Municipal Court Judge Brandelyn K. Nichols-Brajkovic was named administrative judge for the Kansas City, Kansas, Municipal Court on Thursday.
The Unified Government Commission voted 9-0 at the 7 p.m. meeting Jan. 31 to approve her nomination. She will fill the remainder of the term of Administrative Judge Maurice Ryan, who will be retiring. The term ends Sept. 30, 2022.
During the 5 p.m. Jan. 31 UG meeting, three candidates for the position were interviewed.
The UG commissioners ranked their top choice on paper ballots at the 5 p.m. meeting Thursday, and Nichols-Brajkovic received the most votes. The commissioners then voted for Nichols-Brajkovic’s appointment at the 7 p.m. meeting.
During an interview with the UG commissioners at 5 p.m., Nichols-Brajkovic said the greatest challenge for the municipal court in the next five years would be technology. She discussed software that could allow the court to conduct trials by video, without the need to transport defendants from jail to court.
Nichols-Brajkovic has served as a Kansas City, Kansas, municipal judge since 2013.
According to UG officials, there were 10 applicants for the position, and five were interviewed by a committee, then three finalists advanced to Thursday’s 5 p.m. meeting. Commissioner Angela Markley was the head of the committee.
Two other finalists were Karen Whitman and Harold Walker.
Whitman said during the interview with the UG Commission that the biggest challenge facing Municipal Court in the future is that so many people owe so much money to the court that they’re not going to be able to rebound from it.
Some persons could owe as much as $4,000, she said, and there needs to be a type of reform to change the situation. She mentioned a program in Wichita that helped people get better jobs, and a program in Topeka where the community donated money toward amnesty, although she said she didn’t know if attempts at reform would work here.
Harold Walker, the former city attorney and a former UG commissioner, said one of the greatest challenges for the court in the future is technology.
“We need to be paperless,” he said. “There’s so much more that technology could provide to make the operation of municipal court more efficient.”
Another challenge, he said, would be coming up with a more efficient code enforcement process.