Judicial Council Watcher continues to be amazed by what we don’t hear or see. In the latest press release by Lynn Holton what we don’t hear or see are those cuts that the AOC is willing to take it on the chin to protect trial court jobs and public access to justice.
Who cares if half of the San Francisco Court across the street is forced to shut down or if there remains a considerable amount of construction and CCMS funding that should be diverted to protect the judiciary from these cuts. They need to hire more high priced consultants to get around their hiring freeze!
Why might this be?
Because matters of the AOC and any associated cuts are the long term purview of the Strategic Evaluation Committee and the Accountability & Efficiency Committee and not the trial court budget working group.
While the AOC’s Ox was gored by the legislature, you will note it is a trial court working group that is meeting to distribute these cuts. Contrary what the following paragraph indicates from the press release, it will be the Administrative Director and the Finance Director of the AOC that will originate the numbers and toss them to the Trial Court Budget Working Group right before the commencement of the July 13th meeting and get this group to legitimize these cuts without visiting the AOC’s operations. Objections or alternatives will not be considered. Bring your rubber stamp.
The Judicial Council’s Trial Court Budget Working Group is examining the impact of the new budget and will meet on July 13th to finalize a formal recommndation for allocation to the trial courts and forward them to the Administrative Director and the Judicial Council. In addition the six APJ’s of the Courts of Appeal will be reviewing options for implementing reductions in the Appellate courts…… the Judicial Council will meet on July 15th to review recommendations and make final decisions on the allocations.
http://courts.ca.gov/documents/nr27-11.pdf
Business as usual……
Judicial Council Watcher 
JusticeCalifornia
June 30, 2011
We are reading and hearing about minimimi threatening everybody but the AOC.
We all know where a cj/jc/aoc move to throw trial courts and the public under the bus will end.
Mutiny.
JusticeCalifornia
June 30, 2011
I don’t know where the “inappropriate response” post momentarily went, but I will say this: it took Marin 9 or 10 months to clean its files while it was blocking state auditor access with the AOC’s help.
“Chief Justice Cantil-Sakauye” is exhibiting a most bizarre, unimaginable response to a statewide branch crisis and severe criticism. Is she the ultimate “cleaner”? Inquiring minds want to know.
Wendy Darling
June 30, 2011
Up at 455 Golden Gate Avenue and the Regional Offices, they’re throwing parties honoring Shelia Calbro, Bill Vickrey, et al, self-celebrating their management of the AOC before skipping out of town with their public paid lifetime retirement and healthcare benefits, or new court jobs. The party today was for Stephen Nash.
Long live the ACJ.
sharonkramer
June 30, 2011
Click to access nr27-11.pdf
[Chief Justice Tani Cantil-Sakauye said] “Because of the cumulative effect of cuts to the courts in the last three years, we are facing individual court closures, fewer services to court users, and the possibility of more furloughs and layoffs for employees,”
Isn’t the above statement by the CJ conflicting with the State Bureau audit of the AOC/CCMS while additionally ignoring the $350M paid to unlicensed contractors, penions for non-state employees, lavish meetings, back pay for AOC employees, etc?
Its not the cumulative effect of cuts. Its the cumulative effect of waste and abuse by those who are not forthright and dare not say “We were so wrong on this.” She just illustrated once again why AB1208 is so important.
nikkislim
June 30, 2011
Ladies and gentlemen of CA the trial courts as we know it is over. The AOC has the money to keep the trial courts open and functioning but please be assured that come July 15th they will be crying broke because between now and then is more than enough time to hide money that rightfully belongs to the courts. The new CJ is going to go along with this to keep the folks at the AOC happy! While courts are closed and employees are laid off, the folks at the AOC will not be touched at all. As a matter of fact, in the next few weeks, all AOC employees will get a pay raise. It happened before. How is it that they continue to thrive, yet the trial courts suffer? Thank Ron George for the mess the TC’s are in. I bet EVERYONE that voted for TC consolidation several years back never saw this coming and now are kicking themselves in the butt!
JusticeCalifornia
June 30, 2011
Such hubris. So what else is new?
We all know blackjack dealers and cocktail waitresses are not generally known for their ethics.
Especially when playing with a loaded deck.
But bottom line? Here is what we are seeing: oppression will not be tolerated here. And the truth will out.
And that is why Ron George, Bill Vickrey, Sheila Calabro, Richard Huffman, and Steve Nash have been forcefully phased out of their former top leadership positions in one short but momentous year. And minimimi and her band of thieves are on borrowed time. What we are witnessing are wakes, not parties.
Let’s please not underestimate ourselves. Power to the people.
sharonkramer
July 1, 2011
Click to access nr19-11.pdf
Justice Huffman is not leaving. He has been appointed as the Chair of the Members Accountability Committee. The committee’s stated function: “State Panel Promotes Transparency in Judicial Branch”
Judicial Council Watcher
July 1, 2011
This committee has only accomplished two things in its short history.
1. It recommended raises for all AOC employees.
2. It accepted John Judnick’s report on the destruction of marin’s mediation files.
It is now charged with accepting all of these comments from the Presiding Judges and the Strategic Evaluation Committee.
Let’s not forget that it was Mr. Huffman that has long promoted both transparency and accountability.
His most notable act in this arena was to change the governance model of the judicial branch with a secret vote by e-mail without input, discussion or debate from the rest of the judicial branch.
Short of the rest of the judiciary driving Mr. Huffman out with pitchforks, Mr Huffman wants to ensure that there is no change whatsoever in the governance model that leaves a group of his best buddies in charge.
sharonkramer
July 1, 2011
“Let’s not forget that it was Mr. Huffman that has long promoted both transparency and accountability.” No comment 🙂
JusticeCalifornia
July 1, 2011
“short of the rest of the judiciary driving Mr. Huffman out with pitchforks”. . . ..
the other alternative is to bounce the person who is keeping him around.
Judicial Council Watcher
July 1, 2011
The estimated cost of driving her out of office? 1.2 million dollars. The amount pledged thus far? About 10% of that amount.
SF Whistle
July 1, 2011
Mr Huffman should not be permitted to use the words “transparency and accountability”….These words should actually not be used by anyone at the AOC–At best these words invoked by AOC or JC is oxymoronic—at worst an outright lie—
oxymoron
1657, from Gk. oxymoron, noun use of neut. of oxymoros (adj.) “pointedly foolish,” from oxys “sharp” (see acrid) + moros “stupid.” Rhetorical figure by which contradictory terms are conjoined so as to give point to the statement or expression; the word itself is an illustration of the thing. Now often used loosely to mean “contradiction in terms.”
JusticeCalifornia
July 1, 2011
Click to access nr28-11.pdf
What say you all about this appointment?
courtflea
July 4, 2011
As we all know, this committee along with the Court Exec Advisory Committee are simply for show. No meaningful decisions are made by either one as they are not given the oportunity to do so. So you could appoint Mickey Mouse to chair and it would not mean or acomplish excuse me, shit. This is not a comment on the appointee just the state of all of these committees created by the CJ/JC.