SofaMan.
They. Mean. Business.
Judicial Council Watcher heartily supports the rank and file court workers of San Francisco Superior Court and Service Employees International Union Local 1021 in their fight against the death star. Unfortunately, the management of San Francisco Superior Court, like it or not is going along for the ride. Enjoy and in your mind and your heart, hope that they are victorious.
In our mind, this action is far less about the managers and judges of San Francisco Superior Court and more about the gross mismanagement and obfuscated finances of the Administrative Office of the Courts, that obscure little agency that burns a half billion dollars worth of judicial branch budget per year when you consider their actual budget and all the clawbacks. No one has been successful in exposing the waste of the AOC in all of its grandiose so we’re hopeful that in taking on the AOC, SEIU1021 is victorious. I think we all know this all about far more than a 5% pay cut. This is about what the AOC should and should not be engaged in. This is about the money they burn that never gets to the trial courts. This is about lavish benefits being bestowed on about 30 people that need to be canned. This is about 400 people across the street that are making greater than a hundred grand making work for themselves while our courts crumble. This is about $1,900.00 per square foot taj mahals to justice., $2500.00 lightbulbs, zombieware vaporware that cost you your jobs and nearly $600 million – and it didn’t make your job any easier. And much, much more.
_____________________________________________________________
It appears the State Bar’s effort is beginning to trickle in mostly from legal aid societies, paid mouthpieces that are dependent on an AOC that spreads out the cash, hitting the proper talking points like good little AOC soldiers. Access, diversity and fairness. If they only knew <i>or paid attention</i>…… Ignorance is bliss.
And now for some smokin’ comments…..
Judge Kay Tsenin perfectly describes the borglike assimilation fear that many judges share in displeasing the mighty AOC
Judge Matthew Gary who properly asks why we are letting everyone else second-guess the SEC committee with public comment
I can recall then Chief Justice George making a public off-hand comment that those of us who opposed court closure were concerned only about our own paychecks. The arrogant, insular, attitude at the top was both offensive and wrong. That attitude continued.
I would strongly urge that decision makers on the Judicial Council and at the AOC take a deep breath, step back, and then re-read the SEC report with an objective eye. No one likes to be criticized, but the content of the SEC report is a fair and accurate reflection of where things stand now. Recent attempts to cosmetically or superficially change some things within the management and/or operational structure of the AOC are not going to hit the mark and address those key philosphical points contained within the findings made by the SEC. Attempts to make these quick fixes simply reinforce the beliefs held by some of some of those critical of the AOC and its current management scheme.
Judge Julia Craig Kelety righteously compares CCMS to the hall toilet that doesn’t flush very well. LOL!!!!
Judge Sean Dowling makes a well reasoned argument well worth reading. My bet is he was a lawyer in a previous life. 😉
Judge William Ryan minces no words.
Judge Shari Silver asks some questions the we believe the chief justice should answer.
It has become apparent that the OGC has morphed from a legal office to a policy organization, and that the head of that division has carved out for herself, without Council approval, a policymaking role. The SEC report documented this fact. As legal counsel to a governmental body, the OGC should not be producing publications, or establishing policy. It is OGC’s responsibility under the Rules of Court to provide advice, NOT ORDERS.
We’re not done with comments yet so if you have not done so, please submit your comments to invitations@jud.ca.gov
Thanks!
Related articles
- San Francisco Courthouse Strike Exposes Strain In City’s Judicial System (PHOTOS) (huffingtonpost.com)
- San Francisco Court Workers Go on Strike, Shut Down Courts (blogs.sfweekly.com)
- Labor strike hits San Francisco courthouses (sacbee.com)
- San Francisco Court Workers Explain Today’s Strike (blogs.sfweekly.com)
- Surprise strike closes SF courtrooms (sfgate.com)
Judicial Council Watcher 
unionman575
July 16, 2012
MOre nice work JCW!
🙂
courtflea
July 16, 2012
Beware of the lickspittles that have already and will soon jam the public comments on the SEC report. I mean come on Rodger!! And legal aid organizations that are beneficiaries of the AOC’s largess? pleezzee. Fasten your seat belts and be prepared to worship the porcelin god, the best is yet to come. To quote Moon Unit Zappa: gag me with a spoon!!!
unionman575
July 16, 2012
Judicial Council Watcher
July 16, 2012
Does anyone know if Roger gets paid from both the AOC and NCSC? Presidents usually get paid (though ours only has a salary of $1.00 per year….so you can imagine what we get paid) 😉
unionman575
July 16, 2012
Nothing from nothing leaves nothing!
