Julia Owdziej was in the middle of a phone interview about her campaign for probate judge when her other phone rang. She politely excused herself. A few minutes later she came back on the line and said, “They’re ready to swear me in!”
A day earlier, Owdziej (pronounced ow-zeye) had received notice that Governor Snyder had appointed her to the seat left vacant by Nancy Wheeler’s retirement. This afternoon, she would be a judge herself.
Wheeler’s term was already due to end this year, so “there will still be a primary” in August, says Owdziej, “and there will still be a general election in November.”
But overnight what had been a wide-open race had a favorite. “Julia will be designated as incumbent” on the primary ballot, explains county clerk Larry Kestenbaum. In general, he says, “voters don’t know any reason not to vote for an incumbent.”
All five attorneys seeking election to the probate court applied for the appointment to serve out Wheeler’s term. One misunderstood the deadline, but four were interviewed. Another candidate, Connie Jones, notes that as a juvenile court referee, Owdziej “was the only person who didn’t have to close up a practice” to take the bench, suggesting that may be one of the reasons she was chosen.
Jane Bassett doesn’t think Snyder’s blessing is necessarily a good thing: “Being appointed by a Republican governor can be a disadvantage. We need to let the voters speak.”
On August 5, voters will choose among candidates for both the probate court and the circuit court seat Don Shelton will vacate in September. The two top vote getters will advance to the November 4 general election.
This will be voters’ first–and last–chance to pass meaningful judgment on these would-be judges. Incumbency is such a powerful factor in judicial elections, says a local attorney, that “once elected, they stay elected.”
Five lawyers, one seat
Probate court, Owdziej explains, handles “guardianship, conservatorship, the mental health docket, and estates.” Chief judge David Swartz has announced that he’ll be assigning only probate and domestic cases to the judge elected this year; the new circuit court judge (see below) will also be assigned some domestic and other family law cases. “There will be no criminal cases tried in front of these two open seat judgeships,” Swartz says. “It’s that black and white.”
Jane Bassett, fifty-three, received her JD from Detroit Mercy School of Law and has her own practice in Ann Arbor. She says her twenty years of experience in probate court is broader and more “person-centered” than the other candidates’. She also wants to crack down on financial abuse, whether by family members or third-party scammers, by “working with the police and prosecuting attorney.”
Bassett is a charter member of the National Family Law Advisory Committee of the National Center for Lesbian Rights, a past member of the board of advisors for the Housing Bureau for Seniors, and the mother of two elementary-age children who attend the Ann Arbor Learning Community.
What a probate judge needs most, she says, is to “listen carefully, glean information quickly, and be respectful to all people involved”–while being alert for “red flags” that suggest a caregiver may be abusing his or her power over a vulnerable person. Her endorsers include former city councilmember Sandi Smith and former Pittsfield Township clerk Christina Lirones.
Tamara (Tammy) Garwood, forty-one, received her JD from Detroit College of Law in 1999 and is a partner in an Ann Arbor practice. A strong advocate of mediation and collaborative law, the mother of two young daughters says she wants to be a judge to “help more families and children and those who are most vulnerable, and give back.”
She acknowledges that Owdziej’s appointment and incumbent designation on the ballot is a hurdle, but she hopes that the other candidates can communicate to the voters that they, too, are qualified. “Six months on the bench [between Owdziej’s appointment and the end of Wheeler’s term] is just six months on the bench,” she says.
Asked the most important qualities for a probate judge, she says, “a great deal of compassion” but also a certain amount of dispassion: “There are a lot of gut-wrenching circumstances,” she says. Garwood is endorsed by Wheeler.
Constance (Connie) Jones, fifty-eight, received her JD from U-M’s law school in 1987. Since 1993 she has been a private practice attorney specializing in probate law.
Jones has seen probate from both sides. “My parents were divorced when I was very young,” she explains “and my mom had a drug addiction problem.” In order to attend high school here, she had to ask the court to declare her an “emancipated minor.” It did, and she graduated from Huron High in 1973. Jones points out that there will be five candidates for probate judge in the primary, and given the likely low turnout, she believes any of them could win. Her endorsers include city councilmember Jane Lumm and retired businesspeople Elaine Selo and Cynthia Shevel.
