obscurity protects and fuels powerful position

​He can assign a judge to your case.
 
He holds the purse strings of Colorado’s judicial branch.
 
Do you even know his name?
 
He’s not an elected official.
 
He’s hired by, and works for, the Colorado Supreme Court.
 
The General Assembly just voted to increase his ability to hire judges after they retire. In other words, he has the power to select certain judges to allow them to keep ruling forever – essentially lifetime appointments.
 
He can assign a particular judge – a senior judge – to any case in Colorado for any reason whatsoever.
 
A disproportionate amount of senior judges work at the Court of Appeals where statewide public policy is made.
 
His predecessor is under investigation for using his position’s power, along with a former chief justice, to award a lucrative contract to a former judicial branch employee to keep her from exposing judicial misconduct.
 
The person who had his job before that? He testified before the legislature that no taxpayer dollars would be used to build the Supreme Court building in downtown Denver. Taxpayers, however, have already paid millions for the building and will eventually pay well over a hundred million dollars for the building.
 
He learned under both of these individuals.
 
After his predecessor resigned due to questionable conduct, more than 50 people applied for the position.
 
But Colorado’s Supreme Court hired him because he’s an insider.
 
He’s been working in Colorado’s judicial system since 1995.
 
He makes $184,836 a year.
 
He’s arguably the most powerful person in the judicial branch.
 
Yet hardly anyone knows his name.
 
And even though his two predecessors behaved badly in office, and one of them is currently under investigation, members of the General Assembly just presume he’ll do his job in an ethical and professional manner and insist on giving him massive powers.
 
State Senator Bob Gardner, a lawyer, stated on the legislative record that he was able to help a colleague avoid a recusal motion by simply calling his predecessor.
 
In other words, if you know him – you can get a new judge on your case with a simple phone call.
 
Now that’s power.
 
You should really get to know him.
 
His name? Steven Vasconcellos.
 
He’s Colorado’s state court administrator.

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