An increasingly agitated state legislature voted Thursday to subject the AOC to the public contract code EXCEPT for construction. Assembly Bill AB314 would subject court construction and the court construction contractors to common sense laws that protect the public trust and public money. This is the first step in moving court construction over to responsible government. Please see our update below the video-
This tune goes out to Assemblyman Jeff Gorell and his legislative director Samuel Chung, for if neither of you had the courage to call a spade a spade, this would not have been possible. Next, we highly recommend that the state legislature quickly pass the trial courts rights act.
Thank you for showing California’s judicial branch where “Hotel California’s” door is.
________________________________________________________________
The battle for anti-public corruption laws over court construction funds continues. While it currently is not scheduled for a hearing, we’re going to ask that you pick up your telephone, reach out and touch someone on the Business & Professions Committee by calling a legislative aide or committee member.
| Committee Members | District | Phone | |
| Mary Hayashi – Chair | Dem-18 | (916) 319-2018 | Assemblymember.Hayashi@assembly.ca.gov |
| Bill Berryhill – Vice Chair | Rep-26 | (916) 319-2026 | Assemblymember.Bill.Berryhill@assembly.ca.gov |
| Michael Allen | Dem-7 | (916) 319-2007 | Assemblymember.Allen@assembly.ca.gov |
| Betsy Butler | Dem-53 | (916) 319-2053 | Assemblymember.Butler@assembly.ca.gov |
| Mike Eng | Dem-49 | (916) 319-2049 | Assemblymember.Eng@assembly.ca.gov |
| Curt Hagman | Rep-60 | (916) 319-2060 | Assemblymember.Hagman@assembly.ca.gov |
| Jerry Hill | Dem-19 | (916) 319-2019 | Assemblymember.Hill@assembly.ca.gov |
| Fiona Ma | Dem-12 | (916) 319-2012 | Assemblymember.Ma@assembly.ca.gov |
| Cameron Smyth | Rep-38 | (916) 319-2038 | Assemblymember.Smyth@assembly.ca.gov |
Judicial Council Watcher 
Michael Paul
March 4, 2011
I love the new tag line. “California’s ten billion dollar reality check” ~just dies laughing~ and to think, Jon and I have not yet begun to outline everything.
We were just getting warmed up. Oh well, I guess I toss everything into getting the trial courts rights act passed next and maybe our legislature can revisit those whistleblower protections for us just one more time.
One down,
One to go.
JusticeCalifornia
March 4, 2011
What happened to the CCMS bill?
judicialcouncilwatcher
March 4, 2011
I’d say the fate of CCMS is also written in stone but through the trial courts rights act, not through the actual de-funding of CCMS, though in effect, it would mean the same thing. Change the governance structure. Relegate the Judicial Council back to rules of the court, judicial council forms approval and judicial education. Not ten billion dollars worth of programs that are entirely out of their league.
JusticeCalifornia
March 4, 2011
woo hoo.
The times they are a changing.
wendy darling
March 4, 2011
From the Honorable Charles Horan, published today, Friday, March 4, in the San Diego Union Tribune. Word of the day: “flapdoodle.”
And note to Judge Horan, and the Alliance of California Judges: We stand with you.
A Judicial Hierarchy Out of Control
BY CHARLES HORAN
FRIDAY, MARCH 4, 2011 AT MIDNIGHT
After an exhaustive investigation, the state auditor delivered her conclusion last month. The Administrative Office of the Courts and the California Judicial Council completely botched the largest information technology project in California history, the California Case Management System. The complete audit report is at bsa.ca.gov.
The word “failed,” as in “failed to disclose accurate cost estimates,” appears 50 times in the audit report. “Risk” and “risky” 81 times, “problems” 60 times, and “lack of oversight,” “lack of planning,” “lack of documentation,” “lack of any documented plan,” “lack of understanding,” “lack of transparency,” and “lack of expertise” 39 times. The word “competent” appears not once.
