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Municipal Court Judge James Baker has gotten an extension to his term thanks to a new Georgia law.

In the City of LaGrange charter, the Municipal Court Judge term has always been one year but a new law lobbied by the Municipal Court Judge Association will force the city to extend that to two years.

City Attorney Jeff Todd said the bill was pushed in the state legislature to give municipal court judges more job protection, though Baker has been the city’s judge for many years.

Todd said that because the term is set in the city’s charter, it will have to be changed via a Home Rule amendment, which can take more time than a simple ordinance amendment.

“This is nothing more than to conform our judge’s term with what state law requires. Since [Baker was] recently reappointed to a one-year term, when we bring this ordinance up, we’ll probably also vote to clean that up and make it obvious in the minutes,” Todd said.

Council Member Nathan Gaskin suggested potentially delaying the extension so that it does not line up with council member election years. 

“You do it while you have a sitting Council and not during an election cycle,” Gaskin suggested.

Todd explained that technically, under the law, Baker was already appointed to a two-year term as the city was required to do so, but it was just missed.

City Manager Patrick Bowie said the city council just needed to authorize the city attorney to begin the process of modifying the term of the municipal court judge.

The measure was unanimously approved by the council.