As you recall from yesterday’s message from Alliance President, Judge Steve White, Martin Hoshino has been named the new Administrative Director of the Courts. The following article by Courthouse News reporter, Maria Dinzeo, provides some additional background on the appointment and on Mr. Hoshino’s past association with Judge White. We are optimistic that Mr. Hoshino will be an agent for real change in the operations of the branch and we look forward to working with him and the Judicial Council to achieve those goals in the months to come.
Directors, Alliance of California Judges
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Courthouse News Service
New Director for Troubled Court Agency
By MARIA DINZEO
SAN FRANCISCO (CN) – A former chief assistant inspector general for California, Martin Hoshino, has been hired to lead the San Francisco-based administrative agency for California’s courts. Hoshino will lead the roughly 800-member agency as it undergoes an investigation by the Bureau of State Audits scheduled for release in January.
Hoshino, 49, was chosen by the Judicial Council through a unanimous vote Tuesday. He assumes leadership of the council’s staff, formerly known as the Administrative Office of the Courts, during a severe funding crisis that has resulted in closed courthouses and mass layoffs of court employees.
The AOC has also come under fire from state lawmakers in recent years for mismanagement and wasteful spending and is currently under investigation by the Bureau of State Audits.
The bureaucracy recently dropped the name AOC, and several days later, Director Stephen Jahr announced his retirement at the end of September. Jahr said he had been planning to retire since last year.
Hoshino brings to the job decades of experience in the state’s executive branch. Before becoming Undersecretary for Operations at the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation in 2012, Hoshino worked at the State Controller’s Office and the Office of the Inspector General, where he served directly under former Inspector General Steve White, now a judge in Sacramento Superior Court. “He was my Chief Deputy,” White said.
White is president of the reform group the Alliance of California Judges, which formed in 2009 in response to the state budget crisis, taking on issues like AOC employee pensions and pay raises while courts were cutting staff, and a $1.9 billion failed IT project pushed by the AOC.
In a statement, White praised Hoshino’s selection as a possible harbinger of change.
“Based on what we know of him from his work at CDCR, the State Controller’s Office and the Office of the Inspector General, it is likely he would not have taken this position, even on an interim basis, unless he were given full authority to hire and fire agency staffers,” White said. “We expect he will bring to the job a commitment to rein in the excessive spending and the overreach of the agency formerly known as the AOC, and that he has the background and the skills to shake up the administration of our branch. We wish him every success.”
In a statement, Governor Jerry Brown said, “He did an outstanding job of helping the state manage its prison system during a very difficult period. He’ll be a great help to the California judiciary. We’ll all miss him.”
In recent years, Hoshino sat on the Trial Court Funding Work Group, a committee of judges and state administrators appointed by Governor Brown and Chief Justice Tani Cantil-Sakauye to evaluate the balance between central state control and local control of California’s courts in the wake of landmark legislation that established a system of statewide funding for the trial courts, which had previously been run by local counties.
Hoshino referred to that experience in a statement Tuesday.
“When I served on the Trial Court Funding Work Group, I was impressed with the Chief Justice’s commitment to a strong court system that efficiently provides essential government services, as it parallels the Governor’s approach with Corrections,” he said. “My own career encompasses a broad mix of statewide policymaking, oversight of budget and operations, and collaboration with the justice system and Legislature. I’m looking forward to applying my experience and administrative skills to serve the needs of the Judicial Council and the judicial branch.”
wearyant
September 3, 2014
Everyone is holding their breath and waiting for the other shoe to drop … 😉
I appreciate Lando’s caution about hope for real reform and Wendy D’s crack about this new guy’s prison background which will give him a leg up in working with criminals! So we shall see, won’t we? Still mildly hopeful, but very cynical from the experience of watching the slow, but steady train wreck of our once colossally wonderful judicial branch.
MaxRebo5
September 3, 2014
I’m excited there is a new state court administrator and he is not one of the insider names left over from Team George. That said, I am tired of their pretend reform efforts and wonder if this is a real change this time.
Even if he is a great new person and he wants to make reforms he still works under a Chief who does not want to reform at all. She still gives out awards in the name of Vickrey who the legislature demanded be fired for CCMS. She still asks for billions more following her out of date blue print since case filings are down 25% statewide since 2009. She also has dragged her feet on the SEC Reforms, keeps 800 staff to the Judicial Council, closes meeting to the press, ignored the SEC suggestion to relocate the AOC to Sacramento, keeps Jody and the Curts in top jobs, and refuses to democratize the Judicial Council. This is on too of staff telecommuting from Switzerland, CHP drivers like crazy for justices, massive pensions at the top, the Long Beach Courthouse scandal, fees estimated the AOC dropping off and the legislature having to back fill it, local courthouses closed so new courts can be build by the AOC who has no experience doing construction projects. I am still waiting to see real reforms and not just a rebranding of the AOC or a new titular executive with no power while the Chief has Jody and the Curts running things in the background. When Justice Huffman, Hull, and Miller are asked to return to their other duties I’ll start to believe a change has happened.
Wendy Darling
September 3, 2014
“We are optimistic that Mr. Hoshino will be an agent for real change in the operations of the branch.”
I’ll believe it when I see it.
And as for Jody, the Curts, as well as others, such as Sofa Man, aka, “Little Ernie”, I expect they’re not going anywhere either.
Long live the ACJ.
Lando
September 3, 2014
You are right Wendy. Nothing will ever change at 455 GoldenGate until HRH-2, J Hull and J. Miller have all vacated the building along with the above described “AOC” executives. The real problem here is one of credibility. Our Queen and ” insiders” like Hull and Miller have a track record of public statements and claims that everyone can evaluate. Hull lost me the day he claimed J Jahr was the most qualified individual in the country to run the AOC. Now he makes the exact same claim about Mr Hoshino in a search that took less than two months. As I said in an earlier post, I’m not buying what the overlords at 455 Golden Gate are selling and I never will.
unionman575
September 4, 2014
And now a word from the Gov.
http://sfappeal.com
Brown issued a statement saying Hoshino “did an outstanding job of helping the state manage its prison system during a very difficult period.
“He’ll be a great help to the California judiciary,” the governor said.
unionman575
September 4, 2014
I’ll believe it when I see it.
😉
Lando
September 4, 2014
Hmm I don’t believe anyone in the State of California believes the Department of Corrections is well managed. In fact under Brown the whole system has been a core dump on local jails which has has led to an increase in crime. I don’t think HRH-2 and /or Hull and Miller had some magic change in their arrogant and disdainful views toward the trial courts and their dictatorship they run out of 455 Golden Gate. Mr Hoshino could have the best intentions yet nothing will change if he answers to Queen Feckless and her self appointed minions only interested in preserving their power.
wearyant
September 4, 2014
Yeah, it really does not bode well for true reform when the agency formerly known as the AOC chooses to hit the mattresses by “disappearing” under a milquetoast name instead of working towards a new and improved format. My apologies to the mafia.
unionman575
September 5, 2014
http://www.courts.ca.gov/27056.htm
unionman575
September 9, 2014
http://www.appeal-democrat.com/news/justice-s-new-home-sutter-county-courthouse-progresses/article_ec8358aa-371f-11e4-8bf8-0017a43b2370.html?mode=story