Let’s talk delay, deny and obfuscate….

Interesting article in Courthouse news:

http://www.courthousenews.com/2014/09/24/71777.htm

I don’t understand how SF still has a $16 million dollar reserve. I thought the Governor told the trial courts to spend that money down.

In an article back in January of 2014 the Consumer Attorneys of CA said “…last year the courts spent down $250 million in reserves to maintain their operations as well as they could. This year, all the reserves are spent.”

Here is a link to their article:

http://rftmlaw.com/?development=sign-of-hope-for-courts-in-browns-proposed-budget

If the union claims are right in the CN article then clearly not all the reserves have been spent down. San Francisco alone still has over 16 million that their judges and admin are hording. I know Sacramento Superior Court had $17 million in reserves when I was laid off in 2012. Had Sacramento spent a small piece of it down I and my coworkers would never have had to be laid off. Dennis Jones had plenty money for his existing staff in Sacramento to weather the recession but chose to save it. That is a shameful policy and totally against what the Governor/Legislature was calling for in the budget.

No state agency in the executive branch is allowed to have reserves so courts in the judicial branch for the first time were being held to that very same standard. Trial courts are not supposed to each sit on their own little piggy bank of public funds to carry over from year to year and spend however they want. That money was to be spent right away to avoid layoffs and keep courthouses open. Courts should have spent that public money down 100% as called for in the budget by the legislature and governor but it appears in SF (and I bet Sacramento) they haven’t.

For the clerks in SF it must really suck because they can’t help but see the giant Judicial Council staff building right there in San Francisco costing hundreds of millions each year. No money for raises for trial court staff ,who are the ones processing cases for the public, but the Judicial Council has funding to maintain 800 admin staff where not one case is resolved. Add on the fact that local court admin in SF is hording public money for pet projects instead of paying their workers and it is quite a mess.

I also think some trial courts want to use their reserves to pay for IT projects since CCMS was such a bust. That’s not right either. The state gave the Judicial Council hundreds of millions for CCMS and all of those folks from Team George (Jody and the Curts) continue to make six figure salaries even though they failed the branch and public horribly. They should all be fired for their roles in CCMS but instead Tani gives them awards. I claim that Tani has yet to change the culture of the AOC and take responsibility for the failures of her admin related to CCMS. The proof to my claim is in the fact she gives out the Vickrey Award each year despite the legislature calling for his head over CCMS. She remains defiant and dislikes being held accountable for Judicial Council failures. Even if Mr. Hoshino proves to be a reformer his boss isn’t so good luck to him in working for her given he serves as an at will employee to the Chief.

If trial courts save their reserves to fund IT projects, instead of using that money to pay their workers, then local trial court administrators and judges are basically helping Tani to hide the full damage of the AOC’s IT mistakes related to CCMS. Those reserves provide financial cover to fund needed court IT projects which helps shield those in charge at the AOC from being held responsible for their huge role in the dismal state of technology in CA Courts today. This saving of reserves is hurting court workers who won’t get income needed to support their families. I say trial courts should spend the reserves on earned salary increases for staff and let the AOC “leaders” from Team George finally take the fall for CCMS that they too earned. Team George should have been cut several years ago when the CCMS boondoggle was first exposed but thanks to Tani they still run the show collecting six figure salaries and great pensions for life. Hopefully the Audit in January will bring this sad chapter in CA Courts history to a close but I doubt it. Great work JCW and I hope the ACJ’s keeps up the pressure for real reforms of the Judicial Council and it’s staff.

“Local empowerment: returning decision-making power and resources where appropriate from Sacramento to localities and regions where the real economy functions and government is closer to the people — and thus more responsive, flexible and accountable … ”
===================================

NOW they start to realize this! “Bingo!” Shamelessly stolen from the venerable UMan.

Bring back our trial courts to their former good health, dammit!

