We’ve always been bothered by the title of “Director” over at the administrative office of the courts when these directors are acting in the capacity of division managers. They are nothing more than highly compensated AOC employees.
Let’s review the typical responsibilities of a director and see if these responsibilities match up with the responsibilities of other people that carry the title of director.
What a typical director does:
Typical duties of boards of directors include:
- governing the organization by establishing broad policies and objectives;
- selecting, appointing, supporting and reviewing the performance of the chief executive officer
- ensuring the availability of adequate financial resources;
- approving annual budgets;
- accounting to the stakeholders for the organization’s performance.
- setting their own salaries and compensation
Breaking them down one by one, lets see what roles AOC directors carry in comparison to other directors.
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Do AOC directors govern the AOC (and/or the judicial branch) and establish broad policies and objectives? In essence, there are two boards that serve this purpose. There is the Judicial Council that is supposed to do these things on behalf of their administrative offices over at the AOC and there is in reality AOC directors that spoon feed their desires to the Judicial Council with the tail wagging the dog. Since AOC leadership consists of at-will employees, they are going to suggest anything their boss tells them to suggest and spoon feed this to the Judicial Council. Our answer here is that is too convoluted and too much tail wagging the dog to establish effective policies and objectives. The answer is no.
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Is the AOC board of directors or the judicial council acting as a judicial branch board of directors responsible for selecting, appointing supporting and reviewing the performance of the chief executive officer? If legislators have to call for his resignation because no one else is willing to, if the executive director serves at the pleasure of the chief justice, then neither board carries this responsibility. Even if they did, the structure of both boards is an at-will situation so you go along with what the boss tells you. The answer is no.
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Does the AOC board of directors or the Judicial Council ensure the availability of adequate financial resources? Clearly, the answer is no.
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Does either the AOC board of directors or the judicial council acting as a board of directors for the branch approve annual budgets? Again, a convoluted tail wagging the dog where you listen to your boss who has you employed at-will. The judicial council rubber stamps most AOC recommendations. The answer is a resounding no.
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Does the AOC board of directors or the judicial council accept their role as being accountable to the stakeholders for the organizations’ performance? A resounding no. No one is accountable except the messengers who air the dirty laundry. In ancient Greece and the AOC, they always kill the messenger of bad news and grant some new award to cover for gross incompetence.
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Do AOC directors set their own salaries and compensation? A resounding and thankful no, though they are engaged in unprecedented self-dealing that is rubber stamped by the chief justice.
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What’s obvious is that AOC directors don’t have is any of the independence as at-will employees to engage in any of the responsibilities directors are typically responsible for. They are puppet directors, much like judicial council members are puppet directors. One goes along to get along. This is the primary reason that directors should be eliminated in favor of division managers as it highlights their at-will nature.
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Note: We’re supportive of having an AOC board of directors in the form of a democratically elected judicial council with far more frequent meetings. With that being said, the convoluted governance of the tail wagging the dog of two at-will boards when everyone is appointed by the chief justice must end sooner rather than later.
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SFGATE – Matier & Ross comment on this years’ judicial college. Before it was taken over by the AOC, CJER (a creation of CJA) was an independent body with a very small staff and modest quarters in Emeryville. It held judicial orientations in places like the Hotel Shattuck in Berkeley and the Judicial College at UC’s Boalt Hall. Now it is an expensive state run juggernaut that is staffed by a large number of people. Most have little to do with education.
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JusticeCalifornia
August 11, 2011
Director or division manager
As far as I can tell from the CCMS/trial court construction and maintenance fiascos/human resource terrorization/assigned judges issues/expensive and secret judicial indoctrination sessions (tell me again why judges cannot attend any training session they want to?)/CEO forced placement plans/ idiotic trading of self-serving awards/idiotic legal advice pouring forth from OGC/military handling of the Judicial Council and information the Council is provided/development of PRAVDA to reinvent history and cover up bad stats/multiple power grabs/fake investigations by unqualified individuals– they are overpaid, underperforming, individuals who are tearing down the branch while they help build a multi-billion dollar “big brother” empire that has no meaningful oversight whatsoever.
Perhaps no one is commenting on this thread because these ethically compromised individuals deserve nothing more than a kick in ass on their way out the door to explain their actions to the feds, and perhaps a little time behind bars. We all know it and agree, so why discuss semantics of titles? Kick the bums out and get them off the public dole.
Michael Paul
August 11, 2011
~just laughs~
Getting back to basics. I can respect that and I agree.
courtflea
August 11, 2011
you got it JC. All lickspittles.
unionman575
August 12, 2011
I agree 100%.