Area residents will see changes to their court system, the impacts of which and their time lines not immediately clear.

A recent amendment to a state bill passed that will grant St. Clair County its own judicial circuit. Currently, Monroe County is in the 20th Judicial Circuit along with St. Clair, Washington, Randolph and Perry counties, but because of the bill, St. Clair County will be designated the only county in the 20th Circuit, with the rest of the counties being looped together in a new 24th circuit. 

This change is set to take place in December 2022. 

The Madison-St. Clair Record reported that State Rep. Jay Hoffman (D-Belleville) proposed this as an amendment to Senate Bill 2406, which requires the Department of Children and Family Services to address racial disparities for those involved in the child welfare system.

“This is an attempt to create a more diverse judicial bench,” Sen. Christopher Belt (D-East St. Louis) was quoted as saying in the Madison-St. Clair Record in his support of the amendment.

Belt added that St. Clair County is 64 percent white and 30 percent African American, yet only one judge is African American. 

Republicans raised concern that the public appeared not to be consulted about the changing circuits, and State Rep. Charlie Meier (R-Okawville) had said many judges did not know about the amendment. 

He also alluded that the changes are an attempt to bring politics to the judicial system. 

“It has nothing to do with making a better judicial system in the state of Illinois,” Meier said. “This is to pack the court in St. Clair County.” 

The reasoning behind the split is not clear at this time, and Chief Judge of the 20th Judicial Circuit Andrew Gleeson and Monroe County Resident Circuit Judge Chris Hitzemann could not provide insight as to potential political motives behind the split. 

Both judges said the split will probably not impact day-to-day functions. However, the exact impacts the split will have on Monroe County constituents is unclear. 

Hitzemann estimates one of the biggest changes concerns the loss of help 20th Circuit Court Associate Judge Julia Gomric provides. 

“Currently one of the associates that is seated in St. Clair County, which is Judge Julia Gomric, comes to the other counties – (Monroe), Randolph, Washington and Perry – on a weekly basis and assists with cases where there’s a conflict of interest or just kind of helps the other courts with a couple of dockets,” he said. “So when (the split occurs), we’ll lose a person coming out to help us.” 

This is because where associate judges reside will determine what circuit they will be assigned to in the wake of the split, Hitzemann said. 

Currently, 12 of the associate judges for the present circuit live in St. Clair County, and only one lives in what would be the new 24th circuit. Hitzemann said there are two potential ways this could be handled: constituents of the 24th circuit elect another circuit judge to serve the circuit at large, or new associate judge positions are created. 

However, he does not know which will occur. 

“Since we have the additional associate in St. Clair County that comes out and helps us, our assumption – and I hope it’s correct – will be that a new associate position, at least one if not two, will be created for our new 24th circuit, and then that individual or those individuals would then be selected by the four circuit judges that have been elected by the people in our communities,” Hitzemann said.     

In addition, Hitzemann said the new 24th circuit will require a chief judge, as Gleeson is seated in St. Clair County. He assumes this new chief judge may require an administrative assistant of sorts as well. 

Since probation is supervised out of St. Clair County, there is also the possibility the 24th circuit will need to hire a probation administrator. As of now, the origin of funding for these potential additional costs has not been discussed. 

“That’s kind of unclear now,” Hitzemann said on the topic. “I’ve talked to the other circuit judges that will be part of our new circuit, and once this is officially signed, we’re going to try and meet and we have reached out to Justice (David) Overstreet, our Supreme Court justice for the Southern District, and we’re going to try and get as much of this stuff figured out well in advance so that we can go to our boards if we have to, if there is going to be some additional costs … it was sort of a surprise to us that this had been passed, so I think we’re still kind of all in a phase where we need to figure out exactly what costs, if any, the individual counties will have to bear.” 

Hitzemann said he will be discussing the possibility of Monroe County needing to help fund the costs associated with the split, as they will be discussing the budget. While nothing is set in stone as to how much, if anything, Monroe County will need to fund, he assumes the counties in the new 24th circuit will somehow split costs associated with these new hires if needed. 

A new judicial map that aims to change appellate court boundaries was recently approved, yet the transition will be delayed until further notice, the Illinois Supreme Court decided. 

Monroe County is currently in the fifth district, and will stay in the fifth district, but will be joined by 11 counties that are cuurently in the fourth district.