Palmer judge retires

PALMER -- District Court Judge Suzanne Lombardi sent a letter of resignation to the office of Gov. Frank Murkowski last month that was forwarded to media outlets earlier this week. Lombardi cited personal and family reasons, as well as commuting from Anchorage, as her reasons for leaving the bench.

"The commute over the last five years has taken a lot of time away from my family," Lombardi said Tuesday. "I've got a four-year-old and I need to spend time with him."

Lombardi's resignation is effective Jan. 10, and her resignation letter was dated Dec. 11. She gave the Alaska Court System 11 days' notice, but said she discussed the matter with colleagues prior to a recent vacation.

"If they had needed me to stay longer, I would have," Lombardi said Tuesday.

Stephanie Cole, administrative director of the Alaska Court System said her office was unaware of Lombardi's plans to resign until they received the letter. Cole also said that while Lombardi's notice was short, judges don't have specific rules to guide them in such matters.

"This short of notice is somewhat unusual, but there are no set parameters," Cole said.

Lombardi was initially sworn-in as a district court judge for the Third Judicial District in 1997. The Palmer court house was her first experience as a judge, but she had lived and worked in the Valley prior to attending law school, notably as a program director and safe-home director at Valley Women's Resource Center in the early 1980s and as a legislative aide to state Senator Jay Kerttula, D--Palmer, during the 1985 legislative session.

Lombardi attended law school at University of Idaho between 1986 and 1989. She returned to Alaska and worked as a law clerk for both state and federal courts, and later as an attorney in private practice and as an assistant district attorney, both in Anchorage. Since becoming a member of the Alaska Bar Association, she has commuted from home in the Valley to work in Anchorage and vice versa.

"I've always considered myself a part of the [Mat-Su] community, even though I don't live out there now," she said.

District Court Judges preside over civil cases with claims up to $50,000 and misdemeanor criminal trials. Lombardi said the view from the bench is of a community growing fast and with resources that don't always keep up with the population.

"That's been happening since I moved here 20 years ago, it just seems to be getting worse," Lombardi said. "The majority [of the court proceedings] I see are criminal and people are showing up because they are drinking and using drugs, and showing up because their families are lacking."

Lombardi said substance abuse and family service agencies in the Valley have a hard time keeping up with population growth.

"They just can't keep up at all -- I don't want to make it sound as if they're not trying with all their hearts, because they are," she said.