Committee selects three nominees to fill judge vacancy on 7th District Court

By Sun Advocate

The judicial nominating committee has selected three candidates to fill an upcoming vacancy on the 7th District Court.
The upcoming vacancy was created when Judge Bruce K. Halliday announced his retirement from the district bench, effective February 2007.
The 7th Judicial District is comprised of Carbon, Emery, Grand, and San Juan counties.
The nominees to fill the opening in the judge position selected by the committee include:
•Gene E. Strate of Helper, who currently occupies he Carbon County Attorney’s Office.
•W. Brent Langston of Ferron, who is employed as the chief deputy in the Emery County Attorney’s Office.
•Douglas B. Thomas of Layton, who serves at a 2nd District Court commissioner.
A 10-day public comment period will be conducted before the names of the candidates selected by the nominating committee are submitted to Gov. Jon Huntsman for consideration.
Written comments will be accepted by 7th District nominating commission chair Sam Singleton.
Carbon County residents may mail comments to Singleton at the Utah Administrative Office of the Courts, P.O. Box 140241, Salt Lake City, UT, 84114-0241.
The deadline for submitting written comments is 5 p.m. on Jan. 2, 2007.
The nominating commission may request additional interviews or an investigation of the nominees after reviewing the public comments.
After the public comment period concludes, the names of the candidates recommended by the committee will be sent to the governor’s office.
The governor will have 30 days to select a candidate. The governor’s nominee will be forwarded to the Utah Senate’s confirmation committee.
The Senate committee will review the nominee’s qualifications and conduct a public hearing along with an interview session.
The confirmation committee will forward the final nominee to the Utah Senate. The Senate will have 60 days from date of the governor’s nomination to confirm the nominee.