.
Just concluded was a sham trial with a predetermined result. That predetermined result was that the AOC will lose and that Jacobs will win. It took a conscious effort by the AOC’s legal team led by none other than Mary “the lizard” Roberts and by Peter Krause, a former AOC attorney who is now a managing attorney for the Attorney Generals office to lose this case. It also took some work from the AOC’s office of Court Construction & Management to keep on using the people they knew had no contractors licenses, denying any overcharging ever took place and generally producing rave reviews for the unlicensed vendors before, during and after they found out about licensure status – even though all of you out there were screaming and hollering about their incompetence and pricing.
We heard Ron Overholt say there would be no interruption in facilities maintenance and indeed there was none because all the unlicensed entities did was reorganize, changing their responsibilities to what they were legally entitled to do. Jacobs would start issuing subcontracts in the stead of ABM which was good because there were many contractors that were incensed that they had to work for an unlicensed contractor ABM to get the courts business. The legal question brought forth had nothing to do with the facts. The legal question was – Did Jacobs maintain licensure during the entire engagement of the contract with the AOC and should they be paid? The jury would only find out about the relationships between Jacobs Facilities, Inc and Jacobs Project Management company that would cause the casual trial observer to side with Jacobs – just as a jury did.
What a jury would never hear a word of was “Team Jacobs” – The unlicensed joint venture of ABM and Jacobs Engineering. You see, up until Nov/Dec 2009 there was only “Team Jacobs” proudly introduced to all court and AOC employees as a joint venture between ABM and Jacobs Engineering. So proud of their relationship they were that they had business cards printed. They had all proposals drawn up under the team jacobs logo. And they would pass out thousands of these documents as empirical proof of their “doing business as” names.
The “Team Jacobs” arrangement was that Jacobs would manage the relationship with the AOC and that ABM would provide all of the boots on the ground in the trial courts – the people wearing the team jacobs uniforms worked for ABM. ABM would act in the capacity of the general contractor, subcontracting out work to other unlicensed entities and doing most of the work in the courts – until December 2009. In December of 2009 in an all-hands meeting of the Facilities Management Unit, AOC management directed all employees to cease using the term “Team Jacobs” any further and Jacobs would assume a more managing contractor role from that point forward.
The vanishing of Team Jacobs is where the AOC’s Facilities Management Unit and AOC’s Office of General Counsel would work hard to create the very safe harbor in the law that the jury recognized – substantial compliance with the states contractor licensing laws. At this point their sham lawsuit never named “Team Jacobs”, never named ABM and never would. The end result was predictable and was predicted by Michael Paul – he who blew the whistle on all of this mess. Way back in December of 2009 and again in January of 2010, Michael Paul publicly accused the AOC of creating the narrow safe harbor provisions under Business & Professions Code 7031 that would permit Jacobs to escape punishment and give ABM a free pass.
It didn’t take a crystal ball to see that prediction come true and it doesn’t take a crystal ball to suggest that U.S. Attorney Melinda Haag stop busting pot clubs and walk across the street and start busting AOC employees for fraud, obstruction of justice and corruption.
A few days ago, Carlos Martinez created a petition on SignOn.org (a division of moveon.org) that we re-posted and gave our readers a link to.
At the time we weren’t ready to actually endorse disbanding the whole AOC.
After this verdict, a verdict that demonstrates that the highest levels of the agency are polluted with corruption and malfeasance, we strongly endorse the disbanding of the AOC.
Right now, Carlos’s petition has 241 signatures. Let’s see if we can’t do some networking and internet education and get Carlos 10,000 signatures by the end of this month.
Petition to Disband the AOC in California (link)
unionman575
May 5, 2012
Disband the AOC!
Recall the Chief Justice!
Wendy Darling
May 5, 2012
What a surprise . . . if one wants to guarantee a pre-determined result in a trial, the best way to get there is by purposefully ignoring or hiding evidence that doesn’t support the pre-determined result that has already been decided upon. Doesn’t do much to instill confidence in our legal system, or about trials being a “search for the truth,” but it’s not as if anyone in any position of authority or responsibility cares about that anymore.
