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Good Morning California,
We’re imagining that not unlike like JCW, many other media company employees’ 3 day weekends were well underway with them on the roads or in the skies when the cowards in the ministry of truth released the SEC report in shame, to showcase their version of transparency and accountability after 7:30PM last Friday.
There was an attached note that said the Chief Justice had not read the reports recommendations.
Uh-huh.
Do JCW readers believe that the CJ did not read the very report she commissioned? Is that the reason that the report was released after 7:30 on a Friday night right before a long holiday weekend because she had not read the report? And what is the logic of bringing the two chairs on as Judicial Council members? Is that going to make them more objective with respect to holding the AOC’s feet to the fire or more complacent when change does not come around like they expected they might? Are we to hear more about that judicial virtue of patience while little is accomplished and no changes are made?
There’s an office bet going on. That bet is that come January 1,2013 there still will be AOC division directors. So far, there’s no takers.
While we would like to believe that the entire AOC management team would do their duty and fall on their swords this week and go find gainful employment elsewhere, that’s probably not going to happen. There is quite a bit of discussion of how this report will be received by existing judicial council members, AOC apologists, the insider toady community that has run this branch for the past 15 or so years and the AOC directors whose lofty titles are proposed to be eliminated. Most people here in the office believe that this community will band together for self-preservation to kill this report and its conclusions and that this task is already well underway by hiring the chairs and by releasing the report in the dead of night on a holiday weekend.
Then again, the report itself calls out many of the AOC’s problems, yet makes no recommendations on how to address many of them. Was this because a majority of the SEC committee could not agree upon a recommendation so a recommendation was omitted? Should we judicial process loyalists review the issues identified by the SEC where no recommendation was made and make them? You’re all very bright people out there. Assuming we have to live with an AOC because of statutory requirements, let’s fill in the gaps of recommendations made by the SEC in our last post or discuss them here.
As far as AB1208 goes, we think a cover letter and this SEC report sent to every state Senator and the Governor will serve to pass this bill without further delay as this report reaffirms much of what AB1208 supporters have been saying from the onset. We don’t believe that the judicial council as currently composed is capable of overseeing the AOC and this is why democratic reforms to the councils makeup are essential.
Related articles
- And this is why we call them Pravda & The Ministry of Truth (judicialcouncilwatcher.wordpress.com)
- The long-awaited SEC (Strategic Evaluation Committee) report is released (judicialcouncilwatcher.wordpress.com)
- Crucial Report blasts unwieldy California Court Bureaucracy (Courthouse News)
unionman575
May 29, 2012
I bet it wil be business as usual at the Death Star.
JCW we all must keep up the good work here and keep at it.
You are really burning the midnight oil these days. Thanks JCW for all you do.
🙂
Dan Dydzak
May 29, 2012
The SEC report should be required reading for every member of the present California Supreme Court, including recent past members of the Court, to wit, Ronald M. George and Carlos Moreno. Discovery will be conducted as to when the CJ saw and reviewed the report. Judicial Watcher really is burning the midnight oil, as unionman said. That was, by the way, one of my late father’s favorite expressions because he was a hard worker like Judicial Watcher. Thanks for the revealing analysis and expose.
JusticeCalifornia
May 29, 2012
What no one has yet mentioned since this report was issued, but what is a very ugly fact sitting out there:
Top leadership has heard the same criticisms set forth in the report for years, from those suffering from AOC bloat, tyranny and corruption.
Top leadership denied any problems at all, covered up the problems, tried to avoid investigation of the problems, and heaped praise and awards on the perpetrators of the bloat, tyranny and corruption. Both the AOC and top leadership (and their henchpersons) have belittled and brutally punished those who reported the bloat, tyranny and corruption.
This has happened at ALL levels of the branch to those who challenged the status quo– to judges, court personnel and employees, litigants, etc.
Jack Urquhart, Michael Paul and Paula Negley immediately come to mind because they filed lawsuits to bring what was happening to public attention.
SHAME ON THE AOC AND TOP LEADERSHIP FOR WHAT IT HAS DONE. SHAME, SHAME, SHAME.
WHAT ARE TANI CANTIL SAKAUYE AND TOP LEADERSHIP GOING TO DO TO MAKE UP FOR TOP LEADERSHIP’S PRACTICE OF SHOOTING THE MESSENGERS?
unionman575
May 29, 2012
I agree Justice: “SHAME ON THE AOC AND TOP LEADERSHIP FOR WHAT IT HAS DONE. SHAME, SHAME, SHAME.”
Wendy Darling
May 29, 2012
They have no shame. Or integrity. Or ethics. In fact, they couldn’t care less.
Recall the Chief Justice.