Long live the ACJ.

http://www.ocregister.com/articles/court-635808-overtime-reserves.html
Shame on Orange County!
1M paid out to already full-time employees – while court reporters have had their hours cut one hour per day, thereby deeming them part-time employees for purposes of benefits contributions, making healthcare unaffordable for most court reporters now, and forcing judges to stop hearing trials at 4:30 so court reporters can be excused while the rest of the court staff sits in an empty courtroom for another half hour. We have employees giddy with the overtime money they’ve been making and the newly-hired COO posting her song choice of the month for everyone’s listening pleasure on court time – while court reporters (who protect the record for THE PUBLIC) are the only class of employees who had any reduction of hours and benefits at all. Good job, Alan Carlson. Way to spend those reserves destroying exhibits.

http://www.sacbee.com/2014/09/29/6745588/california-murder-violent-crime.html#

This is a very important and great crime trend for CA!. Juvenile Crime is way down as well. Not a good trend for the workload/budgets of CA criminal or juvenile courts but they are very nice trends for the general public. On top of these crime trends is Prop 47 which is polling strongly and should reduce felony cases if it passes this November.

http://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/nevius/article/Proposition-47-eases-criminal-charges-stirs-5731930.php

Some say CA could legalize marijuana in 2016 which will decriminalize a very major workload area for the courts. Given Colorado and Washington have already done it this change is a real possibility for California in just two years.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/11/08/marijuana-legalization-california_n_2095954.html

The near future trends show CA Courts having much fewer criminal cases coming in the courthouse doors. This will mean less fine and fee revenue, less need for additional judges, and smaller court budgets since courts are funded on a workload/case based model.

At the same time, the auto & tech industries are moving fast to introduce smart cars that will talk to one another to avoid collisions. This change is expected to reduce car accidents by 80% . I can see it also cutting into civil auto injury cases and traffic cases to the courts.

http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/technology/2014/02/new-cars-to-be-required-to-talk-to-each-other/

Luckily the Chief has a committee on the future ready to go to address changes:

http://www.courts.ca.gov/26627.htm

The committee is scheduled to report back in 24 months or so. I speculate the headline spin will say, “The Judicial Council staff needs additional funding to meet the new challenges to the branch as trial courts face deep ongoing cuts.”

Doing some light reading. It looks like Mr. Hoshino already has one State Comptroller audit under his belt.

July 20, 2011 “We will continue in our efforts until we have surmounted the issues identified in this audit,” Hoshino said

http://www.sco.ca.go/eo_pressrel_10313.html
SACRAMENTO – In an audit released today, State Controller John Chiang found a lack of internal control policies and procedures at the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR), putting millions of public dollars at risk of fraud and misappropriation.

“My auditors found the CDCR has grossly inadequate procedures in place for collecting overpayment of salaries and travel advances made through the agency’s office revolving fund,” Chiang said. “This is the latest in a series of agency audits conducted by my staff that point to the waste and abuse of state funds due to the lack of attention to collecting overpayments. Gov. Brown and I are working together to identify the causes of these problems and to protect public funds.”

The CDCR review looked at records from July 1, 2009, through July 31, 2010. The audit found inadequate collection efforts resulted in delays in collecting millions of dollars in overpayments for employee salary and travel advances. Of the more than $6 million in outstanding receivables related to salary and travel advances, more than $4 million, or 65.6%, were outstanding for longer than 60 days, and $465,000, or 7.5%, had been outstanding for more than three years.

One employee who was terminated in May 2010 received a lump sum check for $14,950 from the office’s revolving fund to meet the timeline for paying employees separating from state service. But the CDCR did not take the steps necessary to offset the employee’s final check, resulting in the former employee receiving both a salary advance and a full, final check. Six months later, there still was no effort to recoup the overpayment of $14,950.

In another case, an employee received a salary advance of more than $8,000 in January 2008, plus a regular payroll check. As of November 1, 2010, almost three years later, the advance still had not been collected, even though the employee still works for CDCR.

