2014: The year in review . . .
The Twelve Days Of A California Judicial Branch Christmas
On the first day of Christmas
455 Golden Gate Avenue gave to me
A Chief Justice endlessly deluded by power and vanity.
On the second day of Christmas
455 Golden Gate Avenue gave to me
A judicial branch funding blueprint that was dead on delivery.
And a Chief Justice endlessly deluded by power and vanity.
On the third day of Christmas
455 Golden Gate Avenue gave to me
A false proclamation of open meetings
While remaining firmly entrenched in non-transparency.
A judicial branch funding blueprint that was dead on delivery.
And a Chief Justice endlessly deluded by power and vanity.
On the fourth day of Christmas
455 Golden Gate Avenue gave to me
Judicial branch administrators
Committing perjury with impunity.
A false proclamation of open meetings
While remaining firmly entrenched in non-transparency.
A judicial branch funding blueprint that was dead on delivery.
And a Chief Justice endlessly deluded by power and vanity.
On the fifth day of Christmas
455 Golden Gate Avenue gave to me
A childish game of Go Fish when responding
To simple requests of information from a public entity.
Judicial branch administrators committing perjury with impunity.
A false proclamation of open meetings
While remaining firmly entrenched in non-transparency.
A judicial branch funding blueprint that was dead on delivery.
And a Chief Justice endlessly deluded by power and vanity.
On the sixth day of Christmas
455 Golden Gate Avenue gave to me
Another meaningless, geographically lopsided, and insular
Future of California Courts committee.
A childish game of Go Fish when responding
To simple requests of information from a public entity.
Judicial branch administrators committing perjury with impunity.
A false proclamation of open meetings
While remaining firmly entrenched in non-transparency.
A judicial branch funding blueprint that was dead on delivery.
And a Chief Justice endlessly deluded by power and vanity.
On the seventh day of Christmas
455 Golden Gate Avenue gave to me
A self-fabricated $70 million revenue shortfall as yet another excuse
To demand the Legislature hand over more public money.
Another meaningless, geographically lopsided, and insular
Future of California Courts committee.
A childish game of Go Fish when responding
To simple requests of information from a public entity.
Judicial branch administrators committing perjury with impunity.
A false proclamation of open meetings
While remaining firmly entrenched in non-transparency.
A judicial branch funding blueprint that was dead on delivery.
And a Chief Justice endlessly deluded by power and vanity.
On the eighth day of Christmas
455 Golden Gate Avenue gave to me
A retinue of hypocritical judicial branch leadership
Void of any credibility.
A self-fabricated $70 million revenue shortfall as yet another excuse
To demand the Legislature hand over more public money.
Another meaningless, geographically lopsided, and insular
Future of California Courts committee.
A childish game of Go Fish when responding
To simple requests of information from a public entity.
Judicial branch administrators committing perjury with impunity.
A false proclamation of open meetings
While remaining firmly entrenched in non-transparency.
A judicial branch funding blueprint that was dead on delivery.
And a Chief Justice endlessly deluded by power and vanity.
On the ninth day of Christmas
455 Golden Gate Avenue gave to me
More closed courthouses and reduced public hours
While engaging in a pick-axe logo spending spree.
A retinue of hypocritical judicial branch leadership void of any credibility.
A self-fabricated $70 million revenue shortfall as yet another excuse
To demand the Legislature hand over more public money.
Another meaningless, geographically lopsided, and insular
Future of California Courts committee.
A childish game of Go Fish when responding
To simple requests of information from a public entity.
Judicial branch administrators committing perjury with impunity.
A false proclamation of open meetings
While remaining firmly entrenched in non-transparency.
A judicial branch funding blueprint that was dead on delivery.
And a Chief Justice endlessly deluded by power and vanity.
On the tenth day of Christmas
455 Golden Gate Avenue gave to me
A ten second warning to speak
On important matters of public policy.
More closed courthouses and reduced public hours
While engaging in a pick-axe logo spending spree.
A retinue of hypocritical judicial branch leadership void of any credibility.
A self-fabricated $70 million revenue shortfall as yet another excuse
To demand the Legislature hand over more public money.
Another meaningless, geographically lopsided, and insular
Future of California Courts committee.
A childish game of Go Fish when responding
To simple requests of information from a public entity.
Judicial branch administrators committing perjury with impunity.
A false proclamation of open meetings
While remaining firmly entrenched in non-transparency.
A judicial branch funding blueprint that was dead on delivery.
And a Chief Justice endlessly deluded by power and vanity.
On the eleventh day of Christmas
455 Golden Gate Avenue gave to me
Another eleven months of branch administration
Engaging in deceitful revisionist history.
A ten second warning to speak
On important matters of public policy.
More closed courthouses and reduced public hours
While engaging in a pick-axe logo spending spree.
A retinue of hypocritical judicial branch leadership void of any credibility.
A self-fabricated $70 million revenue shortfall as yet another excuse
To demand the Legislature hand over more public money.
Another meaningless, geographically lopsided, and insular
Future of California Courts committee.
A childish game of Go Fish when responding
To simple requests of information from a public entity.
Judicial branch administrators committing perjury with impunity.
A false proclamation of open meetings
While remaining firmly entrenched in non-transparency.
A judicial branch funding blueprint that was dead on delivery.
And a Chief Justice endlessly deluded by power and vanity.
On the twelfth day of Christmas
455 Golden Gate Avenue gave to me
The most corrupt and unethical State institution
That will always be the AOC to me.
Another eleven months of branch administration
Engaging in deceitful revisionist history.
