The Butler County commissioners axed Jury Commisioner Jon Galante's job, and he had considered filing a legal challenge to keep it.

Instead, he'll wait for another lawsuit to play out in Commonwealth Court. The Pennsylvania Association of Jury Commissioners is seeking to overturn legislation signed May 6 by Gov. Tom Corbett allowing counties to eliminate jury commissioners, who oversee the process for selecting jury pools, and transfer the duties to other court offices. The association is seeking a temporary injunction to block the law.

“I plan on letting the proper legal channels play out,” Galante said.

“We're going to see what the state association does. We're going to let them get a crack at it first,” he said, adding, “I'm going to get my money back one way or another, money I spent campaigning.”

Galante said he spent at least $9,000 to wage his primary campaign. He defeated Patricia Stirling of Harmony last month to win the GOP nomination for another four-year term. Democrat Clint Bonetti ran unopposed. State law requires a jury commissioner from each political party.

“They basically nullified the election,” Galante said, referring to county commissioners Bill McCarrier and A. Dale Pinkerton, who voted on May 23 — just two days after the primary — to eliminate Butler County's jury commission system effective next year.

McCarrier and Pinkerton cited cost cutting as the reason, saying the jury commissioners' duties could be transferred to the court administrator's office.

Though prospective jurors are picked randomly by computer, using election rosters and other sources, jury commissioners are responsible for handling questionnaires that prospective jurors fill out, deciding from that questionnaire if they are eligible for jury pools, and related duties.

Butler County picks about 5,000 prospective jurors a year for criminal, civil and other court matters.

Commissioners said the duties can be handled by other court employees. The county budgeted about $84,000 for salaries and benefits for 2013 for the office. Each jury commissioner earns $18,000 a year.

Bonetti could not be reached.

Galante said he expects the state Supreme Court to rule the new law unconstitutional, based on a breach of separation of powers.

Earlier this year, the state Supreme Court threw out 2011 legislation that allowed counties to eliminate jury commissioners, saying that it violated the state constitution because it covered more than one subject.

Legislators in April approved new legislation that dealt with just jury commissioners, and Corbett signed that bill.

Larry Thompson, a former Butler jury commissioner and president of the state association, said that any talk of cost-savings is simply a smokescreen, as it's likely that counties would have to add staff to handle the jury commission duties.

“We need jury commissioners to provide an impartial bipartisan approach to the selection of prospective jurors,” Thompson said, adding, “If they throw it into the court administration, they are unelected hirings. The system is once again closed, and who's going to know what's going on?”

Bill Vidonic is a staff writer for Trib Total Media. He can be reached at 412-380-5621 or bvidonic@tribweb.com.

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