GILLETTE, Wyo. — Alison O. Gee and Christopher R. Ringer were reappointed to oversee Municipal Court Tuesday night during the first Gillette City Council meeting of the year.
Both city judges had their employment contracts renewed during the council’s meeting on Jan. 7 in a motion that narrowly passed after the two newest councilmembers — Jack Clary and Chris Smith — headed an effort to postpone the decision for two weeks until they had a chance to interview Ringer and Gee.
The motion to delay renewing the judges’ employment contracts garnered support from Councilmember Tim Carsrud; however, the motion failed 3–3 after failing to receive a majority vote.
Councilmember Heidi Gross, who voted against postponing the decision, reminded the council ahead of the vote that interviews were on the books from when the council first appointed Ringer and Gee.
“I’d like to move forward with this tonight,” Gross said. “We went through a very extensive process to appoint both of these municipal judges last year. They do an outstanding job and I just don’t see any reason for delaying the vote for another two weeks.”
Smith clarified that he meant no disrespect to the previous council; however, he said he would like to meet and visit with both judges before deciding to reappoint them.
Clary made a similar point, stating that when considering anyone for a role, one needs to understand their background and interviews need to be completed. Casting a vote either way without meeting the judges would be a disservice to the community, he said.
City Attorney Sean Brown told the council they could postpone the vote since the renewal clause in the city judge employment contract doesn’t provide a specific date for the reappointments. However, if they’d decided not to appoint either judge, the city would have had to start from square one and restart the application process to attract candidates.
After the postponement motion failed, Smith and Clary abstained from casting a vote to reappoint either judge; however, the motion passed with the rest of the council voting in favor.
