John Johnson File Photo: Graham County Courthouse will be home to the United Magistrates.

Second Magistrate of Pima Closes

John Johnson

john johnson news@gmail.com

Graham County – In a move to cut costs, at a meeting Monday, the Graham County Board of Supervisors voted to combine the First and Second Precinct Peace Court judges into one court.

The newly formed Consolidated Court will be located in Graham County Courthouse, where the First Court of the Magistrate is currently located. The Pima Magistrates Court 2 will be closed and the facility will be returned to the town of Pima who owns the building. Court he will be consolidated from January 1, 2023.

Consolidating the courts would save about $120,000 a year, according to a news release from Graham County Manager Dustin Welker. The release also states that the decision was based on cost-cutting measures and was made to maximize the county’s workforce efficiency.However, the release will see five full-time employees at JP1 and his JP2 staff of two full-time employees will all remain at the new Consolidated Court. However, his one position not mentioned in the release will be removed. He is the only judge a court needs.

Currently, Judge Gary Griffith is JP1 and Judge Wyatt Palmer is JP2. Both are elective offices with his term ending in December 2022. With the time approaching when candidates must turn in their election papers, the county made this decision to warn judges which positions will be vacant in the next election year.

Judge Palmer told the Hilla Herald that he had not yet decided whether to run for office, but said he was in favor of consolidating the courts.

“In my opinion, it’s not a bad idea,” said Palmer. “I think it’s going to be good.”

In December 2017, the three municipalities of Safford, Thatcher and Pima agreed to consolidate their various district courts into one Gila Valley Consolidated Court in Safford in a cost-saving move.

Welker said the workload of both courts at JP is sufficiently low that even if combined into one court, the workload would be “well below the statutory maximum of 1,200 credits.”