The Federal Way City Council appointed a new Municipal Court judge on Tuesday night.

Brad Bales, 56, was appointed by a 5-1 vote of the council. He is fulfilling the position of District Court Judge Rebecca Robertson, who resigned from the Federal Way Municipal Court in December 2021.

Bales is fulfilling the remainder of the four-year term until Dec. 31, 2025, said Vanessa Audett, HR manager for the City of Federal Way, at the Feb. 1 council meeting.

Judge Robertson and Judge Dave Larson have run unopposed in their elections in 2013, 2017, and most recently in 2021.

The process of filling a court vacancy is done by the mayor’s recommendation with approval by the city council. The top five candidates were reviewed and selected by the city’s human resources manager. Those candidates were then reviewed by a panel of stakeholders and elected officials.

The selection panel included Council President Linda Kochmar; Deputy Mayor Susan Honda; retired Pierce County Superior Court Judge Jack Niven; Pierce County Prosecuting Attorney Mary Robnett; criminal defense attorney Todd Howard; Dan Papke, president of Hart Insurance; and Everyone Can Win consulting director Winston Bell.

Several community members expressed concern regarding the need for a diverse appointee, Audett said.

On Jan. 30, Federal Way Black Collective Executive Director Lyn Idahosa asked community members to oppose the appointment of Bales.

Idahosa said the mayor did not inform members of the Black and brown community of this crucial position vacancy.

“Yet again, the Mayor’s Office did not reach out to the Black and Brown community of our City to request representation of BIPOC [Black, Indigenous, People of Color] members and inclusion of other stakeholders in the selection process nor the interview panel,” she wrote in a newsletter to community members. “Black and Brown people are no longer here to give their voice and partnership in return for lack of consideration, lack of honesty and truth in forming partnerships, and lack of fair representation and transparent inclusion.”

Without input from the BIPOC community, Idahosa said, people of color “will continue to be overlooked and stifled as we are dismissed in the progress we all have worked so hard for.”

In turn, she added, community members will continue to receive “disproportionately harsher sentences for minor crimes and crimes of survival that affect the marginalized children and families in Washington.”

The panel asked candidates to explain their experience working with people from different social, economic and cultural backgrounds, and to describe how this knowledge contributed to their interactions with or perceptions of marginalized communities, Audett said on Tuesday night.

“The panel affirmed after some discussion that [was] their goal, and they felt strongly that their commitment was to advance the most qualified candidate for the position,” Audett said.

After a six-hour interview process, the unanimous recommendation among the panelists was Bales. Mayor Jim Ferrell then interviewed the final three candidates: Bales, King County District Court Judge Pro Tem Jill Malat and King County District Court Protem Judge Jennifer Cruz. His recommendation was provided to the council on Feb. 1.

Federal Way City Councilmember Lydia Assefa-Dawson was the lone vote against Bales.

Bales has 22 years of experience with the King County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office as a senior deputy prosecuting attorney and served as a special assistant United States Attorney.

Ferrell worked with Bales at the King County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office in different units for most of the time, said Steve McNey, intergovernmental and public affairs officer for the mayor.

“There was some overlap over the roughly 10 years of joint service,” McNey said, adding that the mayor has not been in contact with Bales for at least the past eight years.

Bales served 21 years in the U.S. Army Reserves, including two three-year terms as a felony trial judge. Bales also served eight years in the U.S. Army, serving as a defense attorney among other titles.

He holds a master’s degree in strategic studies from the United States Army War College and earned his law degree from Lewis and Clark Law School in Portland.

“I look forward to working to have trust in our judicial system,” Bales said after his appointment. “The community has spoken … and I am going to use my 25-plus years of experience as a defense council prosecutor and a military judge to make sure I do my best to bring trust and transparency to our system.”

Bales will be sworn in Tuesday, Feb. 22.