The audit also found that serious internal control deficiencies put the agency at risk for fraud and abuse. CDCR was tardy or noncompliant in attempting to reconcile bank accounts to ensure the accuracy and completeness of recorded transactions. As of June 30, 2010, the bank reconciliation of CDCR’s major account showed $27 million in unresolved funds on their bank balance, while CDCR’s records showed unresolved funds totaling more than $31 million on their book balance. Without reconciling these funds, anyone who has access to the fund’s check stock could fraudulently issue checks with little chance of being detected.

In addition, although state accounting procedures require two authorized signatures for payments of more than $15,000, the Controller’s review found two separate checks exceeding that amount without dual signatures.

In his response, Martin Hoshino, CDCR Undersecretary for Administration and Offender Services, said the agency agrees with the findings and already has implemented 22 of the 36 recommendations made by the Controller. Hoshino said CDCR has now “prioritized the vigorous collection of outstanding debts,” succeeding in decreasing the outstanding balance by $2.2 million since November 1, 2010. “We will continue in our efforts until we have surmounted the issues identified in this audit,” Hoshino said.

The Controller’s auditors will revisit CDCR in 12 months to assess the agency’s progress in implementing corrective actions.

Since taking office in January 2007, State Controller John Chiang’s audits have identified more than $2.59 billion in waste, abuse and misspending of taxpayer dollars.

September 29, 2014

Mr. Hoshino now has four departments to manage by directive of the http://www.courts.ca.gov/documents/jc_org_chart.pdf

1. Operations and Programs Division, COO Curtis Childs

2. Leadership Services Division, Chief of Staff Jody Patel

3. Administrative Division, CAO Curt Soderlund

4. Governmental Affairs, no underlings or structure listed.

September 24, 2013

SACRAMENTO — Gov. Jerry Brown on Sept. 18 announced the appointment of Martin Hoshino, 49, of Folsom as undersecretary of operations at the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation.

He has held multiple positions at the department since 2003, including acting undersecretary of operations, undersecretary of administration and offender services, executive officer at the Board of Parole Hearings, and assistant secretary at the Office of Internal Affairs.

From 2000 to 2003, Hoshino was chief assistant inspector general at the California Office of the Inspector General, where he was assistant inspector general from 1999 to 2000. He held multiple positions at the California State Controller’s Office from 1988 to 1999, including project manager, agency telecommunications representative and staff analyst.

Hoshino earned a master’s degree in public administration and political science from UC Davis. This position requires Senate confirmation and the compensation is $174,996. Hoshino is a Democrat.”

May 2, 2013

http://www.vcstar.com/news/gov-brown-prepares-court-ordered-plan-to-reduce

“The Democratic governor intends to seek a delay of those steps while he appeals the ruling on overcrowding, which already has been upheld once by the U.S. Supreme Court.

He filed the plan after federal judges last month threatened to cite him for contempt it they find he is not following their previous order to cut the number of inmates.

As of last month, the prisons were at 150 percent of capacity, or about 9,000 more than the allowable number.

The plan to be submitted to the [federal] court had to be “self-­executing,” meaning that the administration must be prepared to begin implementing it immediately, Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation Undersecretary Martin Hoshino recently told lawmakers.”

Tani and her traveling band re-enact the stabbing of a San Francisco citizen and the killing of a senator by a CA Supreme Court Chief Justice — who marries his client in a divorce case in which there was never a marriage (played by Tani); and is then killed by the bodyguard of a Federal justice.

SEE PICTURES: http://calbarjournal.com/October2014/TopHeadlines/TH4.aspx

What’s next on the road show? The re-enactment of the $500M heist from the court construction funds?

Once again, thanks Sharon. Great comments.

One just cannot get away from the fact that the foxes are guarding the henhouse. The CJP presents a case in point. . . .

Commission on Judicial Performance members Judge Erica Yew and Justice Ignazio Ruvolo have pending before them a Marin County CCP 170 file tampering complaint involving Beverly Wood and Kim Turner, and those who have covered for them.

