Raymond’s application lacks professionalism
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Editor,
Filling the vacancy soon to be left by outgoing District Court Judge C.B. McNeil will be both a challenging and serious endeavor for the Judicial Nomination Commission. Given that Judge McNeil has presided over 27,000 cases over his distinguished 29-year career on the bench and given that he has been the first and only 20th District Court Judge for both Lake and Sanders Counties makes this decision all the more daunting. It is imperative that every one of the candidates submitted for final selection by Governor Bullock possesses a record that is as unblemished and as exemplary as Judge McNeil’s. The public has been encouraged to evaluate these applications and to provide some feedback for this important selection process, which is the reason for this letter.
Having reviewed the applications of all six people, which are available online at http://www.courts.mt.gov, I find that five of the six took this application process very seriously and professionally tantamount to their responsibilities as our future judge. Lawyer applicants Steven Eschenbacher, JoAnn Jayne, James Manley, Mark Russell, and John Schulte all made concerted efforts to present themselves in the best possible way. If there are five nominees to be chosen from for this position, then they should all obtain full consideration. However, the application submitted by our current City Attorney James Raymond, seriously lacked professionalism, was written in a haphazard and often bizarre manner, and was clearly inferior to the other applicants. Actually, it was quite offensive to examine the casual and lackadaisical way in which Raymond apparently threw this document together. Lastly, Raymond’s submitting of literary prose from 1997 rather than formal legal writing was totally inappropriate. My recommendation is that James Raymond not be considered for this position.
Steven Palmieri
Polson