“I have the most relevant experience in front of the court,” she says, “and I think that’s experience that matters.” She also says she offers a “fresh perspective. We want people from the outside versus inside. I think that is a legitimate point to make.”
Julia Owdziej, fifty-one, received her JD from Detroit College of Law in 1989. She was a prosecutor for eight years before being appointed a juvenile court referee by Wheeler.
She definitely feels qualified. “I’ve been making tough decisions already–I’ve been a juvenile court referee for fourteen years,” she says. A referee is similar to a judge, she explains, “in that she wears a black robe … [but] the decisions I make are about juveniles. I’ve been primarily assigned to the juvenile delinquency docket.” (Her colleague, Molly Schikora, handles primarily abuse and neglect cases.) With her June appointment, she took over Wheeler’s docket, including a lot of domestic cases.
Asked what qualities a judge needs, she replies, “You have them or you don’t. Patience with people. You have to be conscientious, hard-working. It’s their courtroom–they have a right to be there.” At the same time, she says, a judge needs to be aware that “there are people behind them,” so cases have to be resolved expeditiously. “It’s a balancing act,” she says
The mother of a teenager at Gabriel Richard, Owdziej has a lengthy list of endorsements from people in the justice system, including chief judge David Swartz, outgoing circuit judge Shelton, and Wayne County probate judge Milton Mack..
Tracy Van den Bergh, forty-three, worked for more than ten years as a clinical social worker and psychotherapist before graduating from MSU’s law school. As an attorney at Legal Services of South Central Michigan, she represents low-income clients in the district, probate, circuit, and appellate courts. Though she missed the deadline to apply for Snyder’s appointment, she says that as an active Democrat “I was probably an unlikely political choice.”
“I still believe I am the most qualified person for the position,” Van den Bergh says. Since many probate cases involve mental health issues, “this is a perfect skill set for me.” The mother of a teenage daughter, she says, “our system doesn’t work for the most vulnerable … I want a person to be able to tell their story.”
“The reality is, people don’t know their judges,” she admits. So the fact that Snyder appointed Owdziej to the bench “gives her that leg up, that [incumbent] tag.” But like the other probate candidates, she’s not about to concede: “I’m only going to work harder,” she says.
Who’ll succeed Shelton?
Circuit court hears felony criminal cases, major civil lawsuits, divorces, and juvenile cases. Don Shelton, first appointed to the circuit court in 1990, turns seventy in June, which makes him ineligible for reelection. Though his term runs through the end of the year, he plans to resign in September to begin his next career as director of the criminal justice program at the U-M Dearborn.
Three attorneys–Pat Conlin, Veronique Liem, and Mike Woodyard–are seeking the seat. One will be eliminated in the August 5 primary, sending the others to the November 4 general election.
While Shelton hears criminal cases, chief judge David Swartz says that portion of his docket will be transferred to Carol Kuhnke, who was elected to the court last year. Next year, Swartz says, “the open circuit court seat will have a docket that is almost all family court, with some PPO”–personal protective orders.
Pat Conlin, fifty, taught school in New York and Chicago before getting his law degree from Wayne State in 1997. He’s a partner in a Chelsea law firm; for the past two years, he’s also worked part-time at his father’s firm in Ann Arbor.
Pat’s grandfather, John Conlin, was circuit court judge until his death in 1972. He was succeeded by Pat’s father–also named Pat–who served until 1997. “My whole childhood, I walked to the courthouse after school,” the candidate recalls, “because I went to St. Thomas [school], and I walked up there to get a ride home.”
Conlin says he isn’t surprised at Swartz’s assignments–“the new judge is always given family law”–and that family law has lately made up half or more of his practice. While not a court-approved mediator, Conlin says he is “self-taught” and does a lot of mediation, primarily for people who don’t have lawyers and want to save some money.
Conlin was the last of the three candidates to declare for the circuit court seat. He explains that his wife, Elaine Economou, has just launched a Pilates and wellness studio (Move, on Jackson Rd.), and he waited until he was sure it was on track before plunging into the campaign. The couple has three children; the oldest goes to Chelsea High School, and the two youngest go to Honey Creek charter school.
