Jan 4, 2015 4 min read

We reluctantly say goodbye and enthusiastically wish good luck to a Greene County jurist whose 17-year tenure on the bench ended last Wednesday because state law dictated he step down.

From our perspective, William Nalitz, who reached the mandatory retirement age of 70, handled his responsibilities as president judge of the county’s court of common pleas, a position he assumed in 2009 following the retirement of Judge H. Terry Grimes, with consummate professionalism and the highest level of judicial decorum.

Nalitz was first elected judge in 1997, joining Grimes on the bench, and was the first judge to fill the county’s second judgeship.

During the time Grimes and Nalitz conducted the judicial business of the county, the court’s reputation took a giant leap forward.

When asked about accomplishments of his tenure, Nalitz spoke of that reputation.

“I hear this all the time from out-of-town attorneys, how much they appreciate coming to Greene County, because we have a smoothly run, efficient and friendly court,” he said. In some counties, it is said, people working in the prothonotary’s office or other row offices have an “attitude” and make matters more difficult than they have to be.

But that smoothly run, efficient and friendly court was challenged when Grimes chose to retire in 2009, even though his term did not expire until 2013. Although Greene County functioned with a one-judge court until 1997, the state created the second judgeship in the county based on an overloaded system, so, practically speaking, it made little sense to have Nalitz carry the load, even though Greene County’s court could seek help from senior judges.

The decision was made in March 2009, when then-Gov. Ed Rendell nominated Farley Toothman to fill Grimes’ vacated seat. Several months later, Toothman’s nomination was confirmed by the state Senate and he was sworn in to serve with Nalitz.

Toothman ran for a full term in the 2011 primary as a sitting judge and captured both party nominations.

Toothman’s current 10-year term expires in 2022. He will not be required to run a re-election campaign, but rather put his name up for a simple “yes” or “no” retention question in 2021.

We maintained at the time an appointment would give the sitting incumbent an unfair advantage when it came to time to run for a full term. We were not entirely against an appointment, but would have been in favor of a “caretaker” appointment, in which a qualified attorney was appointed to serve until the an election was held to replace Grimes, with the condition that the appointee would not run for the seat.

Of course, that did not occur.

Now, with the retirement of Nalitz, Toothman has become president judge and, as such, will be responsible for supervising judicial business, setting administrative rules and regulations, making judicial assignments and designating available court chambers and other facilities to court personnel.

It will also be up to Toothman to request support from the Administrative Office of Pennsylvania Courts in handling the roughly 1,000 cases that traditionally come through Greene County in a year. Of those cases, between 450 and 600 involve criminal charges.

The time issue with Nalitz’s replacement is quite less significant than what confronted the court when Grimes retired.

There will be a vacancy for what could amount to nearly a year, but two candidates for the vacant seat have announced their intentions to seek the nomination this spring – Magisterial District Judge Louis Dayich and Waynesburg attorney David Russo. Of course, more may enter the race.

We welcome Toothman into his new role as president judge and wish him luck as he moves forward in the tradition set by his most recent predecessors.