2016 Colorado Revised Statutes
Title 13 - Courts and Court Procedure
Courts of Record
Article 5.5 - Commissions on Judicial Performance
§ 13-5.5-103. Powers and duties of the state commission

(1) In addition to other powers conferred and duties imposed upon the state commission by this article, the state commission has the following powers and duties:

(a) To appoint and supervise a person to serve as the executive director of the office of judicial performance evaluation;

(b) To assist the executive director in managing the office and providing fiscal oversight of the operating budget of the office;

(c) To develop uniform procedures and techniques for evaluating district and county judges, justices of the Colorado supreme court, and judges of the court of appeals based on performance criteria provided in section 13-5.5-105.5;

(d) To develop guidelines and procedures for the continuous collection of data for use in the evaluation process;

(e) To develop surveys for persons affected by justices and judges, including but not limited to attorneys, jurors, litigants, law enforcement personnel, attorneys within the district attorneys' and public defender's offices, employees of the court, court interpreters, employees of probation offices, employees of local departments of social services, and victims of crimes, as defined in section 24-4.1-302 (5), C.R.S.;

(f) To determine the statistical validity of completed surveys, report to the district commissions on the statistical validity of the surveys for their districts, and specify when and how statistically invalid surveys may be used;

(g) To prepare alternatives to surveys where sample populations are inadequate to produce valid results;

(h) To produce and distribute narratives and survey reports;

(i) To review case management data and statistics for individual appellate justices and judges provided by the state court administrator;

(j) To review written judicial opinions;

(k) To collect information from direct courtroom observation;

(l) To interview justices and appellate judges and other persons and accept information and documentation from interested persons;

(m) To draft narratives that reflect the results of judicial performance evaluations of justices and appellate judges;

(n) To distribute to the public narratives that reflect the results of each judicial performance evaluation of each appellate justice or judge;

(o) (I) Subject to approval by the Colorado supreme court, to promulgate rules necessary to implement and effectuate the provisions of this article, including rules to be followed by the district commissions.

(II) Prior to the final promulgation of any rule pursuant to this paragraph (o), the state commission shall post a notice of the proposed rule, allow for a period for public comment, and give the public an opportunity to address the commission concerning the proposed rule at a public hearing.

(III) The state commission may adopt rules or standards that provide guidance to members of the state commission or members of district commissions regarding the review or interpretation of information obtained as a result of the evaluation process and the criteria contained in section 13-5.5-105.5. Any such rules or standards shall:

(A) Be consistent with paragraphs (e), (f), and (g) of this subsection (1), in that the rules or standards and the application thereof shall take into consideration the statistical reliability of survey data; and

(B) Not divest any member of the state commission or a district commission of his or her ultimate authority to decide whether to vote for or against recommending retention of a justice or judge and be consistent with subsection (2) of this section and section 13-5.5-105 (2).

(p) To develop procedures for the review of the deliberation procedures established by the district commissions. However, the state commission shall not have the power or duty to review actual determinations made by the district commissions.

(q) To gather and maintain statewide statistical data and post a statistical report of the statewide data on its website no later than thirty days prior to each retention election. The statistical report shall specify:

(I) The total number of justices and judges who were eligible to stand for retention;

(II) The total number of evaluations of justices and judges performed by the state and district commissions;

(III) The total number of justices and judges who were evaluated but did not stand for retention; and

(IV) The total number of justices and judges recommended as "retain", "do not retain", or "no opinion", respectively.

(2) Unless recused pursuant to a provision of this article, each member of the state commission shall have the discretion to vote for or against retention of a justice or judge based upon his or her review of all information before the state commission.