For those not familiar with the AOC Facilities Management Unit’s building maintenance process, we’re making an endeavor to explain to you what Ron Overholt was talking about. As you recall Ron Overholt explaining, when you see a three hundred dollar light bulb on a service work order – or $2500.00 for an energy efficiency upgrade on a light fixture, there’s more involved than just the line item description.
As you might recall from the KCRA news report, a meeting recorded by AOC whistleblower Uzoma Okoro caught FMU Senior Manager Jerry Pfab explaining how maintenance managers should be bundling together jobs in the same area. From what Judicial Council Watcher knows about how the Service Work Order process works, we managed to put all of this information together and search for the ideal visualization tool of an AOC paint job and why it costs so much.
Transparent, accountable and committee approved…
Judicial Council Watcher 
Michael Paul
July 21, 2011
Cool video. Must represent bundling 4 paint jobs together. Being one of the AOC’s former employees and reading in reports and releases that AOC former employees were supposed to get copies of this SEC survey, I took the liberty of contacting Justice Scotland and inquiring as to why I might not have received a copy.
As a media org, I did receive copies of the other surveys. Each survey has been drafted differently. Employees, judges and AOC managers all have different survey questions. Apparently, former employees also have a different set of survey questions.
Even though the AOC knows my email address and regularly communicates with me via my pubinfo inquiries (my next subject) Justice Scotland was kind enough to explain that the SEC committee did not have my email address and would be sending me the former employee survey this afternoon. (Thank You Justice Scotland)
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The next subject: Pubinfo inquiries about “the crime report” on the embezzlement in the Human Resources department.
I think its fair to assume that when you fail to file a crime report on the theft of public funds, that makes you an accessory to that theft of those public funds. While I’m no lawyer, I know that the person driving the getaway car in a bank robbery is going to be doing as much time as the bank robber themselves.
My pubinfo inquiries about the elusive crime report, just like everyone else who has searched the city of San Francisco for a crime report turned up nothing. I was wondering how that could possibly be that Mr. Vickrey or Mr. Fuentes reported a crime to the district attorneys office of Kamala Harris and she declined to prosecute.
While a crime report is PUBLIC INFORMATION and would declare who had a role in this crime of government embezzlement, the AOC has taken the following position on this crime report:
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Mr. Paul,
The Administrative Office of the Courts (AOC) has received your request for information and reviewed it under California Rules of Court, rule 10.500, “public access to judicial administrative records.” The AOC has no records that are disclosable under the rule. Rule 10.500 precludes the AOC from disclosing records and information about the handling of personnel matters. All such records are exempt from disclosure under rule 10.500(f)(3), (f)(5), (f)(9) and (f)(11).
For information about disclosable documents under rule 10.500, please review http://www.courts.ca.gov/7260.htm?title=ten&linkid=rule10_500.
Sincerely,
Ayanna Cage
Executive Office Programs Division–Public Access to Records Project
Judicial Council of California – Administrative Office of the Courts
455 Golden Gate Ave.
San Francisco, CA 94102-3688
pubinfo@jud.ca.gov
http://www.courtinfo.ca.gov
“AOC: 50 years of service to the courts and the people of California, 1961–2011”
From: Michael Paul [mailto:michael_paul@michaelpaul.net]
Sent: Tuesday, June 21, 2011 5:25 AM
To: Pubinfo
Subject: A copy of the crime report for the embezzlement
According to various sources, an embezzlement of over 100K involving a perpetrator named M*** F*** happened in the HR department. This embezzlement was a subject that was brought to Mr. Vickrey’s attention by the Committee of Accountability and Administrative Review. Mr. Vickrey indicated that the district attorney declined to prosecute.
1. Who was the agency that this crime was reported to?
2. Who was the officer that this crime was reported to?
3. Where can I get a copy of the crime report that shows that this was actually reported by law enforcement?
4. What is the assigned case number of the reporting agency?
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With an answer like this, I think it is fair to state that Mr. Vickrey and Mr. Fuentes should be considered accessories to this crime as the answer from pubinfo fails to pass the smell test.
Judicial Council Watcher
July 21, 2011
The HR department has some other questionable issues going on. Like the hiring of two private practice employment attorneys to go negotiate labor relations contracts for the courts.
Since these attorneys appear to maintain private practices according to the state bar, it seems to us (and we have been informed as much) that it would be a conflict of interest for these attorneys, not AOC attorneys but private practice attorneys “temping” at the AOC, to be negotiating labor agreements on behalf of the trial courts.