455 Golden Gate Avenue should just be re-named the “Administrative Office of Corruption” and be done with it.
Recall the Chief Justice.
Long live the ACJ.
JusticeCalifornia
May 5, 2012
Wow, talk about the AOC picking judges and providing a soft place to fall.
http://www.redding.com/news/2012/may/03/long-time-judge-jack-halpin-retires/
Jack Halpin apparently was only a lawyer for 10 years and a Shasta County judge for two years (62-64) before he “retired” to unsuccessfully throw his hat into the political ring.
It appears he was forced back to private practice until he hooked up with the AOC assigned judges program, and in 1994 started serving as a “temporary” full time Shasta County judge, until he finally “retired” again this year.
Nice work if you can get it. Check out the double compensation assigned judges get, as reported in the article.
The real story is in a) the comments to this article– read all 37 — and b) the fact that another Shasta County judge quietly retired last year but has continued to work full time on the assigned judge double-dipping dole program. I don’t know anything about the newest assigned judge program beneficiary, but it certainly looks opportunistic and disingenuous to “retire” and then continue to work full time collecting double compensation. Geez– the assigned judges program as utilized in Shasta County provides an INCENTIVE to double dip. Hey all you judges out there, Shasta County is single-handedly giving this program a really bad name. If this is how that program is used and abused statewide, it should be abolished.
I read some of the case files involving Halpin and he was OK I guess, if you don’t mind nonsensical decisions, prejudicial ex parte communications with favored lawyers, issuance of secret orders that don’t get served on litigants, highly prejudicial courtroom behavior, and so much more. . . .I hear that court staff and bailiffs were and have been so disgusted they refused to work in his courtroom.
The Shasta court has managed to limit meritorious appeals in his most egregious cases by long ago eliminating family court reporters, engaging in “interesting” administrative practices, and denying needy litigants appellate attorney fees. And of course assigned judges are not subject to oversight by the CJP.
Hey, without an official record you got NOTHING. Ditto that tenfold if you cannot afford an appellate attorney. And I daresay Halpin and those who worked together to re-assign him every 30-60 days for over 18 years, notwithstanding the stream of complaints about him, know that.
So with a Shasta County record like that. . . .and looking into the crystal ball. . . . .Look for Shasta County CEO Melissa Fowler-Bradley to become the new Kim Turner, and Shasta Judge Stephen Baker (Judicial Councilmember and NCSC board member) to ascend to new heights if Cantil Sakauye remains in power. Damn, it’s so predictable.
JusticeCalifornia
May 5, 2012
lots and lots and lots of corrupt top leadership “soft places to fall”.
Court IT
Court Construction
Cleansed/contrived/biased/retaliatory JC/AOC/NCSC/CJP reports on CA courts
the weird Shapiro fund bull$$$$
OGC, et al ( gotta love those private firms promoting/defending known third branch corruption)
and
Assigned judges program (just look at the Shasta Court decades-long misuse of same)
The beauty of all of the above is that eventually, the truth will out. It always does.
Wendy Darling
May 5, 2012
We all live for that day, Justice California. We all live for that day.
unionman575
May 7, 2012
Yes the truth will come out.
unionman575
May 5, 2012
My. my, my..shredding services? I thought “Hari Kari” Kiri Torre, Court Executive Officer was done shredding up there in Contra Csota. I guess the shedding goes on and on. Look out Jody Patel you have competition!
http://www.cc-courts.org/index.cfm?fuseaction=page.viewpage&pageid=7052
Shredding Services
The Superior Court of Contra Costa is in need of on-site shredding services using consoles for offices for paper and microfiche and larger bins for high volumes of paper, files.
