Who's running to become the next Milwaukee municipal court judge? Meet the candidates

While most of the attention this election cycle has been placed on the state's supreme court race, there is also a big local race for the second branch of Milwaukee's municipal court.

A judgeship opened after Derek Mosley left in January to become director of Marquette University Law School’s Lubar Center for Public Policy Research and Civic Education. He served 20 years on the municipal bench.

A state senator and a longtime local attorney are now running to fill the vacancy.

What is municipal court?

There are 229 municipal courts in the state. Milwaukee has the largest. The court handles noncriminal matters for traffic, parking, and ordinance matters, including first-time drunken driving offenses and license revocation. It also handles juvenile matters, such as truancy, underage drinking, drug offenses and curfew violations. Judges on the court serve four-year terms.

Who is running for the position?

Molly Gena:

• Managing attorney, Legal Action of Wisconsin, 2019 to present

• Supervising attorney, Center for Driver’s License Recovery and Employability

• Member, Marquette Volunteer Legal Clinic advisory board

• Member, MBA Courts Committee

• Member, ACLU Milwaukee Chapter

• Of note: Gena has spent more than 15 years as a civil legal aid attorney, providing free legal services to those who cannot afford them. She also has volunteered with the nonpartisan Wisconsin election protection coalition.

Lena Taylor:

• Wisconsin state senator, January 2005 to present

• Private practice attorney

• Public defender

• Of note: Much of her focus while working as an attorney was criminal, family, personal injury, and bankruptcy law. Says she takes on pro se cases and for those who cannot afford an attorney. She also has taken occasional personal injury cases since entering the legislature.

The candidates recently spoke about their approach to the office.

What is your judicial philosophy?

Gena: As a judge, I would make sure to treat every single person before the court with dignity, respect and a lot of patience. A lot of people, this might be their first entry and only experience with the legal system. And it can be really difficult to navigate for folks. Even though these aren’t criminal cases, they can show up on people’s criminal records. They can be used to deny housing, employment. They have serious consequences for folks, so I would make sure to treat everyone fairly and respectful and with patience and make sure to include trauma-informed care in my judicial philosophy because in my work.

Taylor: It's a judge's role to take their lived experience to type the law and the facts that come before them, and to make sure that the law is implemented fairly. It's not the hat, for example, that I've been in, which is the legislative hat. I'm not there to make the law. I'm there to interpret what is in front of us and to be able to make a decision. Now, I will say that I think that there are times where the court can tell the legislature, "We need to address something." It's exactly how I got involved with doing work to reform municipal court.

What are the biggest challenges you see facing municipal court right now?

Gena: The court is stacking ticket upon ticket, fine upon fine for people. What the court does do very well currently and what Judge Mosley does is he does go into the community and holds court at places, like the Benedict Center and the Guest House. Those are things I’d absolutely continue. But I would like to increase some of those diversion programs with working more with Justice Point which is there in the courthouse and trying to figure out what’s causing the behavior and what’s causing some of these problems and refer people to some of those communities as much as possible.

Taylor: One of the biggest challenges I think is they need to be open. There needs to be accessibility. Even if it is seen by the city as a revenue stream, I think it is a problem when court is not accessible based on the time you can come, based on how you can have your item heard, based on walking up and saying, "I got time today right now. I want to try to go and take care of that." It needs to be more accessible to the people. Of the 19 municipalities in Milwaukee County, I believe the city of Milwaukee is the only one that doesn't have night court. I want to bring court to people. I want to do it in school. I want to do it in school too. It's huge. Exactly. It is huge. And night court is huge for me. I can't believe that we don't have it and we're the largest municipality.

Do you believe that you can impose community service in lieu of monetary fines?

Gena: (It) depends on the defendant and their time and ability and desire to do the community service. But for people who cannot afford the ticket, no matter what the case is, community service benefits everyone. It benefits the community if they’re volunteering for a nonprofit. And it, of course, benefits the defendant if they have the time to do it. And it benefits the court as well because they see someone putting in this time and service that holds them just as accountable. I had a client who I asked the judge to order community service for. The nonprofit liked him so much, they offered him a job. For me, it’s just a win-win-win-win all around. It’s really beneficial for people and the community, and I would consider it for every case.

Taylor: Whether underemployed or working two jobs and barely making ends meet, I believe that we have to deal with that piece of it in a community where poverty is great. Judge Mosley and I talked a lot about judges using more community service. And it's not that we don't use community service, but when you have that amount of poverty and that amount of people not paying their fines, I want to see, do you need to be connected to pathways to work? Do you need to learn some skills because we need to change that? And not necessarily for the revenue end, because I think community service could work too. I see a lot of stuff that could be addressed in a city where financially, we are challenged.

Both of you have mentioned making court more accessible. What are some ideas you have to make that happen?

Gena: It’s a big part of the role of municipal judge to be out in the community, to participate in the community. Not only would I want to share community resources with litigants that might assist them and make sure that the court is always up on those points of contact. I would like to increase some of those diversion programs with working more with Justice Point, which is there in the courthouse and trying to figure out what’s causing the behavior and what’s causing some of these problems and refer people to some of those communities as much as possible. I also want to continue Judge Mosley’s program of holding court places, like the Benedict Center and Guest House, and meeting people where they’re at. Talking to them about their cases and bringing court to all kinds of different places in the community. And really going out into the community as much as possible to educate people about the court, and the role the court has and what their options are in court. I think that is all incredibly important.

Taylor: We need to think out of the box innovatively in order to be able to address the high amount of fines and lack of payment, the warrants that individuals have. Those are things that we can be more accessible to the community by doing these things. I want to see the court in the community more. And if my branch if I'm blessed to be chosen by the people, if my branch can be your night court branch that goes in the community, I'll be in court heaven because I think it will allow for people to not only be able to come to court, but it will, I'm hoping, inspire neighborhood associations and bids and organizations to be engaged so that we can have people engaged in those organizations giving back in this community for harm that has been done.

Prior to the pandemic, the municipal court offered walk-in options for defendants to come in on their time to address their cases. Would you reinstate walk-in court?

Gena: It’s time to bring it back. Access to justice and access to the court is really important. Now, people who don’t want to try and come in and have their driver’s license suspension or warrant lifted have to try to schedule it and wait and can’t just walk in on the day off. That is something I’d reinstate. Right now, the judges are all on Zoom and I would be in-person to make it possible for people to walk in and give the defendants the Zoom option as well.

Taylor: Yes. It goes under my accessibility plans. Even the concept of having what you're paying to reopen cases is a challenge for some individuals. Even if it is seen by the city as a revenue stream, I think it is a problem when court is not accessible based on the time you can come, based on how you can have your item heard, based on walking up and saying, "I got time today right now. I want to try to go and take care of that." The fact that people are not able to do that, being able to be accessible so that you can say and speak your voice as a resident in this community about the kinds of cases that come before the municipal court.

This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Meet the candidates who are running for Milwaukee municipal court