PORT ANGELES — Gov. Jay Inslee will appoint a new Clallam County Superior Court judge to replace retiring Judge S. Brooke Taylor by the end of this year.
An Inslee spokeswoman said the job will be posted between Aug. 29 and Oct. 9.
“We hope to do interviews at the end of October or early November,” spokeswoman Lisa Harper said Thursday.
Taylor, 70, announced in June that he will step down from the bench at the end of this year.
Inslee’s office said he will appoint a qualified lawyer to fill the position until the November 2014 general election, when Clallam County voters will elect a judge to serve during the final two years of Taylor’s current term.
Superior Court judges are elected in presidential election years.
Their salaries are split 50-50 by the state and the county in which the court is located.
Clallam County Administrator Jim Jones said the three commissioners have no role in the appointment of the next Superior Court judge.
Clallam County has three Superior Court judges: George L. Wood, Erik Rohrer and Taylor.
They are paid $148,832 per year now and will be paid $151,809 per year beginning Sept. 1, according to the Washington Citizens Commission on Salaries for Elected Officials.
A District Court judge’s $141,710 salary is paid entirely by the county, the commission said.
First elected in 2007
Taylor, a Port Angeles native, was first elected to the bench in 2007 when the county added a third Superior Court judge.
He ran unopposed in the 2008 general election after getting the majority of the votes in the primary against three challengers and was elected unopposed to a second term in 2012.
Meanwhile, longtime Clallam County Superior Court Judge Ken Williams retired at the end of 2012.
He was replaced by Rohrer, a former Forks-area District Court 2 judge who defeated county Hearing Examiner Christopher Melly in the general election.
In a June interview with the Peninsula Daily News, Taylor said he did not want to leave the court with two inexperienced judges going into this year.
He added that he was in “excellent health” and simply decided that it was time to retire.
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Reporter Rob Ollikainen can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 5072, or at rollikainen@peninsuladailynews.com.
Senior Staff Writer Paul Gottlieb contributed to this report.