43S-11/12 SRD
• Full text of Request For Proposal
• Attachment 1, Administrative Rules Governing Requests For Proposals
• Attachment 2, Standard Terms and Conditions
• Attachment 3, Proposer’s Acceptance of Terms and Conditions
• Attachment 4, Darfur Contracting Act Certification
• Exhibit A, Console Listing
Important Dates:
RFP Issued: May 4, 2012
Deadline for questions: May 10, 2012, 12:00 noon PST
E-Mail questions to: CCCourtRFPs@contracosta.courts.ca.gov
Proposal due date: May 18, 2012, 3:00 PM. PST
Anticipated Start of Service: June 1, 2012
JusticeCalifornia
May 6, 2012
I love the short fuse on these “sensitive” (read– we need an inside party-line provider) RFPs.
Isn’t it amazing that problematic counties often can be identified by their [protected/promoted by “top leadership”] documented, problematic current or former CEOs? After all, CEOs are the keeper of the files (they can read, cleanse, change and destroy them, at will), and have the power to a) fire or indirectly get rid of those who are too smart, inquisitive, ethical and know too much, and b) retain compromised party-liners willing to do anything to bury evidence of bad behavior.
Top leadership’s favorite CEO’s seem to have a common M.O. Oops, the file is unavailable, or missing, or darn it I don’t know why that is missing from the file, and of course we served that on time–strange that person didn’t get it, and that employee was fired or retired and is unavailable for questioning. . . .but top leadership is the absolute best.
And by the way, my question remains: does Carlson fall within this M.O.?
wearyant
May 6, 2012
Ya know, this kind of info makes a commoner like me feel lower than a snake”s belly scraping along in the desert sand. It’s so disheartening to see these thugs plow away at the California judiciary branch.
I’m off to find a bunker near General Woodhull …
Been There
May 7, 2012
What is so appalling is the blatant thuggery perpetrated in the courts by these bad actors, most of whom have been consigned to digital purgatory. We all know who these people are. The PJs who hire them know who they are, and worse, they hire them anyway and keep them on.
The problem as I see it is not only the Kiri Torres, Kim Turners, and their ilk, but also the PJs who hire, retain and enable the thugs. Perhaps we need a digital purgatory for them too.
unionman575
May 7, 2012
Yes we do need a digitial purgatory for them too.
Hmm…See for yourself what Alan Carlson is up to in Orange with these current bids:
https://www.bidsync.com/bidsync-app-web/shared/shared/embeddedSearchResults.xhtml?srchoid_override=388136&curronly=null&pastonly=null
Nathaniel Woodhull
May 7, 2012
Rumor has it that there has been a “hastily” called Judicial Council meeting for TODAY! There is no published agenda and many of the members will have to “attend” by telephone.
This raises a number of questions regarding the legality of the meeting and what they are up to???
Wendy Darling
May 7, 2012
Well, General Woodhull, no one with an ounce of common sense at this point is laboring under the delusion that the Office of the Chief Justice, the Judicial Council, and the AOC care at all about the “legality” of anything they do. After all, who is there that can hold them accountable?
Long live the ACJ.
Alan Ernesto Phillips
May 7, 2012
wow…
Shasta County’s Stephen Baker appears to have called in sick today on “medical reasons” – and a highly contested pot-dispensery case was sent to “retired,” ASSIGNED judge Dick McEachen for a hearing… Knowing that Baker sits with the JC… (and rubber-stamped Jack Halpin) I wonder if he called in sick for the JC meeting you mentioned, too… mmmmm…
http://www.redding.com/news/2012/may/07/judge-grants-reddings-request-amend-complaint-mari/
Wendy Darling
May 7, 2012
For any who might be interested, Jody Patel has sent out an announcement that Chris Patton will be “retiring.”
Long live the ACJ.
courtflea
May 7, 2012
well stay tuned: Curt as interim Asst Director and when a new directo djr is chosen, Jody goes back to being Assist and then likely shortly thereafter retires, and Curt goes bacl to HR or he reitres. I have been telling you all for quite some time that all of these guys have been playing at” interim” in order to boost their retirement pay, as a reward for their eventual departure.
courtflea
May 7, 2012
By the Butte court had a retired assigned judge for YEARS there as well.
