09/25/2026
🎯 EXPANDING OUR COURTS:
I've been quieter on this page than I intended, but I've been very vocal from the dais. When I took office, I promised to communicate about the complicated issues we're working through — and improving Public Safety AND OUR COURTS was one of the issues I specifically ran on.
So I'm going to start catching you up in bits.
Our Lee's Summit court system is wildly over-capacity, and the situation has become critical. Yet somehow we're moving in slow motion, caught in power struggles, delays and distractions, while our citizens pay the price.
Underneath all this drama, there is still an actual problem we need to solve.
FACTS ABOUT THE COURTS:
For over TWO YEARS (since July 2024), our city staff and Council have been dealing with plain evidence that our court system is drastically under-equipped to serve our residents.
Our judges started going to our City Manager and City Attorney back in JULY 2024, alerting them to the over capacity, crowding, and overall dysfunction of how our courts were operating.
For 40 years -- since 1985 -- our courts have operated with 2 judges and 2 court dates per week.
Our population has grown from 33,000 to 110,000 in that time.
Yet the court dates have NOT EXPANDED IN THOSE YEARS -- the staff has not grown, the number of clerks has stayed low, and the capacity did not grow with our population.
The JUDGES HAVE BEEN:
James Tobin:
35 years (1989–2024)
Dana Altieri:
16 years (2010 - Present)
Venessa Maxwell-Lopez:
2½ years (2024 - Present)
WHAT DOES AN UNDERSTAFFED/UNDER-AVAILABLE COURT MEAN FOR YOU?
When our courts don't have enough capacity, cases don't disappear, they stack up, and get delayed.
This is meaning longer waits to get cases resolved, overloaded court dockets, less convenient access to court services, and police officers/prosecutors/staff spending more time dealing with crowded courts and court calendars.
It also limits our ability to create specialized dockets — like the Mental Health Treatment Court — that can address underlying problems instead of repeatedly cycling people through the same system.
This isn't really about judges' salaries. The judges come and go - but it's the CITIZENS that matter.
It's about whether a city of 110,000+ people has the court capacity to serve its residents.
DIDN'T THE JUDGES JUST GET A RAISE?
YES — a cost of living increase, with the rest of the elected officials. Context matters, and so does intellectual honesty.
If Council members don't expand their days - lives don't necessarily suffer.
But the JUDGES and courts do actually have a very specific impact on citizens.
You've probably heard this described as judges making $51k for “one day a week.” That's completely misleading.
One day a week is their COURTROOM day — not their entire work week. (Their courtroom day can have 700-900 people PER DAY on those dockets!)
Outside the courtroom, judges are still handling warrants, continuances, arraignments and other judicial requests; responding to court matters; researching legal issues; and overseeing court operations and staff. Sometimes up to 10-40 extra hours a week, based on stamina and personal schedules.
And -- our outside consultant ($79k) Raftelis study -- finalized in December 2025 -- specifically found that the judges' current courtroom schedule leaves them with little to no administrative time to supervise the court. Which is all part of their responsibility.
And that's the bottleneck: we can't get more people through court without opening more courtroom days.
The Judges have been trying to explain this for 2 years.
The solution isn't “give the judges another raise.” It's to dramatically expand and change the job — more court days, more specialized dockets, more administration and more capacity to actually move people through the system.
They will need to overhaul their courts to expand in this way.
The ordinance we'll be voting on - Oct 8 - describes all the restructuring and additions to their existing duties -- including adding a Mental Health Treatment docket - that coincides with the compensation.
More pay — for a much different, restructured, larger job. And the pay they are receiving NOW, for our population, is drastically lower than other cities our size.
AND SPEAKING OF INTELLECTUAL HONESTY...
You've probably heard the horrific accusation that this issue is about Mayor Lopez trying to put another $50k into his household.
Anyone who knows the Lopez family knows that their integrity is impeccable, especially as a household of public servants who also have professional reputations and credibility.
Here's what's not being said:
Judge Lopez already earns income working in multiple other courts AND in private practice. She contracts her time weekly in KC MO, Shawnee, Roeland Park, and sometimes with an attorney in Chicago.
Expanding Lee's Summit from one court day to multiple days means she has to give up other paid work to do it.🤯
She knows what her multiple 1099s add up to. And according to Judge Lopez, their household would actually make LESS money under this proposal — not more.
This change is not a money grab - it's a court structure change.
This is something our entire city leadership team should be dedicated to solving.
I can't speak to why there's 2 years of opposition from a couple council members.
Their objections are not because of a factual assessment of Fair Salary Comparisons from around the metro, it couldn't be.
Not to mention -- these $50k compensation increases are MUCH CHEAPER (and less destructive to our administrative team) than hiring other judges, pro tem positions, or outsourcing work for the next 18 months until a new term begins.
So if we're going to discuss the financial impact on the Mayor's household, intellectual honesty requires telling the WHOLE story.
This has been what I have time for now -- its important to me that people understand there is immense integrity in this family, and the origins of this entire process.
We need to move FORWARD for our courts. And then the population and scale of our courts needs to continue to be examined regularly and between terms -- not once every 40 years.
📸 Slides are from the Nov 2025 City Council presentation by the Judges. This is when I became committed to helping expand these courts in a way that the citizens deserve.