LOL
😉
unionman575
July 16, 2012
JCW you know I am a sportsman so here ya go…
NCSC has a “deal” with this business entity with ties to Roger (he is a director)…have fun.
http://www.justiceatstake.org/
😉
unionman575
July 16, 2012
Both.
unionman575
July 16, 2012
disgusted
July 17, 2012
Dirty deeds done dirt cheap
Jimmy
July 17, 2012
The legal aid societies’ letters were virtually the same! Can you say AOC template?
unionman575
July 17, 2012
“Template”
😉
Judicial Council Watcher
July 17, 2012
AOC Template. At least Marin Legal Aid Society had the vision of transparency and full disclosure by stating they were funded by the AOC.
Wendy Darling
July 16, 2012
Sending an AOC mouthpiece to lecture the San Francisco court employees about financial austerity has about as much legitimacy as Margaretha Geertruida “Margreet” Zelle (aka “Mata Hari) taking an oath of loyalty.
Long live the ACJ.
unionman575
July 16, 2012
You never know what gets hidden in the nooks and crannies of the budget…look here…but wiat there is more…soon to be shared with you all…soon…
http://www.mercurynews.com/breaking-news/ci_21088224/new-santa-clara-county-family-courthouse-project-moves
New Santa Clara County family courthouse project moves forward
By Howard Mintz
hmintz@mercurynews.com
Posted: 07/16/2012 03:59:44 PM PDT
Updated: 07/16/2012 04:35:55 PM PDT
Buried in the recently passed California state budget was a reprieve for Santa Clara County’s new family courthouse project.
State legislators included money for the next stage of the $208 million project, allowing it to proceed along with just a handful of other new courthouses planned around the state. State finance officials recommended putting dozens of similar projects on hold to help the judiciary absorb hundreds of millions of dollars in cuts and at one point included Santa Clara County’s on that list.
Given the bleak budget outlook for the next several years, local judges expressed concern that putting the project on hold could doom it forever. As a result, they vigorously sought support for restoring the project, which would house the county’s juvenile, family and dependency courts in downtown San Jose.
The lobbying paid off, and the project is expected to survive because it is now so far along. The 20-courtroom facility is expected to be completed in July 2015.
Richard Loftus, Superior Court’s presiding judge, expressed relief, saying the courthouse “might very well have been put on the shelf for a very long time” if funding had been frozen in the budget.
Lando
July 17, 2012
Another sad day in the history of the courts and the dismantling of the once proud California system. Sad for the court employees of San Francisco who have felt cutbacks much worse than many other courts so far. Sad for the taxpayers when we learn that Santa Clara is still plowing ahead with wasting 208 million dollars on yet another new courthouse while courthouses and courtrooms all over the rest of the state are being closed, hardworking employees laid off and services massively reduced to the public we work for. The Judges who work hard every day to do the best they can to deliver justice continue to be undermined by all sides including the latest CJP public admonishment punishing a Judge for telling a lawyer to do her job and asking the lawyer to have a seat after the lawyer made a rude comment. Hmm… sounds like an other anti democratic bureaucracy out of control .
The OBT
July 17, 2012
Lando is right. This CJP action shows once again how out of control this entity has become. The Judge running a high volume department expressed a reasonable concern about granting a request for a continuance. His remarks while pointed certainly were not undignified. The lawyers’s comments back to the Judge were somewhat disrespectful and so the Judge told the lawyer to take a seat. While I would have let such a comment slide , having the lawyer sit for awhile is hardly the stuff of a public admonishment. One has to ask what is the CJP doing ? Judges need to be able to control their calendars and if the Judge was wrong in denying a continuance isn’t that a legal issue subject to review by a higher court? Thanks once again to J Mc Connell and J Horn for making an already difficult job almost impossible to navigate through. This decision is Exhibit 1 in the case for reforming the CJP and imposing reasonable term limits on their membership. We need to democratize the Judicial Council the CJP and recall the Chief Justice so balance can be restored to the California judicial branch.
Curious
July 17, 2012
That CJP ding was WAY off the wall. Certainly not worth a public reprimand. Re: SEC comments, they are running roughly 10 to 1 in favor of full and speedy implementation.
