The state Commission on Judicial Conduct received and processed the third-highest number of complaints against the state's judges in more than four decades, while its funding remained mostly stagnant from previous years, the panel said in its annual report Monday.

The commission issued 19 public decisions that either removed a judge from office, publicly sanctioned them, or announced their resignation in 2018. Those were the result of less than 1 percent of the 2,000 complaints received and processed by the panel during that time.

That's more than the usual amount, according to the report, which said the commission issued an average of 15 public decisions each year over the last five years. Despite the higher workload and number of decisions, funding for the commission has not increased to match that demand, the report said.

The number of full-time staff employed by the commission is currently set at 38—the lowest level since 2006. Commission Administrator Robert Tembeckjian formally requested a 6 percent budget increase from lawmakers in January, which would add $359,000 to the panel's spending.

He said in a statement Monday that withholding that increase from the commission would go against the spirit of the panel, which was created to hold the state's jurists accountable when found to have committed misconduct.

“Public confidence in the courts requires a judiciary that is both independent and accountable,” Tembeckjian said. “Year after year, with dwindling resources but dedicated members and staff, the Judicial Conduct Commission has handled an increasing caseload with remarkable results, holding those relatively few judges who misbehave to account, and exonerating those who were wrongly accused.”

The commission's budget has increased from $5.4 million in 2010 to nearly $5.7 million over the last fiscal year after receiving a handful of small increases during that time. The increase proposed in January would be used to hire more staff at the commission and provide transcription services, which Tembeckjian said at the time would significantly expedite the length of time it takes them to resolve complaints.

The backlog of cases from past years has persisted under the current funding levels, according to the report. The commission disposed of 155 investigations in 2018 that were left over from the previous year, and at the end of last year there were still 181 investigations pending before the panel. That's on top of the complaints reported and disposed during 2018.

Aside from a funding increase, the commission also laid out several recommendations that, according to the report, would help reduce the amount of judicial misconduct and consequently the number of complaints addressed by the panel.

Chief among them was a proposal to provide more legal training opportunities to town and village court justices, who are not required to be lawyers while serving in those positions. Close to 60 percent of the investigations authorized by the commission last year were into reports of misconduct against town and village justices, according to the report. That's despite town and village justices making up only 15 percent of the complaints received by the commission during that time.

The report stopped short of saying the Legislature should require those justices to be attorneys, but did mention that the proposal has been floated before lawmakers in the past. The commission suggested, instead, that the disparity in complaints against those judges could be addressed by providing more training opportunities for them in various areas of state law.

“We would be pleased to help design and teach more expansive courses in civil procedure, criminal procedure, property (with a concentration on landlord/tenant) and professional ethics, akin to the rigorous classes in these subjects that justices who are attorneys would have taken in law school,” the report said.

The commission also suggested that the Legislature relieve town and village justices of the responsibility of tracking and reporting funds brought in by the court, through fines, bail, etc. Those jurists are responsible for collecting that money and reporting it to the State Comptroller's Office. Some justices have been disciplined for failing to do so, according to the report.

Sixteen of the 19 public decisions issued by the commission in 2018 pertained to town and village justices, all of which were either publicly disciplined or resigned as a result of the investigation with a commitment to never seek judicial office again.

Only two judges were removed from office by the commission: former Rochester City Court Judge Leticia Astacio, who was removed after a conviction of driving while intoxicated, and former Queens Civil Court Judge Terrence O'Connor, who was accused of being “belligerent, rude and condescending” to attorneys in court.

The remaining justice disciplined by the commission was acting state Supreme Court Justice Shari Michels, who was publicly sanctioned after being accused of using her title with police during a traffic incident.

The commission has publicly sanctioned two judges so far this year, both of which are town and village justices.

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