Jan 5, 2015 3 min read

An email Washington County Elections Director Larry Spahr received Monday from the Pennsylvania Department of State appears to put off the election of a new judge until 2017, meaning that, barring a gubernatorial appointment, the post vacated by President Judge Debbie O’Dell Seneca would remain vacant for three years.

O’Dell Seneca retired effective Monday. The general election is scheduled for Tuesday, Nov. 3, leaving the county two days short of the 10-month vacancy the state Constitution requires before allowing voters to elect a new judge.

Next year, 2016, is a federal election year, so the next municipal election won’t occur until 2017, and the person elected judge would take office on the first Monday of January 2018.

Spahr had a phone conversation late Friday afternoon with Jonathan Marks, commissioner of the state’s Bureau of Commissions, Elections and Legislation, who coordinates statewide implementation of the Election Code, and he came away with the impression that the office would be on the ballot this year in Washington County.

But that turned out not to be the case.

“It didn’t reach the threshold of 10 months,” Department of State spokesman Matthew Keeler said Monday of the judicial vacancy in Washington County. “It wouldn’t be on the ballot. It falls into an appointment by the governor.”

This is not the first time that the length of a judicial vacancy in Washington County was in dispute.

A followup email to Spahr from Marks arrived Monday morning, citing several different cases that showed different court interpretations over the years. But the controlling case originated in Washington County more than 40 years ago.

Simmons vs. C. Delores Tucker involved attorney Paul Simmons of Monongahela and a vacancy created on the Washington County bench when President Richard M. Nixon nominated Washington County Judge Barron P. McCune to become a U.S. district judge.

McCune submitted his resignation to Gov. Raymond P. Shafer effective Jan. 4, 1971, the same day that Thomas D. Gladden was appointed to fill that vacancy for a term ending on the first Monday of January 1974.

Simmons went to court because Tucker, the secretary of the commonwealth, refused to accept his filing papers in 1971 as a candidate for a judgeship beginning Jan. 3, 1972. Commonwealth Court dismissed Simmons’ petition, and he took the case before the state Supreme Court. The issue was the length of Gladden’s term rather than the validity of his appointment.

If the vacancy occurred before Jan. 2, 1970, (10 months before the scheduled municipal election on Nov. 2, 1971) Judge Gladden’s appointment would terminate Jan. 3, 1972, and a judicial election in 1971 would be required.

Simmons contended McCune’s vacancy took place Dec. 18, 1970, the day McCune was commissioned a federal judge, or Dec. 28, 1970, the date of the letter of resignation. But the Supreme Court found the vacancy in the Court of Common Pleas did not arise until the effective date of McCune’s resignation Jan. 4, 1971, and Gladden’s term as an appointee continued until the first Monday of January 1974. The election for the seat on the bench took place in 1973 rather than in 1971.

There was some question Monday about the effective date of O’Dell Seneca’s retirement.

“I never changed my retirement date. It’s still effective Jan. 5,” O’Dell Seneca said Monday. “The letter said Jan. 5. The judicial year begins the first Monday in January.”

She said she discussed her departure with a retirement counselor, who noted she would have to serve a full year to qualify for 2014 retirement benefits, so her timing was based on Sunday, Jan. 4, being the close of the year’s judicial business.