Judicial Council tries again to fill Kotzebue and Nome superior court seats

For the third time, the Alaska Judicial Council is looking for a superior court judge for Kotzebue. On Friday, it reopened applications for six vacant judgeships, including the Kotzebue seat and Nome's superior court seat, which is on its second round. The others are two seats in Anchorage and one each in Fairbanks and Palmer. Applications close at 3 pm Oct. 30.

Kotzebue and Nome each have one superior court judge, so the vacancies leave both towns without one. The seats opened when Judge Paul A. Roetman in Kotzebue and Judge Romano DiBenedetto in Nome retired. Roetman's open cases moved to an unassigned docket in July.

The Alaska Constitution requires the council to send the governor at least two nominees for each judgeship. In May, after interviewing applicants in Kotzebue, the council voted to nominate only one, Daniel DalleMolle, so it sent no names to the governor. The seat was advertised again June 1 and drew fewer than two applicants by the July 6 deadline. In Nome, the council held a public hearing and interviewed two applicants in August but made no nominations, saying its vote did not produce two sufficiently qualified candidates.

The council will not interview applicants from this round until February 2027. Once it sends nominees, the governor has 45 days to appoint.

The rural seats pay more because they include a cost-of-living adjustment: $288,306 a year in Kotzebue and $265,306 in Nome, compared with $228,306 for the Anchorage seats.

Both courts carry steady caseloads. Kotzebue recorded 368 filings in the year ending June 2025, up from 320 and 341 in the two years before, according to the Alaska Court System's annual statistics. Nome recorded 355.

The council also posted a separate notice Friday for the vacant state public defender job, which likewise requires at least two nominees. Public comment on applicants is part of the council's screening process.