It has been almost 4 months now, and the CJP still remains silent regarding this complaint except to say it is “under review”. Marin court victims of Wood, Turner and those who have covered for them remain twisting in the wind.

CJP chair Yew was appointed to the Judicial Council at the same time as Turner, and was therefore necessarily involved in the approval of the “Judicial Council” decision to give the legal green light to Turner’s order resulting in the mass destruction of child custody evidence contained in Marin Family Court Services working files while the Joint Legislative Audit of the Marin Family Court was pending, as well as the blocking of the state auditor from court files and personnel for almost a year while the mass document destruction was undertaken and key employees were “retired”. As I understand it (admittedly total hearsay), Yew was involved in at least one high-profile case in her home county where file tampering and file withholding was alleged.

CJP member Ruvolo compromised himself by signing off on multiple patently intellectually dishonest appellate decisions penned by Patricia Sepulveda in one of the pivotal Marin custody cases that brought the JLAC audit to Marin. He signed off on Sepulveda decisions that purposefully mis-characterized issues involving the Marin’s characterization of minor’s counsel’s fees as child support (thereby avoiding issuing a written appellate ruling on the subject which would have affected litigants in many CA counties), purposefully mis-characterized issues involving patently illegal practices of Marin Family Court services (thereby avoiding issuing a written appellate ruling on a subject that would have affected litigants in all CA counties), and purposefully mischaracterized issues involving a CCP 170 challenge of the controversial Marin judge who made bizarre rulings involving both of the above (thereby avoiding issuing a written appellate ruling on the specifics of what this controversial judge did). He did this notwithstanding the filing of Petitions for Rehearing pointing out the patent mis-characterizations by Sepulveda. And he did it while the possibility/reality of a JLAC audit of the Marin family court about these issues was pending. One more thing. The mass destruction of Marin County child custody evidence, in this above-mentioned case and others, was approved by the Judicial Council and undertaken by Judicial Council Member Kim Turner while a Petition for Review in this particular case was pending before the CA Supreme Court. I have gently alluded to Sepulveda’s intellectual dishonesty before, without specifics, but now that Ruvolo (who has an impressive CV) is in a judicial oversight position he deserves even more scrutiny than Sepulveda.

This comment is not about the above case (which is water under the bridge), but rather about how the past actions of Yew, Ruvolo, George and Sakauye– in promoting and/or protecting compromised judges and court officials in Marin– have contributed to the culture of unchecked corruption that has now led the Marin Superior Court to take the bizarre official position that it is perfectly OK to backdate orders and the register of actions such that no one (including the court of appeal) could possibly discern from the “official court record” the correct date an order was entered.

Let’s see what Yew and Ruvolo do about this interesting state of affairs, as CJP members. Let’s see what Judicial Council Chair Sakauye and the Judicial Council do, having had the issue referred to them by the Governor and AG, and having had it sit on their plate since delivery on June 12, 2014.

I know this is “noise” to some of you, really hard to read, and something some would dearly love to dismiss. Slap me upside the head with thumbs down, whatever.

But to those of us who have been living and working in this mess for decades, it is Exhibit “A” to the concern that the judicial branch operates without any effective checks and balances.

Thanks Lando for speaking the truth.

Your anger and extreme claims aren’t helpful here or anywhere Sharon. We are seeking reform of the Judicial Council so that they stop wasting valuable taxpayer dollars. We are seeking a new and fair Judicial Council staff administration that is honest and ethical so that the many outstanding employees of 455 Golden Gate are treated fairly and with respect. We are seeking an end to the arrogant leadership of the small group of ” insiders” on the Judicial Council so that democracy is restored to the branch . We are seeking fairness to all and respect to all that work everyday in the trial courts trying to help serve the public we represent. Personal issues with any one Judge or Justice have no place here on a blog that has significant credibility with the legislature and public as a whole.