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• The announcement of Hon. Richard A. Schell is anticipated to be made before <br />March 31,2014; <br />WHEREAS, the significance of this historic judicial position to the community <br />cannot be measured fully in either economic or judicial terms, but are observable through <br />the presence of hundreds of jobs directly and indirectly connected to the Federal judicial <br />presence in Sherman and surrounding communities. <br />WHEREAS, Sherman and the surrounding communities have lived up to their end of <br />the 2003 agreement with the Collin County and Plano communities to move fifty percent <br />(50 %) of the cases from the Federal Court sitting at Sherman, but the effective other end of <br />that agreement has not, through a variety of circumstances, been fulfilled since at least the <br />November of 2006 retirement of Judge Brown. <br />WHEREAS, that variety of circumstances, however justifiable from time to time, has <br />resulted in a seven year Sherman Federal Court vacancy being tended by hard working <br />Federal judges driving 344 miles from Beaumont, leaving Sherman, surrounding <br />communities, and this court one car wreck away from a judicial catastrophe in a judicial <br />district serving over a million and a half residents already operating short - handed to <br />handle the nation's greatest case load, at least on a weighted basis, and leaving the <br />Sherman federal judicial vacancy as an officially declared "Judicial Emergency." <br />WHEREAS, this officially declared "Judicial Emergency" is remediable by the <br />cooperative action of our President, our Senators, and our Congressional Representatives <br />working to produce a bi- partisan slate of qualified candidates from which the President <br />may select a nominee, as promptly as possible, and certainly in time for the nominee to be <br />confirmed and on the job by March of 2014 when Judge Schell announces his projected <br />senior status. <br />WHEREAS, any of several qualified members of the Grayson County Bar Association <br />or Lamar County Bar Association would, if nominated, offer the greatest practical <br />assurance of a continuous Federal judicial presence for many years, helping to restore <br />much needed efficiency and structural stability for a fundamental institution of our <br />republican form of government. <br />NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED BY THE CITY COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF <br />PARIS, TEXAS, THAT: <br />Section 1. The findings set out in the preamble to this resolution are hereby in <br />all things approved. <br />Section 2. That the City of Paris respectfully requests our United States Senators, <br />working with appropriate officials, forward to President Obama a bi- partisan slate of <br />qualified potential nominees in time to allow both President Obama to nominate and the <br />Senate to confirm by March 31, 2014, a federal judicial nominee for the Sherman Division <br />of the Eastern District of Texas, sitting at Sherman, Texas with strong preference being <br />