Plan to consolidate Florida judicial circuits draws accusations of undermining voters
Amira Fox was the first person to take the podium Friday in Orange County’s cavernous jury assembly room. The sharply-dressed state attorney from Lee County – a heavily conservative part of the Sunshine State – stared at the men and women in front of her with a gaze formed by decades as a prosecutor.
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“It’s already difficult to cover duties in a large circuit,” she told the committee. “This would become impossible if the circuits were shrunk.”
The plan that drew Fox, nine of her fellow state attorneys and 40 public defenders, attorneys, lawmakers and members of the public to Orlando Friday was a proposal to consolidate Florida’s 20 judicial circuits into a handful of so-called “super circuits.” It would mean the elimination of many elected state attorneys like Fox and public defenders, while throwing judges, clerks and attorneys from well-established routines.
The idea first came from House Speaker Paul Renner (R-Palm Coast), who pitched it to the chief justice of the Florida Supreme Court as a way to cut costs, increase efficiencies and make justice more uniform throughout the state as Gov. DeSantis was criticizing then-9th Circuit State Attorney Monique Worrell for her progressive policies. Many privately believe the governor is behind the consolidation effort.
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However, everyone outside of Tallahassee – including all 50 speakers Friday – appears to hate the idea.
“The farther away we take our court system from the voters, the farther away they trust this branch of government,” 5th Circuit Public Defender Mike Graves explained.
The opposition crossed the usual political lines and came in many forms. Some said a cheaper justice system wasn’t better – and called state lawmakers hypocritical for siphoning away much of the cash the court system generates.
Others, like Fox, said consolidation would erase rhythms and practices established over decades and cause travel times for prosecutors and attorneys to stretch to extreme lengths, creating a logistical nightmare.
Time and time again, though, the speakers said lawmakers would do nothing but hurt a voter’s ability to have their chosen community members represent them.
“You lump us in with these large, densely populated counties, we lose our voice,” Cliff Wilson, public defender of the rural 3rd Circuit, explained.
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Rep. LaVon Bracy Davis (D-Ocoee) was blunter.
“This consolidation plan reeks of judicial gerrymandering,” she scoffed.
There is considerable support for re-examining the judicial circuit boundaries, which have not been touched since the 1960′s when Fox’s district was formed. Since then, Florida’s population has grown by nearly four times over, but the number of elected prosecutors and public defenders has stayed the same.
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It’s resulted in Florida having 7x fewer elected prosecutors and public defenders than the average state, one speaker noted.
The circuit at most risk of consolidation – the Florida Keys – provided some of the most pointed feedback to the effort. They declared that if they were merged with Miami, as Renner’s letter insinuated, Key West voters would be eliminated from having any say over who prosecutes and sentences them.
“All of our judges will be chosen by Miami-Dade County,” one attorney lamented.
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The public defender for that circuit pointed out it was faster to drive to the Miami courthouse from Orlando than Key West.
Speaker Renner’s office has yet to detail how consolidation would make for a more efficient system in a state that has grown by more than five million residents since 2000 while also adding additional courts of appeal to handle caseload in that same time.
In a written statement, the Speaker’s office wrote, “We want to explore what economies of scale are present in large circuits as well as what advantages smaller circuits offer to potentially harness greater efficiencies and cost savings through from some form of thoughtful consolidation of effort,” adding, “These savings could then be used to increase wages and resources for our court personnel and those working for our prosecutors and public defenders. This request for review is a responsible, first step to understanding whether we can optimize our court system to best serve Floridians in the 21st Century.”
The committee assigned by the chief justice is tasked with telling lawmakers if Renner’s idea is a good one by the end of the year. They appear to be listening to the feedback thus far. Some committee members have expressed their reservations about consolidation in passing.
However, they’re restricted to just that question, and cannot recommend increasing the number of circuits if they believed that would achieve Renner’s goals.
The process is still in the early phases. Another listening session is scheduled for October in Tampa. Throughout the next week, attorneys and the public are invited to take a survey to make their views known. The survey can be found here, responses are due by September 1.
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