Roughly 140 comments so far, and only a handful favor the Warren/AIkman/Kelso approach
(wait, wait, wait, wait). Interestingly almost NONE of those favoring awaiting the arrival of a new AOC head come from judges, but from outside interests and administrative “scholars” of one sort of another. The masks are coming off now, and those who have used the AOC as a vehicle for the unelected to get their favored policies placed into effect are coming out of hiding and fighting desperately to maintain their power. The National Center is a spawning ground for many AOC programs, so expect more to be heard from those aligned with that organization. Likewise, the bar will soon weigh in with their pre-printed template. It is imperative that judges and others who have fought so hard for change follow through, and have the courage to post public comments by emailing comments asking for complete and speedy implementation of the SEC recommendations to comments@jud.ca.gov. It is now the time for the Council to recognize it’s limited constitutional role in the operation of the state’s courts, and to hold true to the law, and to resist calls for the continued extra-legal exercise of a non-existent “policymaking” role NEVER given to the Council by Article VI, or by statute.
Wendy Darling
July 17, 2012
Published today, Tuesday, July 17, from Courthouse News Service, by Dave Tartre:
Court Workers Return to Jobs in SF Superior
By DAVE TARTRE
SAN FRANCISCO (CN) – Court workers returned to work Tuesday after staging a one-day strike that aimed to uncover budget information allegedly being shielded by Superior Court administrators.
Members of Service Employees International Union, Local 1021, walked off their jobs Monday morning, causing confusion and delays at both the civil and criminal divisions of the court.
“We showed we are serious,” union spokesman Steve Stallone said. “We showed we are united and strong.”
The walkout came after a 5 percent wage took effect on July 1. According to Court Executive Officer Michael Yuen, that mandatory concession was necessary to resolve budget cuts and “preserve access to justice to the greatest extent possible, while also saving Court employee jobs.”
Demanding access to the court’s financial data, Stallone said labor law entitles the union to see more information than the court has been willing to provide about its budget.
Without the information, the across-the-board wage cut is invalid, Stallone claimed.
A court spokeswoman was unavailable Tuesday morning, but she sent a press statement Monday afternoon in which Yuen is quoted as saying, “The court is committed to assuring that all essential functions proceed in spite of this misguided action by employees who are jeopardizing access to justice for their own unjustified reasons.”
But Stallone countered that statement today, saying prosters ‘really closed things down.”
“By lunch time, the judges had had it,” Stallone staid. “They just closed down the courtrooms.
“There was a very spirited and noisy picket line at both courts,” he added.
Asked why the strike didn’t continue, Stallone said the court’s workers are dedicated to helping the public. “We don’t want to close down the courts,” Stallone said. “But it’s not like we can’t do it again if we don’t get progress.”
Union members authorized the strike in May. Up to that point, union negotiators had met five times with court administrators, but the talks did not result in a deal to replace the labor agreement that expired in February.
Stallone said that participation by union members was high and that all but 14 of the roughly 225 members of Local 1021 walked out yesterday.
A union delegation reportedly spoke to Yuen on Monday and they agreed to a meeting on Wednesday.
Stallone said he expects members of other unions to support Local 1021 at a rally planned for Thursday.
http://www.courthousenews.com/2012/07/17/48465.htm
Long live the ACJ.
unionman575
July 17, 2012
I love the reference to power…Go Retired Judge Pounders!
“Most significant in my view is the conclusion that a Culture of Control with the AOC
has diminished its orientation to service. How much more of a failure can the AOC
be? Power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. The AOC has
grabbed that power and is now absolutely corrupt. I urge immediate
implementation of every recommendation of the SEC Report.”
Judge William Pounders, Ret.
Los Angeles Superior Court
unionman575
July 17, 2012
Hmm let’s review the general “principles” of the Judicial Council OGA…and then get me a bucket!
😉
Click to access oga_gp.pdf
GENERAL PRINCIPLES
The Judicial Council supports the integrity and independence of the judicial branch and
seeks to ensure that judicial procedures enhance efficiency and access to the courts. The
council generally takes no position on bills involving substantive law. However, it may
take a position on an apparent issue of substantive law if issues of procedure and
substance are so inextricably intertwined that they directly affect court administration or
judicial discretion or negatively affect existing judicial services by imposing unrealistic
burdens on the system.
Wendy Darling
July 17, 2012
The Judicial Council doesn’t actually have any “principles.” Arrogance, yes. Principles, no.
Long live the ACJ.
wearyant
July 17, 2012
Unionman575, yes, a bucket is a “must have” whilst reading this utterly OGA management drivel. It was no doubt thought up by someone earning in the six figures!
courtflea
July 17, 2012
Judge Phillips did a great job in discussing the pay raise issues for judges. Lots of great comments by the judges and the court employee in Amador. you go girl.