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Next circuit court chief judge named

 
Published Aug. 21, 2014

Ronald Ficarrotta will become the next chief judge of Hillsborough County Circuit Court in January, when his predecessor retires after more than 13 years of presiding over the 13th Judicial Circuit.

On Wednesday, the 62 judges who make up Hillsborough's circuit and civil benches voted to decide who would replace Chief Judge Manuel Menendez Jr. The two nominees, who are selected by their colleagues, were William Levens, an administrative judge in the civil division, and Ficarrotta, a circuit judge in the felony division. The winner needed at least 32 votes. A court spokesman would not disclose the candidates' vote totals.

Ficarrotta, 55, will become chief judge on Jan. 1. He will complete Menendez's term, which ends June 30. In February, there will be another vote by the judges to decide who will hold the position for a full two-year term.

Menendez, 67, has been a judge since 1983, when Gov. Bob Graham appointed him to the Hillsborough bench. He has been chief judge since 2001.

His tenure has been defined in part by the recession and budget cuts in Tallahassee that forced courts across the state to operate with less funding.

"We had to go up there and convince the legislature that we were in fact a third branch of government," Menendez said. "I put in a lot of miles between here and Tallahassee."

But there have been bright spots as well, he said, such as the creation of Hillsborough's court for veterans and its efforts to reduce jail overcrowding.

Ficarrotta was appointed to a county court judgeship in 1994 by Gov. Lawton Chiles. Five years later, Gov. Jeb Bush named him to the circuit court bench. Voters have since returned him to office twice, most recently in 2012.