The newspaper headlines describing the situation were depressingly similar. Words like “mismanaged,” “over budget,” “bungled,” “botched,” and “a mess” were the norm. A common press theme was the obvious lack of oversight of the project by the Judicial Council, and the eightfold underestimation of its cost – the Administrative Office estimated the total project cost to be $250 million, while the auditor pegs the true price at a minimum of $1.9 billion. This, while some courtrooms are closed to the public due to lack of operating funds.
The auditor’s findings were devastating, but the reactions of the Administrative Office and Council were equally disturbing. Confronted with 138 pages documenting years of mismanagement, misrepresentations, scripted responses to criticism and an absence of Judicial Council oversight, the Administrative Office and Judicial Council responded with a scripted video produced by the Administrative Office’s own phony “News Bureau” which reassured us that all was well, and that any problems would somehow be solved simply by its director, William Vickrey, creating a new committee. After roughly 24 hours of repeating this flapdoodle, they proclaimed that they were now “ready to move on.” Indeed.
Enough is enough. The auditor gets it. The press gets it. The public gets it. The Legislature most certainly gets it. We must get it.
The judicial branch must have the trust of the public and of the Legislature in order to function. If we condone conduct of the sort uncovered by the auditor or of the bureaucratic denial we have just seen, we will not have that trust. Nor will we deserve it.
The Alliance of California Judges, now several hundred strong, was formed in late 2009 to address concerns such as these. The computerized system may be but the tip of the iceberg – no one has yet conducted an audit of the Administrative Office’s $1,100 to $1,700 per-square-foot construction projects, as but one example.
We need to face the larger truth: Our judicial governance structure is broken. Some of our leaders appear arrogant, and others too accustomed to power – one has served on the council for 14 years. I experienced this arrogance last year in the Judicial Council chamber as I watched our former chief justice imperiously silence a judge who sought to speak a few sentences about our governance problems. The judge had traveled to San Francisco at his own expense to deliver a pre-submitted and preapproved statement (a requirement of the Judicial Council, lest an upsetting word slip into that rarefied air). Not one council member spoke up to defend this judge’s right to speak. On that day, when not 30 seconds would be given a judge to air concerns shared by hundreds of judges, the Judicial Council did find time to unanimously pass a motion that the Administrative Office of the Courts be given an award for exemplary service to the public.
Things must change. Under the mantra of statewide administration, we have allowed an unaccountable bureaucracy to hold sway over our judges. Fourteen years ago, as part of the Lockyer-Isenberg Trial Court Funding Act of 1997, the Legislature instructed the Judicial Council to enact a “trial court bill of financial management rights” by Jan. 1, 1998, precisely so this situation would never occur. Thirteen years later, the judges of the state still await Judicial Council action.
The Alliance of California Judges stands firmly behind the Legislature in this regard, and has proposed legislation to bring this long-awaited goal to fruition. Further, we will support efforts to democratize the Judicial Council. For far too long, a small, insular minority of favored judges have allowed the Administrative Office to hide behind our robes. It is time for that to stop, and it will.
Horan is a judge of the Los Angeles Superior Court and a director of the Alliance of California Judges
judicialcouncilwatcher
March 4, 2011
Amen brother…. amen..
antonatrail
March 4, 2011
Flapdoodle! What a wonderful, funny, expressive word! Everything Judge Horan said is correct. Even so, he is brave to put it all out there.
I loved Flapdoodle so much more than my word, which is representative of the AOC’s ugliness — obfuscation.
wendy darling
March 4, 2011
From the immortal poet and musical artist Bob Dylan and The Times They Are A-Changin’
Come gather ’round people
Wherever you roam
And admit that the waters
Around you have grown
And accept it that soon
You’ll be drenched to the bone
If your time to you
Is worth savin’
Then you better start swimmin’
Or you’ll sink like a stone
For the times they are a-changin’.
Come senators, congressmen
Please heed the call
Don’t stand in the doorway
Don’t block up the hall
For he that gets hurt
Will be he who has stalled
There’s a battle outside
And it is ragin’
It’ll soon shake your windows
And rattle your walls
For the times they are a-changin’.
Long live the ACJ.
antonatrail
March 4, 2011
Thanks for the songs, JCW and Wendy Darling! I now feel like singing too.
