After 26 years on the circuit court for Antrim, Grand Traverse and Leelanau counties, Judge Philip Rodgers Jr. announced Tuesday he will preside over his last hearing at the end of October. On his way out, Rodgers sits down with The Ticker to look back and ahead.  

Ticker: Why retire right now?
Rodgers: I’ve been thinking about it for three or four years. But ultimately the equation that I’ve been considering is balancing what I like about being a judge with the things that are somewhat difficult to do as a judge, and how much time I have left. And by how much time I have left, I don’t mean, 'will I live to be 95 in assisted living with somebody changing my diaper and feeding me applesauce?' I mean, how much time do I have left that’s healthy, productive time.

Ticker: What are your plans?
Rodgers: I’ve been married for a very long time to someone who I care very much about. We have children that are scattered around. We have two grandchildren; a third one on the way. I’d like to be able to spend some time with them. We’d like to be able to travel. And you know, I’ve been threatening the lawyers for years — I don’t know if they believe me — that I’ve got file folders of interesting anecdotes — some humorous, some poignant, some just life-in-the-courts, that I might just struggle to put together in some fashion or other.

Ticker: Which of your cases are you going to still think about in retirement?
Rodgers: There’ve been two significant criminal cases that I always think about. And they’re not murder trials, although those were very interesting, challenging. Especially when (Sgt.) Dennis Finch was killed by John Clark.

But the most poignant cases — the first involved Heidi Steiner. A 17-year-old girl; the summer of 1990; she’s killed by a repeat drunk driver, a guy, in my view, who should have been in prison at the time and not out of jail on another first-offense guilty plea. So you have a young girl, she’s killed because a drunk driver decides that he wants to go fishing, crosses the centerline, she dies. That would later become the subject of an act called Heidi’s Law, so that those prior offenses don’t wash out when you’re in prison.

The other one’s similar: The woman who consumed marijuana and crossed the centerline, killed an individual, left two girls in wheelchairs. It was the single-most powerful victim impact statement I have ever heard presented in court. Those two sisters are sitting in court in wheelchairs. The older of the two had been playing basketball on her eighth grade team and the next thing she knows she’s in a wheelchair for the rest of her life.

Ticker: What’s your assessment of the financial state of Grand Traverse County?
Rodgers: The county has a very real unfunded accrued pension liability. That’s real. And that needs to be amortized in a less aggressive way than MERS would like it to be. The county is making positive steps toward trying to accomplish that. On the other hand, the county is suggesting — they were suggesting all last year — there were deficit projections through this summer of $4.1 million. I don’t think that’s a real number. I think that’s a fictitious number. I think this county has a healthy projected fund surplus for the balance of this year. Its tax fund is in good financial shape. The references to emergency managers are pure hyperbole. The sky is not falling. This isn’t Flint. This is a highly solvent county that does need to solve a real unfunded pension liability, but doing so by running around and shaking our hands above our heads and saying the sky is falling is not helpful.

Ticker: Do you plan to stay active in local politics?
Rodgers: I will never run for public office again. I know you’re never supposed to say never, but I can’t imagine the circumstances that would cause me to run. But will I be involved? Absolutely. I like the process. I’d like to find candidates. I’d like to help people run. I’d like to see things debated that I don’t see being debated right now. For example. I love trails. I like to bike. I went out on a limb in the Leelanau County Trail case. And I’m so glad that I did. The things I said back then came true: “Someday, you people who are opposed to this trail will advertise it as a benefit when you sell your home.”

Nevertheless, a question one might ask is, why is the City of Traverse City and its Downtown Development Authority paying for a portion of a trail (the Boardman Lake trail) that’s not even in the city, especially recognizing that Garfield Township is larger and wealthier than the City of Traverse City?

Ticker: You’ve also offered some pretty strong opinions about other kinds of downtown development.
Rodgers: Why are we, as a matter of policy, subsidizing underground private parking for luxury condominiums? This isn’t the Hardy Parking Deck. This isn’t the deck over by Hagerty. These aren’t projects that will be owned by the public when they are done. If in fact private parking for luxury condos relieves the pressure for parking in the area, how different is that than my garage? Where’s my benefit? Where’s the TIF for my streets? I would like to see a broader public debate about restoring the balance between a vibrant downtown — which is essential — and the neighborhoods. I think that residential neighborhoods are being run over by downtown business interests.

Ticker: Any thoughts on who should replace you?
Rodgers: I’m not going to do that. There are a number of people who I think could do the job well who are local, who have been active in the court in one form or another, either as criminal attorneys, prosecutors, family lawyers, general civil.