Been There
May 7, 2012
Butte and Shasta Counties have nothing on one of the larger boondoggles in the history of the Assigned Judges program. Two words: Palm Springs.
JusticeCalifornia
May 7, 2012
Been There, any hints on the names in Palm Springs or where to look? Butte didn’t list the name of the assigned judge, but you could click on a calendar entry and see Lamb’s name that way. Cox is the only Palm Springs judge I could find, the other two “assigned” judges are unnamed.
JusticeCalifornia
October 4, 2012
Been there, looks like those Palm Springs assigned judges are history. Looks like they became history less than two months after being mentioned here on JCW and shortly after Assemblymember Feuer (who has been copied on complaints about the abuse of the Assigned Judges program) publicly questioned the need for Assigned Judges.
http://www.pe.com/local-news/riverside-county/corona/corona-headlines-index/20120629-region-cuts-close-some-county-courtrooms.ece
If anyone knows of other retired judges who have been sitting on assignment in the same court for years in perpetuity, please share. Or, as Been There did, at least please give a hint of where the judges are serving. It would be nice to know how many we are talking about in California. I am certain that some of these assigned judges are wonderful bench officers; however, due to the ongoing in-your-face, rampant abuse of the Assigned Judges program, there may soon be official legal challenges to the constitutionality of the Assigned Judges program as it has been utilized. In 1954 our CA Supreme Court said: “It must be taken for granted that under the proper exercise of the power of assignment a retired judge will not be continued in service indefinitely.” Hah! That was before Ron George and Tani Cantil Sakauye thought it was perfectly OK for chief justices to reassign retired judges for years and even decades with no end in sight.
As with so many other things we have seen, abuse by the few may end up spoiling it for the many in the branch. . . .
It looks like taking these things to the mat legally is going to have to be the way to force change. Something the ACJ and others may respectfully want to consider as they continue to be discriminated against by disrespectful administrators and enmeshed appellate justices purporting to act in an official administrative gatekeeping capacity without any apparent official authority.
Let’s see.
unionman575
May 7, 2012
And the AOC building boom continues on as we shut down courthouses and layoff trial court employees throughout the state:
http://www.courts.ca.gov/17956.htm
Public Meeting to Comment on Preparation of Environmental Impact Report for Proposed Placerville Courthouse
unionman575
May 7, 2012
To: Court Facilities Working Group (CFWG)
From: Hon. Patricia Lucas, Vice Chair of Court Facilities Working Group, Chair of the Audit Subcommittee
Re: Status update on independent audit of Courthouse Construction Program
Date: May 4, 2012
Summary:
As you may recall, at our very first meeting on August 30, 2011, we directed the Administrative Office of the Courts to engage an outside, independent auditor to assist us in our ongoing oversight of the judicial branch’s court facilities program. When the Judicial Council approved our latest cost-reduction recommendations on April 24, 2012, Justice Hill spoke briefly about the independent auditor in his presentation to the Council. He asked me to give the Working Group a status update. I’m told that we can expect the report sometime in August. When we do receive the report, Justice Hill will convene the entire committee to hear the report and to make recommendations, if any, to the Judicial Council.
unionman575
May 7, 2012
http://www.pewstates.org/projects/stateline/headlines/courthouse-costs-engender-controversy-85899383848
Courthouse Costs Engender Controversy
by Melissa Maynard, Staff Writer
Whose Responsibility?
No other state has had a Taj Mahal scandal, but many of them face difficult decisions when it comes to operating and maintaining state court facilities. California transferred control of courthouse maintenance from local to state control in 2002 with the goal of making sure that buildings were properly taken care of. That hasn’t proven to be a cheap or easy task. The legislature approved a $5 billion program in 2008 to meet statewide needs, but planned projects are frequently criticized for extravagance even through the status quo is understood by all to be unacceptable. “Downtown San Diego is a sprawling complex of horrors,” a narrator says in a video produced by the state courts to showcase the state judiciary’s needs. “There is literally an active earthquake fault directly beneath the north tower. Security is grossly inadequate.”