Jon Wintermeyer
March 4, 2011
The Alliance of California Judges and Legislators need to get the maintenamce invoices made available to them for an independant audit team that is not assembled or hired by the AOC. That the AOC have been given the free pass to hire unlicensed contractors and been able to authorize the spending of CA taxpayers monies without any realistic checks and balances done except for internal review is not what SB1732 was meant to accomplish and is should be considered illegal, even when done with the blessing of the Chief Justice, but not the authorization of the CA State Legislators.
That this wasteful spending occurred and was reported to their management by Michael and I and it caused our terminations, is also in violation of CA Govt code 8547 and is another matter that needs to be addressed, because the same CA Taxpayers dollars are being used for AOC legal council expenses to represent and protect that management that performed the terminations, when we filed our wrongful termination claims. We were both proven and experienced professionals working at our assigned positions for years, so we did know our jobs and there are those that will agree to testify ot that fact.
As Michael and I have proven that we know where to look for wasteful spending, recognize it and report it, then maybe we could be of the solution to help to correct this flapadoodle.
Michael Paul
March 4, 2011
Seriously, audit all of the Office of Court Construction & Management.
When I was working there, the amount that the unlicensed contractors had been paid was quietly represented to me to be THREE HUNDRED MILLION DOLLARS and yet all I see a tiny little 40 million dollar lawsuit come out of the AOC.
Then we have the now you see it, now you don’t TEAM JACOBS.
Jon and I can be invaluable resources to getting to the bottom of this because we ran whole programs around all of this activity.
wendy darling
March 4, 2011
Audit (1) the Office of Court Construction and Management, (2) the AOC Finance Department, and (3) the HR Department (Note to auditors – make sure to audit the Trial Court Worker’s Comp fund which is administered through the HR Division and check HR personnel files to see if criminal background checks were waived or not done, and for whom.)
judicialcouncilwatcher
March 4, 2011
$300,000,000.00
$-42,000,000.00
$258,000,000.00
This would represent a figure five times the size of the kids for cash scandal in Pennsylvania. While I intend to assist you gentlemen in posting all of your evidence it’s fair to state that what already appears is sobering. Because it is the subject of litigation, nobody can go on record and speak to it, even if it is a sham lawsuit designed to cover up 258 million dollars, if that’s an accurate figure.
I believe you gentlemen have discovered a nearly perfect crime.
Jon Wintermeyer
March 4, 2011
Isn’t it ironic that the CC Court and the AOC managed to bungle up their master plan -for Empire building and position security of assembling a cool-aid drinking, blinders wearing staff and that each manged to hire the two honest professionals that refused to stay silent and would not join their team effort for wasteful spending of the CA Taxpayers monies for the sake of collecting a paycheck.
Isn’t it a reality check that our two voices and terminations have made so many people chose to retire from the AOC and CC Court in 2010 than remain as part of the cool-aid drinking team at the AOC and CC Court.
Michael Paul
March 4, 2011
Yeah, it’s a real bitch they hired someone like me that came from a DOD/federal contracting background and the U.S. Air Force and had on and off twenty years of training, learning to detect and report contract fraud,
They hired me because of my communcations, computer engineering and building construction technology backgound. They ran into a budget crisis that caused my fellow employees in the trial courts to needlessly get canned and here was tens of millions of dollars in what I saw to be low-hanging fruit to fix the problem. Hey, you have ongoing contracting fraud happening on an epic scale. Why don’t we fix this and keep the nice people in the trial courts employed?
Here I am and that’s your answer.
Michael Paul
March 4, 2011
On October 14th 2009 at about 1PM in the afternoon, I was told the following. When you are told something like this by someone senior to you, you remember it forever, almost word for word.
