Island’s public schools to teach students about the legal system, and a group of judges who volunteer once a month to go on Spanish radio to answer questions from callers.

Williams was big on civics education and making the courts more user-friendly, which brought added administrative responsibilities. He created a public-relations/community-outreach office that costs hundreds of thousands to operate, hosted a public television show and initiated a book drive that resulted in judges collecting 1,500 books in just one year to donate to Rhode Island public schools.

The Supreme Court now pays a half-dozen certified Spanish-speaking court interpreters and installed information kiosks in all of the courthouses.

Suttell will have to decide whether he continues traditions started by Williams of giving an annual State of the Judiciary address to the House and the Senate, and conducting tours for legislators of the Licht Judicial Complex in Providence, including its cellblock, so they can see justice at work.

R. Kelly Sheridan, who was hired in 2004 as a $20,000-a-year lobbyist for the judiciary, said, “I don’t think anyone has done more to advance the judiciary in the last three decades I’ve been practicing than Judge Williams.”

The judiciary has the eighth largest budget of any state agency or department. In 2000, there were 682 jobs in the judiciary. Despite a big downsizing in state government in recent years, there are now about 50 more positions authorized on the judicial payroll than there were in 2000. Most of those jobs, including seven judgeships, are currently vacant because of a wave of retirements and departures and a court-imposed hiring freeze due to the state’s fiscal crisis. The infrastructure of the courts is in far better shape than it was at the beginning of the century. The $61.3-million Kent County Courthouse in Warwick opened in August 2006. The $22.7-million Traffic Tribunal courthouse, opened in January 2007 in Cranston. There were extensive renovations done to other courthouses, including a $6.5-million project at the Garrahy Judicial Complex.

BEING CHIEF JUSTICE is two jobs in one. As one of five justices on the state’s highest court, the chief justice hears appeals of lower court cases to determine whether a criminal defendant or a party in a civil case should get a new trial. The Supreme Court judges parcel out the opinions to be written. Currently, the Supreme Court justices hear far fewer cases at oral argument than was the case in past years, thanks in large part to a civil appellate mediation program instituted in 2003.

The mediation program, now headed by retired Chief Justice Joseph R. Weisberger, disposes of about 60 percent of the civil appeals it hears. That gives the chief justice more time to devote to the second part of the job –– the administrative one, which requires him, as part of the judicial budget process, to build alliances outside the rarified court chambers on the seventh floor of the Licht Judicial Complex, which faces South Main Street.

As an administrative chief, Williams was a master at getting the leadership of the House and Senate to embrace his notion of a truly independent judiciary as well as the court system’s need for increased appropriations. In 2004, the legislature enacted a provision, tacked onto the budget without public debate, that prohibits the governor from amending the judiciary’s budget request before passing it on to the General Assembly for consideration — something that is customary in about 30 other states. As a result, the courts do their hiring, purchasing and salary-setting without second-guessing by the executive branch.

Carcieri called the change an unconstitutional attempt to interfere with the governor’s mandate to prepare and present a consolidated state budget. But the legislature overrode the veto.

While not criticizing Williams’ quest for budget autonomy, Suttell told the Judicial Nominating Commission that he thinks the judiciary needs to work cooperatively with both the governor’s office and the legislature.

Sheridan, the judiciary’s lobbyist, says that even with the provision that granted fiscal autonomy to the courts, it hasn’t been smooth sailing at the State House.

“The governor is supposed to submit the judicial budget as submitted but I don’t think he ever has. He puts in what he wants to and we still have to go before the House and Senate finance committees to make our case for what we need,” said Sheridan. State Budget Officer Rosemary Booth Gallogly said that the governor has recommended that the judiciary get $83,907,220 in general revenue for the coming fiscal year which is about $5.5 million less than what the judiciary asked for last fall.

“Most of that reduction is attributed to an increase in anticipated turn-over savings,” said Sheridan. “But we feel that there won’t be as many people leaving as the governor predicts. He’s also counting on bigger time lags than we are for filling positions.” And court administrators say that if Carcieri’s budget proposal were to be approved, the judiciary would not be able to fill 40 to 50 current vacancies.

Craig Berke, spokesman for the judiciary, said Friday that a few weeks ago, the courts’ administration told legislators at a hearing that in light of the state’s budget crisis, the judicial system could make do without filling about two dozen positions but that it needs to fill the other jobs so it would still need $1.8 million more than Carcieri lopped off.

Suttell would also have to wrestle with programs that the judiciary has sought to transfer to the executive branch. The cost of running one of those programs, the indigent defense fund, has increased from $1.5 million to over $3 million during the past several years. The courts also want to shed responsibility for the Domestic Violence Training & Monitoring Unit and the Fugitive Task Force.

Another problem is the overcrowding at the Garrahy Judicial Complex. It is a courthouse that was designed to hold 1,500 people a day but now accommodates two to three times that number.

Under Williams’ watch, the courts’ civil justice computer system was converted to a more modern one –– and the old one donated to the juvenile court in Katrina-ravaged New Orleans. The courts’ Web sites were overhauled; judges were all given laptops and the public can now access the state’s criminal history database online.

But the courts will need millions of dollars more in coming years to continue to make technological upgrades and reach a goal of going paperless –– something that, long-term, will save the judiciary money in terms of staffing and improve accuracy in docket entries. Currently, because of clerical shortages, it can take several days for documents to make their way to court files.

In the meantime, as the state continues to struggle financially, the new chief justice may need to expand what Williams did when he wanted extra money for special projects –– asking nonprofits for funding and helping the state find new ways to increase its stream of revenue. Last year, the judiciary collaborated with the state Division of Motor Vehicles and the state Division of Taxation to assist with a program to intercept tax refunds from people who owed the courts money and garnered $475,000.PAUL A. SUTTELL

Age: 60

Residence: Little Compton

Family: Wife, Mary, chairwoman of the mathematics department at Providence Country Day School in East Providence; children, William and Grace

Education: Bachelor of arts degree from Northwestern University; law degree from Suffolk University

Background: Had a private legal practice; legal counsel to the House minority leader from 1979-1982; Republican state representative from the former Dist. 94 that included Little Compton, Portsmouth and Tiverton, from 1983-1990; appointed to the Family Court in 1990 by former Gov. Edward DiPrete; elevated to the Supreme Court in 2003 by Governor Carcieri

Salary: $182,884 with longevity; would earn $201,172 as chief justice

BY THE NUMBERS

• Total budget submitted for the fiscal year that begins July 1: $102.8 million, of which $89.4 million is state general revenue. (Because of the fiscal crisis, the courts have said they can make do with $85.7 million)

• Judiciary’s share of the Rhode Island state budget: 2.7%

• Since 2000, the amount of state money the courts have received has increased 62%

• Authorized staff: 729.3 full-time positions. (currently operating with 679)

• Number of courts: 6, with 81 courtrooms

• Number of judges and magistrates: 86

• Number of cases disposed in 2008: 204,306

• Number of new cases filed and heard in 2008: 223,075 (not including more than 26,729 in child support hearings)

• Number of cases filed in Supreme Court in 2008: 323 –– 90 of them went into mediation

• Fines, fees and court costs collected and returned to General Treasury in 2008: $28 million

Source: State Budget Officer Rosemary Booth Gallogly and the Administrative Office of State Courts

tbreton@projo.com