I see in tonight's paper that the field of candidates for City Judge has been narrowed down to 3, Al Homme, Dave Wheeler and Amber Trenka.

I am curious as to public opinion. If you have a DUI, should you be eligible for a position such as City Judge, especially considering the situation surrounding the last judge?

From my experience with jury selections, if you have any familiarity with DUIs or personal experience with the police in a negative fashion, you are excused promptly, especially when sitting in on a DUI case. Why should this be any different?

Ok, so spill the beans which one of these people have or had the DUI?

I believe it depends on the person and the situation. Recovered (recovering) drug addicts make the best drug counselors. Recovered (again, recovering) alcoholics make the best AA sponsors. These are the addicts though who realize what mistakes they have made and have learned from them and putting that knowledge to good use.

There are instances where someone makes a mistake, pays their debt to society, and gains respect for the rules they broke.

Without knowing which of the three candidates (if any) have a DUI and how they have learned, if they indeed did, from their mistakes, I would hate to be the one to decide.

It should not be considered unless it was very, very recent. I don't think it hurts to ask them to address it though and explain why it won't be happening again. A number of years ago I hired a woman who had several DUI's on her record. She explained she had been sober for 8 years and would be happy to take an alcohol test at any time she was asked. We hired her and she has been wonderful in a position of great responsibility.

Current DUI's should end a person's job if they work anywhere near law enforcement.