“Last night the (AOC Board of) directors met and went over your e-mail (requesting a qui-tam release to go after the unlicensed contractors since they were still giving them millions and knew they had no license) you, my friend have it a nerve in very high places. This is bigger than you can ever imagine. I tried to do something about Team Jacobs and got nowhere. This goes all the way to the top. This is bigger than you, this is bigger than me and if you value your life, your freedom and your job, you should think about backing off your complaint”
Terrified, I walked over to the FBI across the street and filed my first complaint right after that conversation.
judicialcouncilwatcher
March 5, 2011
Worry not about the thumbs down. The indictables also read this site and are unhappy with your disclosures which is the reason you’re both unemployed today.
Kicking the hornets nest
March 5, 2011
Almost done Mapping & verifying JG’s extensive money laundering activities………….
Our current CJ is simply Georges mouthpiece
SF Whistle
March 5, 2011
I agree—She has not done or expressed anything that in anyway shows her to understand that the largest judiciary in the western world is corrupt, arrogant, and broken—-she is not attempting to fix anything other than find money to keep everything operating just as it was when she took over.
She has NOT made or issued ONE public statement that reflects that she intends to FIX the branch—She appears to be more of a puppet than a mouthpiece….Her strings are definately being pulled by deeply entrenched “tacticians” that are intent upon completing the job that King George started…..
judicialcouncilwatcher
March 5, 2011
Let’s just say that I’ve been recently re-enlightened. Follow the bouncing ball of obfuscation courtesy of the Executive and Planning committee. First up is detective / Judge Charles Horan, who endured the gauntlet of the AOC’s ministry of disinformation to produce this well researched article.
The governance policy itself has been moved to here.
This is really an issue of governance. Who really runs the whole judicial branch right now? Let’s review
A secret vote conducted by e-mail at the behest of the Executive & Planning Committee ceded all administrative authority over to Bill Vickrey. While I cannot remember the date that this issue of governance is to be revisited, the windbag that has been on the Judicial Council for 14 years and stated in a judicial council meeting not that long ago that the issue of governance would not be revisited until that time, which should be… according to Judge Horan’s article,
something the judicial council should be discussing right now.
Could it be that Chief Justice mini mimi inherited broken governance and is trying to claw her head above water right now, having just watched 6.5 billion dollars of her budget vaporize over to DGS and having the very strong liklihood that some de-funding mechanism will wipe out another 3 billion in projected spending?
Short of a press conference where she calls all media into a room and admits that “Our governance model is broken and I intend to undertake the following steps to fix it” and puts Huffman and company on the spot, I believe we need that “revisit governance” date to pass. I’ll come back to this post entry and put a link in from AOC watcher that speaks to this in greater detail, but I am not sure Chief Justice Mini mimi has the authority to fire Mr. Bill. That authority may be vested in the Executive & Planning Committee, who is the gateway to everything between the AOC and the Judicial Council.
You’ll note that Mr. Huffman and his E&P committee will assume a much greater role in the spotlight here at JCW in the future as all roads to all situations consistently lead back to this committee and its chairman.
judicialcouncilwatcher
March 6, 2011
Should you have such proof we would be interested in publishing it.
Kicking the hornets nest
March 5, 2011
And could it be there is an ethereal voice from the Judicial graveyard, whispering in mini-mimi’s ear?
judicialcouncilwatcher
March 12, 2011
I will be modifying this post as this was but one committee that voted to subject construction funds to the public contract code. Next step is the Business & Professions Committee chaired by Mary Hayashi. Given her office was also thoroughly briefed about what was going on with Team Jacobs and the AOC, I don’t see this as something the committee chair will be walking away from.
judicialcouncilwatcher
March 12, 2011
We’ve updated this post with contact information for the B&P Committee. If you get a chance, call a legislative aide and explain why paying 409.00 for a clock battery or up to $2500.00 for a single used light fixture over your head is probably not a good idea. Especially when performed by an unlicensed contractor paying someone kickbacks.
Michael Paul
March 13, 2011
Prior to my termination from the AOC, I met with Christopher Parman who works for Mary Hayashi’s office for about two hours. I outlined my whole case and all that was going on with Team Jacobs and the AOC. Mary Hayashi is my representative and the chair of the Business & Professions Committee.
