PORT ANGELES — Brian Coughenour, Lower Elwha Klallam Tribal Court chief judge, received the top average score in three of four categories for applicants ranked in a recent Clallam County Bar Association poll of potential successors to Superior Court Judge George L. Wood.
Coughenour, 64, of Port Angeles also is a Superior Court commissioner for one day a week.
The other applicants for Wood’s countywide position are Port Angeles lawyers Simon Barnhart, Harry Gasnick, John Hayden, Dave Neupert and Tim Davis.
Wood, 66, is retiring May 31 midway through his 23rd year on the bench.
Gov. Jay Inslee will name Wood’s successor by the first week of May, Inslee’s general counsel, Nick Brown, said Tuesday.
Brown said he will interview the applicants April 14 and make one or two recommendations to Inslee for his consideration and Inslee’s final interviews.
Applicants also will fill out an approximately 45-question questionnaire, provide a writing sample and submit references.
The position is up for election to a full four-year term in 2016.
Coughenour, a 40-year county resident, said Tuesday he gave up his Port Angeles law practice in 2013 to devote more time to judicial services.
He said his tribal court judge position is half-time and covers cases in which defendants can be sentenced to up to a year in jail and be fined up to $5,000.
As a Superior Court commissioner for 15 years, Coughenour also adjudicates truancy cases.
“I am truly honored that the lawyers of Clallam County find me the most qualified applicant,” he said.
Bar survey procedure
Sixty-five bar association surveys were provided to dues-paying members who returned 40 of the surveys, bar association President Kristina Nelson-Gross said in an email.
Eight were incomplete, leaving 32 that were counted.
There are 121 licensed, active attorneys in Clallam County, said Jennifer Olegario of the Washington State Bar Association.
The ballots included three-page questionnaires filled out by applicants who choose to fill them out, Nelson-Gross said Tuesday.
They are comoised of questions excerpted from the lengthier form applicants fill out from the Governor’s Office.
It gives attorneys who take part in the poll a chance to judge the applicants on more than their personal or courtroom experiences, she said.
“It’s still the individual’s opinion of that applicant,” Nelson-Gross added.
Survey participants gave scores of 1 to 4 to each applicant for judgment and objectivity, demeanor and temperament, overall performance and competence, experience and legal ability.
Scores
A score of 1 was unqualified, 2 was qualified, 3 was well-qualified and 4 was exceptionally well-qualified.
Total scores submitted by survey respondents were averaged for each category.
Overall performance was a separate category, not an average of ratings in other categories.
Coughenour received highest average scores of 3.25 for competence, experience and legal ability; 3.03 for overall performance and 3.00 for judgement and objectivity.
Barnhart received the top average score of 2.94 for demeanor and temperament.
Hayden and Davis tied for the lowest score of 2.00 for judgment and objectivity.
Hayden also received the lowest score of 2.03 for demeanor and temperament, while Davis received lowest scores of 2.06 for overall performance and 1.84 for competence, experience and legal ability.
The poll will be a “pretty important” factor in determining Wood’s successor, Brown said.
“We obviously value the input the local bar has,” he said.
“It’s certainly not the determining factor, but it’s one of the things we take a close look at.”
Wood said it’s hard to say how important the poll is in determining if a lawyer will make a good judge.
“It’s accurate to an extent, but I think the ability to be a judge is different than being a good attorney,” he said.
“A judge has certain things he would look at, and he would look at people differently than an attorney.”
First elected in 1992, Wood has been re-elected five times without an opponent.
He will be the third Clallam County Superior Court judge to retire since 2012, when Ken Williams departed the bench.
Williams was replaced by Erik Rohrer, who won election to the position by defeating Christopher Melly, who later became a Superior Court judge anyway.
Judge Brooke Taylor retired in 2013, three years before the end of his term, leaving the door open for Melly to be appointed by Inslee.
Superior Court judges in Washington state earn $156,363 annually.
Salary increases have been proposed for this Sept. 1 and for Sept. 1, 2016.
They would increase to $162,618 on Sept. 1 and $165,$870 on Sept. 1, 2016.
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Senior Staff Writer Paul Gottlieb can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 5060, or at pgottlieb@peninsuladailynews.com.
