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Candidates for Clark County’s Superior Court bench faced off Friday in a forum hosted by the Clark County Bar Association.
Superior Court Judge Bernard Veljacic and his nonpartisan challenger, Bob Vukanovich, answered questions from local attorneys during the noon hour in the Clark County Public Service Center. About 100 people turned out for the event, which also included Prosecutor Tony Golik, a Democrat, and Republican challenger Josephine Townsend.
The bar association regularly holds candidate forums in judiciary-related elections and polls its members on their top choices.
“(The forum) showcases the way we as lawyers handle ourselves and how we treat society’s problems,” said bar association President Arin Dunn.
Bar association poll results for November’s general election will be released Oct. 10, said Lisa Darco, bar association office manager. Ballots are scheduled to be mailed to voters Oct. 15.
Judicial candidates
Veljacic, 42, of Vancouver was appointed by Gov. Jay Inslee to Clark County Superior Court Position 5 about five months ago to succeed Judge Rich Melnick, who was appointed to Division II Court of Appeals. Veljacic must be elected in November in order to continue in the position.
Vukanovich, 56, of Battle Ground, also applied for the gubernatorial appointment but he and three others were passed up in favor of Veljacic. Vukanovich, who was the favorite of Clark County Bar Association members, said he never even got an interview with the governor.
In an April bar association poll, Vukanovich received 38.8 percent to Veljacic’s 27.7 percent. The 188 respondents also gave Vukanovich the highest rating for legal ability, judicial temperament, integrity and relevant legal experience.
Vukanovich has about 26 years of experience as a lawyer, compared to Veljacic’s 16 years. Vukanovich said he has handled more than 1,000 criminal cases and another 1,000 family law cases. He currently has a private practice and also represents criminal defendants who cannot afford their own attorney.
He is a former president of the Clark County Bar Association.
Vukanovich has served on the board of trustees for the Volunteer Lawyers Program, conducted numerous family law clinics for those who can’t afford an attorney and volunteered for the Clark County Mock Trial program, in which high school students learn the law by trying a mock case in front of a county judge.
He said he has about 80 endorsements, including 20 attorneys, retired Supreme Court Justice Jim Johnson, Vancouver Mayor Tim Leavitt and state Rep. Liz Pike, R-Camas.
Veljacic said that his career illustrates that time in not the only measure of experience.
He founded a legal services clinic in 1991, when he was just out of law school, to serve homeless people primarily in family law, immigration and debt cases.
He said he also served in quasi-judicial positions on the state Clemency and Parole Board and the Washington State Bar Association’s Character and Fitness Board, which makes decisions on whether bar applicants would be ethical and capable lawyers.
He joined the Clark County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office in 2001. During his last several years as a prosecutor, he worked in the office’s civil division, handling complex federal cases and appellate work.
In 2009, he was one of 15 fellows in the Washington State Bar Association’s Leadership Institute. During the fellowship, he spent time with state Supreme Court justices and attorney Nick Brown, who is now Inslee’s general counsel.
“That experience — I’ve crammed that into my career, and I think that is actual experience,” Veljacic said.
The majority of the justices on the State Supreme Court, including Susan Owens, Mary Yu and Chief Justice Charles Johnson, have endorsed him, he said.
Responding to a question about how each candidate would address people with language barriers, Vukanovich stressed the importance of having court interpreters and ensuring that non-English speakers understand the proceedings.
“Underlying that issue is not just a language barrier … but also the cultural aspect underlying that,” Veljacic said.
He said judges need to be sensitive to cultures where there is distrust of the judicial branch and try to put people at ease.
Another attorney asked the candidates what they would consider in determining whether to release someone accused of a crime pending trial.
Vukanovich said as a criminal defense attorney, he’s been frustrated with judges denying supervised release to indigent defendants who are not a flight risk or an immediate danger to the public, and he thinks that supervised release should be used more frequently. He noted that the Clark County Jail was built for 420 inmates and now houses about 800.
“I’m not going to take a position, because then no one will want their cases heard by me,” Veljacic said. “I’ll consider all of the factors holding sacred the presumption of innocence … .”
The county has 10 Superior Court judge positions. Superior courts are the highest state trial courts, hearing felony and larger civil matters. Superior Court judges are paid $156,363 per year, plus benefits.