I recall her husband, Dennis Hayashi is an Alameda County judge. I’m going to continue to work with Mary Hayashi’s office to re-outline what is going on with Team Jacobs, AGS and the AOC and even their new RFP for these services. Unlike Ellen Corbett who was introduced to JCW’s digital purgatory for being a judicial council member/chair of the senate judiciary committee whose office turned her back on my complaint, Mary Hayashi has not been in any position to address these matters until now. She in effect owns the ball at this point. This should put her in the hall of fame or on the wall of shame.
Michael Paul
March 13, 2011
My argument in support of subjecting court construction funds to the public contract code:
1. The legislature never intended on extending quasi-judicial immunity to unlicensed contractors but in effect, this is exactly what has occurred. They’re immune from criminal prosecution because no executive branch agency can investigate fraud, waste, abuse or public corruption or even if the contractor is properly licensed.
2. The AOC’s managers knowingly gave these unlicensed contractors hundreds of millions of dollars worth of work knowing they had no contractors license. Normally, the contractors’ state licensing board, who issues about 10 citations a year for about $400.00 apiece to state employees who use unlicensed contractors, will not issue any of the AOC’s managers citations for knowingly using unlicensed contractors. This puts the AOC’s managers above the law and hiding behind the robes of the Judiciary.
3. Prior to the AOC taking over, all courthouses across this state were bound by public contract code because the counties were bound by public contract code and these were county buildings.
4. With someone intentionally setting up a racket such as this in the JC/AOC this must rise to the level of pay-to-play or the AOC and judicial council are managed by some of the dumbest rocks on planet earth. Either way, they’ve shown themselves incapable of protecting the public trust and there is no one save the FBI or a special prosecutor that can look into these matters at present. This must change.
{JCW added emphasis to point number three in Mr. Paul’s argument as most courts are already accoustomed to operating under those rules already}
judicialcouncilwatcher
March 13, 2011
Since JCW understands that the public and certain members of the state legislature read this blog, in the interests of equal time and fairness on this issue, JCW welcomes an argument against public contract code to help educate others.
judicialcouncilwatcher
March 14, 2011
JCW is still looking for that argument opposed to public contract code. Any takers?
judicialcouncilwatcher
March 14, 2011
JCW readers are still looking for someone to oppose subjecting state court construction funds to public contract code. Any takers? {edited to add- I feel like I am panhandling for opposition. Curtis Child, you read this blog. Step up son. }
judicialcouncilwatcher
March 15, 2011
JCW readers have gone begging for an argument for three days now as to why court construction funds should not be subjected to public contract code. There’s not one taker, save a bunch of shady characters who can’t publicly justify their position, yet advocate it nonetheless in back rooms to the detriment of the public trust.
Court employees have no dog in the who builds and maintains the courthouse fight between the AOC and DGS and would prefer public contract code over AOC’s elaborate scam to rob the taxpayers.
SF Whistle
March 15, 2011
JCW–
I respectfully disagree with your statement that court employees “have no dog in the fight”…it happens to be the court employees taking the hits…
It’s the court employees being terminated because of the fraud, corruption and mismangement. It’s the court employees that take the hit when a court is closed for a day—-it’s the court employees that take the hit…
It’s the court employees taking the hit knowing that jobs will be eliminated so that CJ “mini” can continue the CCMS fiasco—
Others that have a dog in the fight are the “shrill, uninformed masses”…the litigants that are denied due process everytime there is no court reporter available so that CJ “mini” can fulfill King George’s grand vision for his branch—
Again, I submit to you that there is no fight until the shrill, uniformed bring the fight to the doors of AOC and demand change—
Jon Wintermeyer
March 15, 2011
I have said it continuously, the AOC and any third party maintenance vendor do not have the same level of ownership in the court as the employees that live there every day and for many of those that I know, both sitting on the bench, working in the courtroom and working with the public across the table or counter.
Their work every day is so hard in the involvement and impact that they have in peoples lives. I always considered anything we could accomplish to make their day less stressful, safer and more secure and allow them to concentrate on the task at hand, was a positive input from me and the Faciliites staff.
