There’s been lots of talk about a new chief justice continuing the work on “The house that George built”.
If George should walk away at the end of the year without addressing the billion dollar stimulus fund debacle, the unlicensed contractor debacle, the courthouse cost debacle and the CCMS debacle and start righting the house that George built, Mr. George will be passing the baton of public corruption and walk away with unclean hands.
It is also incumbent on Justice Cantil-Sakauye to resist the handoff of the baton of public corruption so that her hands are untainted, for many of these facts will be unfolding early on in her administration and she must not blindly rely on the AOC who has led George astray.
The choice of leaving any legacy at all is up to Chief Justice George himself and his action or inaction in his next 30 days in office. Should the new justice continue on the house that George built on its current foundation, she is apt to have her administration crippled by versions of the truth, unable to be an important voice in Sacramento.
Chief Justice George – Demand and accept the resignations of all AOC directors. Your organization will get by quite well with the fresh meat of idealism and a can-do attitude of those below who have been denied promotion. In the last 5 years of the Fuentes HR Administration, many reorgs have created mid-level management positions and the jobs have been given to cronies without legitimate competition for them. Eliminate all those mid-level management positions and the questionably qualified cronies hired to fill them.
Clean the House that George built before you leave it.
Judicial Council Watcher 
Wendy Darling
December 3, 2010
From the Legal Pad, the on-line publication of CalLaw, published December 1, 2010:
George, in Final Talk with Reporters, Cites Kenny Rogers Tune
[Kate Moser]
Ronald George’s time as California’s long-serving chief justice officially expires at the close of Jan. 2. But “rather than watch the minute hand go by on a 38-year judicial career,” George said he and his wife Barbara will spend the last two weeks of his term on their second trip to Antarctica.
During his final annual meet-and-greet with the press, George said his last opinion for the court has already been released: Last month’s People v. Foster, a death penalty case that was affirmed 7-0. “As I got it ready I said ‘this is the last one of these I’ll have to do.”
He added that “working on the capital cases was definitely not high on the list of things I liked particularly.”
Ruminating on his time as chief justice, George said he won’t miss some of his Sacramento duties.
“Making the rounds of the capitol and having maybe a dozen one-on-one individual meetings with legislators and trying to convince them that we’re not — as I sometimes have to bluntly put it — like the Department of Motor Vehicles or the Department of Fish and Game or the Board of Cosmetology, we are a separate and equal branch of government,” George said, “with the turnover with term limits, giving a bit of a civics lesson again … that’s been a very arduous and sometimes frustrating experience.”
George was asked about the politicization of judicial elections and the November ouster of three Iowa Supreme Court justices who’d backed gay marriage. One possible solution, he said, would be longer single terms, “say 15 years, period. That’s it.”
George said that once the court’s budget issues were resolved this summer, he figured it was the perfect time to retire. He said his post-retirement plans consisted of having no plans, though he also suggested that once out of office he may write about his views on certain topics, including, perhaps, his thoughts on the death penalty.
But he told reporters he isn’t saddened by the prospect of leaving his corner office in the Earl Warren building. His wife, he said, had told him his shoulders seemed to lift a little bit more as his term draws to a close. He then invoked the classic Kenny Rogers tune: “You got to know when to hold ‘em, know when to fold ‘em. Know when to walk away…”
And know when to … run.