by Joe Wilhelm Jr.
Staff Writer
Gov. Rick Scott’s request for more nominees for two open seats in the state’s First District Court of Appeal was denied by its judicial nominating commission Tuesday.
“I’ll let the letter speak for itself,” said Peter Antonacci, chair of the First DCA Judicial Nominating Commission.
The letter Antonacci referred to stated: “the commission met (Tuesday) in public session and, after careful consideration, the commission has declined (Commissioner Steven Yablonski dissenting) to reconvene for these purposes. The commission fully respects the governor’s goal of having the
maximum number of nominees for these judicial appointments, but in these circumstances the commission believes it has completed its task as required by law.”
The lone dissenting vote, Yablonski, believed there were more candidates who could have been included.
“It’s my belief that we had at least five more candidates who were qualified and competent to sit on the bench,” said Yablonski, who has served on the JNC for 10 years. “I think it does a disservice to those who applied to not send the maximum number of candidates. It discourages the top candidates from applying when they hear something like this happening.”
Members of the judicial nominating commission knew that a letter asking for a supplemental list would be coming from Scott if they sent a list that included fewer than the maximum number of candidates, said Yablonski.
“(Scott) did the same thing when the Fourth DCA Judicial Nominating Commission sent a list of four candidates to fill the one open seat,” said Yablonski. “They denied his request too.”
The First DCA JNC consists of Chair Peter Antonacci, Vice Chair Michael Glazer, Barbara Johnston and Yablonski of Jacksonville, Alan Bookman, Daryl Parks, Augustin Corbella, Katherine Giddings and Patricia Conners.
The commission submitted a list of seven candidates to Scott on April 21 for him to choose two judges to fill the seats vacated by retiring Judges Charles Kahn and Peter Webster. The maximum number of candidates the commission could send for each seat is six, and the governor wanted a pool of 12 to choose from.
The commission chose to interview 16 of the 25 applicants, and, after the interviews, chose a group of seven to send to Scott. That group included Fourth Judicial Circuit Judges Jim Daniel and Waddell Wallace, both from Jacksonville. The list also includes Miguel Olivella Jr., Charles Stampelos, Ronald Swanson, Jessica Enciso Varn and Stephanie Williams Ray. Swanson is from Pensacola and the other four are from Tallahassee.
The First District Court of Appeal is responsible for hearing civil and criminal appeals from a North Florida district that includes the Panhandle and Northeast Florida.
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