Medford judge pro tem will serve out term of Pamela Turner, who resigned Aug. 30
By Morgan Rothborne, Ashland.news
In a special meeting Wednesday evening, Ashland City Council ended up voting unanimously to appoint Ryan Mulkins as municipal judge for the city, even though three councilors voted for another candidate as their top choice in an initial round of voting.
Mulkins was previously judge pro tem for the Medford Municipal Court and part-time deputy district attorney in the county district attorney’s office, as previously reported by Ashland.news.
At the opening of the evening meeting, City Manager Sabrina Cotta explained councilors and Mayor Tonya Graham would be given sheets with the names of all three applicants and rank their choices from one to three. Cotta would then tally the vote from the collected papers and the final votes would later be made public record.
Whomever council appointed would serve on a contract basis due to the nearness of the election and Measure 15-233, asking Ashland voters if they would like to change the city charter to alter the municipal judge to an appointed rather than an elected position.
If voters vote “yes,” the mayor and council would have the authority to alter the position dictating hours of operation for the court, a job description and the salary of the judge. If voters vote “no,” the charter dictates salary while the judge dictates authority over the court, according to the charter.
The charter dictates a vacancy in the judge’s office must be filled within 60 days and this individual serves the remainder of the term. Judge Pamela Turner resigned from the position effective Aug. 30.
Watch the meeting
To see video of the 12-minute special meeting, click here.
Councilors Jeff Dahle, Dylan Bloom and Gina DuQuenne all voted for Jesse London as their number-one choice in the initial poll while councilors Paula Hyatt, Mayor Tonya Graham, Eric Hansen and Bob Kaplan voted for Mulkins as their number-one choice.
Dahle said the choice was not easy. DuQuenne and Bloom echoed his statement and expressed an eagerness to work with the city’s new judge.
As previously reported by Ashland.news, the other candidates considered were London, who began his legal career as clerk for two federal judges and has served as judge pro tempore in Veneta and Cottage Grove, Oregon, in recent years, and Laurance Parker, who has argued cases before the Court of Appeals for Oregon, served as a criminal defense attorney at the Southern Oregon Public Defender’s Office and is currently staff attorney for Los Abogados, which provides indigent criminal defense.
Email Ashland.news reporter Morgan Rothborne at morganr@ashland.news.