I wanted the CC County people and taxpayers that came to the courts for personal matters both joyful and sad or reporting for jury duty to think the buildings they entered were taken care of with pride and care. That I could not control the quality of workmanship or time required to complete a project that was assigned with a service work order and given over to the AOC and Team Jacobs and that my facilities unit had to listen to the complaints of the poor performance that was naturally a reflection of our court staff’s unsatisfactory review of those assigned and their lack of professionalism.
That I knew and had proven that with my staff we could out perform the AOC/FMU amd Team Jacobs in time to complete, quality of workmanship and much better value for money spent.
Is DGS a better answer to the problem, yes I think it would be a definite improvement to the current AOC/FMU & Team Jacobs arrangement. I would have chosen to become a trial court example project with an MOU that allowed the court facilities unit to control 100% of the work and was accountable to an annual AOC fiscal audit for staying within the budget monies. That was the model I wanted to be allowed to try and prove to be successful for ther CC Court.
I would have gladly taken members of the State Assembly or Senate for a guided tour through the projects I was responsible for at the CC Court from 2003 through 2009, to prove my point and let them talk with the people that did benefit from these improvements. I doubt this would be allowed to happen now.
Michael Paul
March 16, 2011
I was an offshoot of the technical services group of the AOC. The core group of people in information services that does IT systems design, engineering and integration both locally and for the trial courts.
Much like Jon questions the use of overpriced Jacobs and challenges their ability to deliver services both reliably and affordably, my whole information services team, the core engineering staff of information services, questioned the need for higher-ups to maintain another uber-lucrative contract and create something called the CCTC or California Courts Technology Center. We believed and I still strongly believe that all of that data and those services could be housed in-house for a small fraction of what the AOC is paying people to operate this datacenter for them – or housed at Teale Data Center to better share and manage costs. Management touted the independence of the judiciary in sticking the damn thing in Arizona with a failover in Omaha. Sort of like CCMS, we laughed quietly wondering how they keep their jobs. Then, when the CCTC gets moved from Newark/Siemens to SAIC/Tempe, magically all of these people who were at Siemens become instant managers and senior managers throughout AOC information services and bureaucracy, with a whole added layer of management across the whole organization takes on a whole new dimension.
Please keep in mind- I’m talking about the core engineering staff at the AOC and not their management. Long ago, I recall a program that permitted state employees to challenge their management when they could deliver a service for less expensive than the private sector. The CCTC is one of those services. Facilities Maintenance is another of those services. A core group of savvy programmers could be designing CCMS in house as opposed to sending it out to a company with a dismal track record for far less.
wendy darling
March 16, 2011
Unfortunately, such a solution would interfere with such activities as money laundering, kickbacks, out of control “management fees” and host of other preferred accounting and administrative practices that are currently favored at 455 Golden Gate Avenue.
judicialcouncilwatcher
March 17, 2011
JCW got a note about some of this creative accounting. While the contents of the private message window denoted many things that we will be discussing, one is related to creative AOC accounting. The person who used our secure form to remain anonymous noted that the ACJ and JCW should take a good hard look at trial court accounting services, what it does and how it is paid for, suggesting when we all peel back this onion we will all wish to cry.
Sources indicate that these are the people whose dedicated job it is to justify moving money out of the trial court funds and into AOC coffers by charging (and overcharging) trial courts for various AOC services. Services that in some cases, AOC employees themselves aren’t even aware that they’re being billed against local court funds for the service or advice they provide. Since they control all accounting codes moving the money around is effortless.
We’re going to cover some other information in that message, such as the fairly recent formation of a heavily armed ERS. We here at JCW like to call them Huffman’s goon squad.
The reason for posting here is that the messenger denoted Michael Paul’s observations above as being spot on.
jjimmy johnson
August 13, 2011
ERS carries 40 cal Sigs. Big enough but heavily armed implies SWAT gear or rifles and shotguns. They carry pistols because the are sworn deputies and because they like guns. At least one of the sworn deputies does not carry because there is no union to protect him. He’s the smart one. The idea of ERS being a goon squad is laughable. It’s just boys playing cops and robbers.