Long live the ACJ.
unionman575
May 29, 2012
https://recalltani.wordpress.com/
Wendy Darling
May 29, 2012
Published today, Tuesday, May 29, from The Sacramento Bee, by Dan Walters.
And can we please stop calling them “rebel” judges now? Telling the truth and doing one’s sworn public duty are not acts of rebellion.
Long live the ACJ.
Scathing Report On Judicial Bureaucracy Bolters Rebel Judges
Dan Walters
The years-long political war among California’s judges took another turn Friday, when a special commission appointed by Chief Justice Tani Cantil-Sakauye to investigate the Administrative Office of the Courts delivered a scathing report that, in effect, agreed with rebel judges.
The rebels, coalesced in the Alliance of California Judges, have been pushing legislation that would reduce the powers of the Judicial Council, which is headed by the chief justice, and the AOC and give local judges more authority to spend money.
The Alliance has accused the AOC of building a bloated bureaucracy (more than 1,100 employees) and wasting money on itself and on an inoperable computer case management system while starving local courts and forcing them to shut down periodically and furlough employees.
The “Strategic Evaluation Committee” bolstered the Alliance’s case in its 298-page report, concluding, “The top-level decision making process of the AOC became insular, with a top-down management style limiting input from those within the organization.”
While the AOC’s shortcomings went unnoticed when judicial money was plentiful, the report continued, cutbacks in state support made them evident – especially the rapidly escalating costs and planning shortcomings of the case management system. The commission described the AOC as a “top-heavy and unwieldy organization” with “deficient” management processes.
Cantil-Sakauye inherited the judicial war from predecessor Ron George, who presided over the consolidation of 58 local court systems into one statewide system primarily financed by the state. He also launched the case management system – which was recently abandoned – and an extensive courtroom construction program which has been partially suspended to save money.
Cantil-Sakauye and the Judicial Council have been trying to settle the war by appointing the AOC study commission and stopping work on the computer and courthouse construction programs while opposing the Alliance-backed legislation and pleading with the Legislature for more money.
The Alliance hailed the AOC report, saying, “In summary, the report validates positions taken by the Alliance of California Judges and others who for years have warned that the AOC is broken at its very core and has been allowed to run itself, without meaningful Judicial Council oversight, for well over a decade.”
The Assembly has approved the Alliance-sponsored bill, Assembly Bill 1208 by Assemblyman Charles Calderon, D-Whittier, but it’s been stalled in the Senate by President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg.
Categories: Bills (2011-2012 session)
Posted by Dan Walters
The Sacramento Bee
10:46 AM 10:47 AM
http://www.sacbee.com/capitolandcalifornia/#navlink=navbar
Delilah
May 29, 2012
Does anyone here think that any of the SEC findings will make their way into the mainstream (corporate) media in any form or manner? With articles being written about the devastating court closures, cutbacks and layoffs, and the Guv’s recent $540+ million further cut to the branch, will all major newspapers and local TV affiliates find a way to neglect to mention the thievery and mismanagement that has gone on at the top of the branch?
Thank you, Maria Dinzeo and Courthouse News. But where is Michael Finney? Matier & Ross? Vic Lee? Opinion and Editorial pages? It seems to me that this should be a major screaming headline of its own. (And I know you all will provide links if anything turns up. I surely hope so.)
The JC and AOC bigwigs truly are in a very special club. Jody Patel should be forced out also, not kept on as one of the two heads of the snake (along with the CJ). All the remaining AOC honchos/directors/managers and other PsOS who facilitated this and affirmatively allowed it to keep happening should lose their jobs as either complicit or incompetent. Clean house now! (A girl can dream.)
Michael Paul
May 29, 2012
They will make their way into the mainstream media, though the release of the report, without any pre-announcement normally associated with a press release of this magnitude will result in a delayed media response. While I have no doubt that this was what Mr. Allen was banking on, what he wasn’t banking on should come to fruition in a few days.
Delilah
May 29, 2012
I guess Wendy’s and my post (rant) crossed in cyberspace. Thanks, Wendy. I want to see this on the front page of the SF Chronicle and the LA Times.
Wendy Darling
May 29, 2012
You’re welcome, Delilah. As has been said before, one of the best ways we can help each other is to share information. 🙂
Long live the ACJ.
Dan Dydzak
May 29, 2012
Keep the information coming. I am noticing the videotaped depositions of Eric M. George and retired Associate Justice Moreon for late June and early July, 2012. Any ideas for questioning are appreciated.
Dan Dydzak
May 29, 2012
Meant to write Moreno
courtflea
May 30, 2012
Delilah, hell no! I don’t believe. I am way soo beyond Peter Pan and Grimms Fairy Tales, which is how the AOC operates Qui?.