To respond to sensitivities about the projects’ costs in the face of budget constraints, California’s Judicial Council announced on April 24 that it is reassessing 13 planned court construction and renovation projects for possible cancellation or modification. Another 24 projects had their budgets cut.
Justice Brad Hill of the Fifth District Court of Appeals, who presided over the Judicial Council’s Facilities Working Group, says that the projects being reviewed or canceled weren’t frivolous, but that the group has been able to find a lot of ways to save money. Still, quality counts and they don’t want to be in the same situation a decade or so down the road. “Many of these courthouses literally have hundreds of thousands of people going through them in a year,” he says. “They get very hard use. If we don’t have building materials that will hold up, it becomes a drain financially not to have done it right the first time. We have to build facilities that are durable.”
Hill understands the frustrations that come with working in dilapidated facilities from the years he spent on the Fresno Superior Court. “We had an asbestos problem,” he says. “We had leaks in the roof. We had chunks of the building that would fall off. We regularly had to cordon off the sidewalk because it looked like a chunk was going to fall off the building.” They had to reroute the lines of jurors waiting outside to minimize the safety hazards involved.
Yeh, of the National Center for State Courts, says that “for most of the projects, no one really intended to waste the taxpayers’ money… It really depends on the design quality and standards they use. I do think some of the projects are way too expensive. There are some things that you can do without; it’s just like when you build a house.”
Wendy Darling
May 7, 2012
Published today, Monday, May 7, from Courthouse News Service:
More Cuts Expected to CA Court System Already Reeling From Axe
SAN FRANCISCO (CN) – California Chief Justice Tani Cantil-Sakauye called an emergency meeting of the Judicial Council Monday afternoon to discuss likely additional budget cuts to the judiciary, expected to be revealed next week by Governor Jerry Brown.
“I relayed my concerns that any further cuts to the judicial branch will be devastating, and I want our branch leaders to start thinking about how we can strongly oppose any further cuts and be prepared to respond to them, if they do indeed come,” said Cantil-Sakauye in a statement shortly after the meeting.
Dismal tax revenue projections for California have left the state’s beleaguered trial courts vulnerable to even deeper cuts than expected. In the past four years, the judiciary has seen $650 million in cuts, and is expected to take another hit at the start of the next fiscal year.
The chief and council’s primary goal was to convince the Governor and Legislature to restore $100 million in funding to the branch, but a call last week from the Governor’s office to the Administrative Office of the Courts signaled that all areas of government will likely receive more cuts in the revised budget.
Presiding Judge David Rosenberg of Yolo County, a council member who attended the emergency telephonic meeting, said that restoration is an impossibility. “At this point, it’s not happening. It’s certainly a worthy goal, and an appropriate goal, but in the context of the economic reality it’s just not happening,” Rosenberg said in an interview late Monday.
A judge speaking without attribution said Interim AOC Director Jody Patel had received a call from the Governor’s office saying that the court system will be dealt an additional cut in the next couple of months. Further, a projected “trigger cut” — if a tax increase is voted down by the taxpayers — would shoot up to $250 million.
Rosenberg dismissed those figures as rumor, saying, “Nobody knows what’s going to happen. Not even the Governor knows. My guess is they’ll work all weekend. Everything at this point is just rumor or speculation.”
He added that it is possible the judiciary’s construction fund for courthouse projects may again be swept into the state’s general fund. “The Governor and Department of Finance must submit a balanced budget. I imagine they are searching for every available pot of money.”
Rosenberg said no strategies were planned and no decisions were made at the council meeting, and that it was informational only.
Chief Justice Cantil-Sakauye said she plans to call the council together for an in-person meeting after the budget is unveiled next week.
In a newsletter sent to all the presiding judges in the state by Rosenberg Monday, the head of the council’s trial court presiding judges committee called for colleagues to urge the Legislature and Governor to spare the courts further cuts.