Conlin is endorsed by judges Shelton and Swartz.
Veronique Liem, sixty, has both an MBA and a law degree from the U-M. “I feel like I have really very good experience to be a circuit court judge in general but particularly for this judicial seat,” she says in a fairly strong French accent. Born in France, she’s now a U.S. citizen. “I care very much how children caught in custody disputes are taken care of by the judges and the parents.” Liem is the only one of the three candidates whose parents divorced and who’s been divorced herself. Now remarried, she has two grown children.
“I think I’m the only candidate who is trained as a collaborative divorce specialist and even trained and court approved as a mediator,” Liem says. “I have also represented parties and businesses in other circuit court cases–business, commercial, employment, real estate. I’ve mediated cases. I’ve arbitrated cases. I’ve represented people to the court of appeals. So I think I have a broad range of experience.”
Liem says she was asked to run by attorney Dick Sobel. She’s endorsed by Court of Appeals judge Doug Shapiro, circuit court judge Kuhnke, district court judges Charles Pope and Kirk Tabbey, and a host of local elected officials, including state rep Jeff Irwin, the mayors of Ann Arbor and Ypsilanti, and six members of the Ann Arbor city council.
Mike Woodyard, forty-eight, is a former reporter who worked at Automotive News while earning a law degree at night from Wayne State in 2002. As an assistant prosecuting attorney in Wayne County, he’s been handling criminal cases rather than the family law the new judge will handle at first, but he says he still thinks he’s the best person for the job. What a judge needs most, he says, are backbone and faith in the system. Other qualities he’d bring to the position are “patience, judgment, the ability to listen, and the interest in treating people with respect.”
Two years ago, Woodyard demonstrated why it’s rare to challenge a sitting judge: running against incumbent Tim Connors, he got 25,441 votes to Connors’ 83,156. This time around, he’s endorsed by many judges in Wayne County but no local elected officials.
“My hope is that the 2014 campaign doesn’t become about the 2012 campaign,” Woodyard says. “I like to say that I didn’t run against Tim Connors, but I ran for the job. I want to be a judge. That’s what I see as a logical extension of my particular skills and my particular passion.
“I want my community to be an ever-improving place,” he says. With two young children in the Ann Arbor public schools, “I want my kids to grow up in a community that’s better than the one I have.”
The votes of August
County clerk Kestenbaum believes Owdziej now has a huge head start: “On the ballots, under her name, it will say Judge of the Probate Court.” What about Bassett’s theory that being appointed by a Republican governor could backfire in Democratic Ann Arbor? “It will not say appointed by Governor Snyder,” he says.
Kestenbaum believes it would take a scandal, some “exceptional situation,” or “a tremendous amount of publicity from another candidate” for Owdziej to come in third or lower in the primary. If she makes it to general election, he says, “she is almost unbeatable.”
Kestenbaum thinks that the same kind of scenario may unfold in circuit court: once Shelton steps down, the governor could appoint one of the candidates to his seat, making that person an incumbent on the November ballot.
“I endorsed Veronique [Liem],” says Kestenbaum. “If the election were held today … she would be elected.” But he sees a good chance the governor will appoint Pat Conlin instead.
Though it could hurt his preferred candidate, Kestenbaum doesn’t consider the appointment process unfair. “I think that voters have very little information and interest in selecting judges,” he explains, “So they base their choice on irrelevant information–like ballot order or name.” For instance, they’re less likely to vote for a person whose “name doesn’t clearly indicate their gender,” he says, or whose name is hard to pronounce–without her incumbent label, he says, her name alone would have put Owdziej “at a severe disadvantage.
“You can say it’s not fair to base a [judicial] choice on a governor who is not popular in Washtenaw County,” he allows, “but at the same time, it’s not like the election process is so wonderful and fair that we should automatically prefer the elected process.”
Given their strong bias toward incumbents, many voters may have doubts about the process, too. But on August 5, they’ll have to decide who moves on to the November election–and then to a permanent position on the bench.
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This article has been edited since it appeared in the July 2014 Ann Arbor Observer. Pat Conlin’s age has been corrected.
