Auditable: Your revenue projections might be off when you spend the money.

Posted on March 28, 2014

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It was a struggle for the AOC to keep what they knew about the so called 70 million dollar revenue shortfall under wraps with a joint legislative audit committee breathing down their neck.

Had the information leaked out sooner, it just might have resulted in a unanimous decision to audit the judicial council and the AOC.

Oh, wait. They DID render a unanimous decision to audit the judicial council and the AOC anyways.

What is more disconcerting is that when they began to shape the message and have a trusted third party deliver that message it would be framed as a ‘revenue shortfall’ and that it was just one of those things that happens when you break out a crystal ball and try to anticipate revenue. 

They would line up the daily journal, who as a legal publication relies upon the revenue generated by the approval of the council & the AOC for printing legal notices with an exclusive story that contained a host of familiar players. Those familiar players would step forward and shape the message to one that completely and utterly absolves them of all responsibility just days after the JLAC’s unanimous audit decision.

If you caught Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher’s Chris Christie sponsored “bridgegate” absolution party the other day you get a better flavor of what is going on at the judicial council and the AOC.

As we have stated many times over the past few years, no study, audit, investigation or exclusive story sponsored by either the council or the AOC is launched without a predetermined result. 

Of course we can no longer expect the Daily Journal to do anything but parrot the position of those in power because those in power hold their purse strings in numerous ways, from the AOC’s extensive SUSTAIN case management system implementation to the legal notices that people pay good money to have the overpriced rag distribute under a questionable definition of general circulation that can count only deep pockets among its many subscribers.

What is leaking out of the AOC through various means, what is not being picked up by the overpriced rag is that the revenue shortfall isn’t a revenue shortfall at all. It was a conscious decision to permit the administrative director Jahr the flexibility to use the trial court trust funds to cover pension obligations to those courts that couldn’t afford to make them without significantly greater layoffs. “Play ball with us” he said unto the vulnerable courts “and you shall be rewarded with riches from other courts that you would not otherwise be entitled to”.

And so it came to be.

The claims of revenue shortfall should be subjected to rigorous audit to determine if it was a revenue shortfall or a conscientious decision to overspend in areas that overspending should not have occurred.

Our sources and commenters alike tell us it was not a shortfall of revenue.

It was Executive Director Jahr’s conscious decision to direct those funds to courts that played ball with the AOC. And it worked. Not a single (Non-ACJ) LA judge would be caught deriding the worlds most expensive courthouse. There would be near silence about the AOC’s lack of implementation of the most important parts of the SEC report from the 800 lb gorilla in the room that had previously made their position known in spades.

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An epidemic of paid corruption in the state senate?

I have a problem. When any employee from any company or government agency is caught with their hand in the cookie jar, they’re usually fired with cause. But if they happen to have the title of “Senator” before their names like Wright, Calderon and Yee, our senate leader believes that these fine crooks and shysters should continue to get paid! Today’s vote to ‘suspend’ the senators means THEY ARE STILL SENATORS they can keep their 8 grand per month government perk while they go out and privatize their access to government.

It should be a vote to expel the good senators without pay. If, at a later time the courts decide that there was no corruption involved and the parties are factually innocent, then I as a taxpayer have no problem giving them back pay with interest. I have a big problem as a taxpayer continuing to have to refer to them as “Senator” and paying their salaries after they have been convicted or are under indictment. The message the senate leader sends to the people is that honest services to the people do not matter.

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On Gun Control

If you have read the detailed federal indictment of Senator Yee, he who was a strong proponent of gun control legislation single-handedly sealed the argument for the NRA on gun control with his alleged statements about people being able to get what they want regardless of the laws. The NRA would be wise to jump on this and the population would do well to pay attention.

When guns are outlawed, only outlaws will have guns. 

And Senators who passed those draconian gun control laws will themselves be armed to the teeth and even profiting off of such legislation by teaming up with organized crime and street gangs running illegal weapons into the state.

Proof positive that prohibition and zero tolerance have never worked and they never will.

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Posted in: Judicial Council of California