JCW has obtained copies of temporary agency staff work orders for (1)Scott Gannon and (2) Carey Corbaley. These contracts were requested by HR Manager Michael Guevara. Each renewal pays at a rate of 80.75 per hour and puts them in placeholders of the unfilled positions of Labor Relations Officer II. Each is on their third three month extension. We’re informed that neither of them has ever engaged in labor negotiations on behalf of the trial courts – as their work orders indicate they were being hired for.
We’ll be scanning these documents. As to if the HR division should be getting their own dedicated post much like the maligned and misunderstood FMU, we’re still debating where we will post them. Kindly let JCW know any other information about the HR department that the public should know about and maybe we can produce a dedicated post to Bluto’s greatness.
Peppermint Pattie
July 22, 2011
The JCW phrase for this would be “inappropriate response.”
Mr. Fenn wasn’t an “employee” of the AOC. Fenn was initially hired as a “temp” employee outside of the approved AOC temp contract. In order to avoid having Mr. Fenn subjected to the criminal background check required under the AOC’s approved temp contract, the AOC HR Director hired Fenn through AccountTemps, a division of Robert Half and Associates, commonly known in the AOC’s HR Division as the company of the HR Director’s wife. Fenn then kept having his “temp” assignment repeatedly extended every 90 days for well over a year.
After initially hiring Mr. Fenn through AccountTemps and extending Fenn’s “temporary” contract several times, the HR Director then “converted” Mr. Fenn from a temp employee from AccountTemps to a temp employee under the new AOC temp contract with Apple One in June of 2006. To do this, the AOC’s HR Director approved the expenditure of almost $20,000 of public funds to pay a “conversion fee” to AccountTemps to convert Mr. Fenn from a temp employee with AccountTemps to a temp employee with AppleOne. When Fenn was converted from an AccountTemps employee to an AppleOne employee, he again escaped an AOC criminal background check. Under the approved AOC temp contract, the payment of such “converson fees” was prohibited.
Fenn never became an AOC employee, even though the HR Director used public money to pay for Fenn to be “converted” from a temp employee with one outside private temp agency to another outside private temp agency. So, for the AOC to hide behind some claim of confidentiality of this somehow being a personnel issue is unsupportable. Besides, it was Vickrey himself who admitted to the Assembly Committee on Accountability and Administrative Review that the embezzlement happened, and made the claim that the embezzlement was reported to law enforcement, and that the San Francisco District Attorney declined to prosecute. If it was actually true, and Vickrey wasn’t just telling another lie to the State legislature, it would seem that the AOC should be able to identify what law enforcement agency the embezzlement was reported to, especially since the reporting of a crime is a matter of public record.
The reality is that the embezzlement in the AOC HR division under Director Fuentes was never reported to law enforcement, or to the district attorney either. Perhaps it had something to do with Mr. Fuentes and Mr. Fenn’s prior personal acquaitance, or perhaps with a prior criminal conviction that Fuentes was apparently aware of when Fenn was brought in through AccountTemps.
And since when is the reporting of a crime of embezzlement of public funds a confidential personnel matter?
DOJ investigates alleged embezzlement in county courts
http://www.times-standard.com/localnews/ci_12678128
Court employee charged with embezzling, faces arraignment in June
http://www.recordnet.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20110525/A_NEWS/110529920/-1/RSS02
California State Bar employee sentenced for embezzling funds
http://wireupdate.com/wires/1543/california-state-bar-employee-sentenced-for-embezzling-funds/
Former court employee admits embezzlement
http://articles.ocregister.com/2009-03-02/cities/24656057_1_embezzlement-court-employee-felony-grand-theft
And of course, there’s the former CEO of the Marin court, John Montgomery:
Former Marin court official pleads guilty in conflict-of-interest case
http://www.marinij.com/marin/ci_4981933
Michael Paul
July 24, 2011
Oddly enough, activist me has made four citizens arrests resulting in the convictions of all four perps. I wonder. Do I have enough evidence of a crime to conduct three more citizens arrests and is there a sworn law enforcement officer that would take my complaint?
Mermaid
July 24, 2011
Mr. Paul,
Didn’t Vickery admit before the Committee of Accountability and Administrative Review that an embezzlement took place? If so, this would be an admission that a crime was, indeed, committed, would it not? What about any possible statute of limitations? Finding a law enforcement officer that already has his retirement planned (for next month? *lol*) might be an option?
It doesn’t surprise me to hear that you didn’t get your survey. The AOC has a very “selective” manner of dealing with most anything that wouldn’t be to their advantage….