“Essentially, this newsletter is sent in the nature of a ‘call to arms’ – or more properly, a call to pen and paper, laptop, desktop, phone, and office visit. The Judicial Branch has been pressed to the wall due to past one time and ongoing budget cuts,” said Rosenberg.
“Now, it appears that – unless the tide is reversed – the Judicial Branch will be in a true crisis in fiscal year 2012-13,” he wrote. “The result will be closing of courtrooms and courthouses, and layoffs of already thin court employee ranks. Some courts have already reduced staff by over 30% – further reductions will create a shell of a judicial system. It would be expected that civil courtrooms throughout the state will close.”
http://www.courthousenews.com/2012/05/07/46302.htm
Long live the ACJ.
unionman575
May 7, 2012
An emergency meeting????
So much for an open meeting.
JusticeCalifornia
May 7, 2012
Wendy it is fascinating that courthouse news has the scoop on today’s meeting. As I understand it, no one answering phones at the Judicial Council or the “Public Information Office” seemed to know about the judicial council meeting or the subject matter of the meeting. The person answering the Judicial Council phones at 4:30 this afternoon flat-out said there was no meeting today.
Anyway, no one can say this new round of cuts was not expected. Two new courthouses in the hopper for party liners Yew and Roddy, at a cost of $1 billion, and lots of other new courthouse projects moving full speed ahead (the ACJ wants a pause in construction, and an outside audit of the program? forget it!!!) , but no money for court basics– an open court, a good judge, a court clerk, and a court reporter. Yep, wise stewardship of public funds.
The sad part of all this is that the entire branch is paying the price for the gross waste and mismanagement of top leadership over the last decade. And our gambling barmaid cannot say she didn’t know, since she “vetted” everything that has gone down since she was appointed to sit on the Judicial Council.
anna
May 14, 2012
let’s get real. Our CJ is only upset about the cuts because there will no money for her. these cut backs will not allow for any more graft.
Dan Dydzak
May 7, 2012
I have filed a First Amended Complaint in my case, Dydzak v. Dunn et al. pending in Orange County Superior Court. This Complaint can be found on Leslie Brodie Report among other media outlets. Mr. Vickrey and Mr. Overholt have been sued with others for RICO violations along with Ronald M. George and his son, Eric George, along with their banker and former State Bar President, Alan I. Rothenberg, Esq. I have also included in this 201 page lawsuit alleging 22 causes of action a claim for “embezzlement by fiduciary” asking that the California Supreme Court, Chief Justice Tani Cantil-Sakauye and others return the AOC funds converted and also file an accounting and be independentlly audited. I have asked that the monies be returned to either the Legislature, the Controller of the State of California or the Alliance judges to benefit the local courts and not the AOC. This may explain the emergency Judicial Council meeting where there has unfortunately been a cover-up of the conversion of AOC funds to the detrimenet of California taxpayers. The lawsuit has three RICO, racketeering causes of action. I thank all Judicial Council watchers who have expressed support for my litigation, including California taxpayers and court personnel who have lost benefits and their jobs because of corruption in the AOC and Crystal Palace. Dan Dydzak
JusticeCalifornia
May 7, 2012
It appears Butte has had at least TWO “temporary” judges that have served decades. McNelis and Lamb.
http://www.newsreview.com/chico/while-judge-post-goes-vacant-temp-judges-remain/content?oid=5118.
Lamb is still there (and he had been there five years as of 2001).
That article is interesting, because it shows that the AOC and cjs are VERY aware of how inappropriate it looks and is for “temporary” judges to serve for extended periods of time, but frankly my dear, they just don’t give a damn.
Thank you for sharing, courtflea.
Michael Paul
May 17, 2012
This was an artfully crafted fraud that involved many top players in the judicial council and the AOC. That our new chief justice could permit others to perpetuate that fraud under her watch calls into question her fitness for duty.
Wendy Darling
May 17, 2012
Maybe it’s just me, but I don’t think that’s the only thing that calls into question her fitness for duty.
Long live the ACJ.