A ten second warning to speak
On important matters of public policy.
More closed courthouses and reduced public hours
While engaging in a pick-axe logo spending spree.
A retinue of hypocritical judicial branch leadership void of any credibility.
A self-fabricated $70 million revenue shortfall as yet another excuse
To demand the Legislature hand over more public money.
Another meaningless, geographically lopsided, and insular
Future of California Courts committee.
A childish game of Go Fish when responding
To simple requests of information from a public entity.
Judicial branch administrators committing perjury with impunity.
A false proclamation of open meetings while remaining firmly entrenched in non-transparency.
A judicial branch funding blueprint that was dead on delivery.
And a Chief Justice endlessly deluded by power and vanity.
unionman575
December 14, 2014
Season’s Greetings!
😉
JusticeCalifornia
December 14, 2014
F-A-B-U-L-O-U-S summation, S-A-D state of affairs for the biggest judiciary in the world.
California “top leadership” of the judicial branch has long promoted itself as an example for the world. LOL. That it is doing. It is fast becoming Exhibit A for the world of a judicial branch gone very, very wrong.
Lando
December 14, 2014
Brilliant JCW. And the best line a “Chief Justice endlessly deluded by power and vanity “. That says it all.
courtflea
December 15, 2014
On the actual day of Christmas 455 Golden Gate Avenue gave to me the same bullshit under the Christmas tree. Bah humbug.
Wendy Darling
December 15, 2014
And the delusion continues . . . today’s installment of Tani’s Follies. Published today, Monday, December 15, from Courthouse News Service, by Maria Dinzeo:
Judicial Council Makes Push for More Judges, Higher Filing Fees
By MARIA DINZEO
SAN FRANCISCO (CN) – At its meeting Friday, California’s Judicial Council voted to seek 50 new judgeships as part of a package of legislative priorities for the coming year.
But the council’s demands would fall on deaf ears, according to the Alliance of California Judges, a 500-member reform group.
“Any discussion of legislative priorities, however, is pointless if the members of the Legislature aren’t listening to us. And they’re not,” the group said in a statement after the council meeting.
Chief Justice Tani Cantil-Sakauye recently told reporters that her budget blueprint asking for $1.2 billion for the courts over three years, which she unveiled to much fanfare in January, would not be used as a basis for lobbying the legislature this budget season. Cantil-Sakauye told reporters that the council “won’t be working from that document as the ultimate demand,” and suggested the blueprint be renamed.
“We have another name for it: It’s a dead letter,” the Alliance shot back.
The council’s Friday vote on legislative priorities also included support for legislation that would expand access to interpreters in civil cases, as well as a request that the legislature extend civil case filing fee increases.
Temporary fee increases were enacted by the legislature in fiscal year 2012-13 and are scheduled to end on July 1, 2015. But the council’s lobbyists will be asking the legislature for an extension.
Judge Martin Tangeman of San Luis Obispo did not vote for the proposed fee extension, saying the idea did not make sense because people who cannot afford the fees are less inclined to file cases.
“Shifting costs to users will have an inevitable effect of inhibiting public access and use of the courts by the public,” Tangeman said. “That’s been borne out by statistics we’ve seen with lower civil case filings, certainly borne out by common sense. I don’t know how far we can carry this on or how far we should carry this on. But I think that we are dangerously close to moving into a mode of institutionalizing permanent increased fees in order to perform justice for most.”
The other dissenting vote came from Mark Bonino, a partner with Hayes Scott Bonino Ellingson & McLay in Redwood City, Calif. The Alliance also blasted the increases.
“As much as our branch needs the money, we should think hard about extending the increases in filing fees,” the group said. “If we’re really concerned about access to the justice system, we cannot keep the price of admission high.”
If approved by the Legislature, the fee increases will raise the filing cost by $40 for civil cases where the dispute is more than $25,000. It also raises the filing fee for probate and family law cases by $40, and complex case fees by $450.
“I think it’s sad that we have to as a body, vote on this type of issue, increasing fees,” said Judge Brian Back of Ventura. “There are a lot of people out there that cannot afford these fees. I would be voting for it because I think we are compelled by forces which we’ve been working against and with. I certainly look forward to when we can vote on a reduction of fees.”
The council also approved a new formula for allocating judgeships – if they are ever funded – giving smaller courts a better shot at getting an additional judge. It multiplies a judge’s workload by a three-year average of filings, then divides that number by the time it takes a judge to hear a case.
The result is called a full-time equivalent, representing a court’s judicial need. Currently, a court must have the need for one full-time equivalent to be eligible of a judgeship, but the council voted to lower the threshold to .08 to give smaller courts like those in Del Norte, Lassen, and El Dorado counties the chance to get on the waiting list.
“At the bottom, this affects really small courts,” said Judge David Rosenberg of Yolo County, who voted for the proposal. “And if you have a court of two judges, for example, losing the possibility of an additional judge has huge impacts. On a 100-judge court, deferring that additional judge has less impact. You can deal with it.”
Judge Brian McCabe of Merced County was the lone dissenter. “I think there are pragmatic and political problems with that issue,” he said.
McCabe admitted that his court is unaffected by the change, but said he thought the policy unwise given that it costs roughly $1 million to fund a judge and support staff.
“One, I think the legislature and the governor might have a problem with expending monies for a full-time position and staff for a position that is not full time,” McCabe said. “Number two, we’ve in essence had a line. People have been standing in line since 2007 because they have demonstrated full-time needs for judges. The formula’s now changed to allow somebody that doesn’t have a full-time need to get in line.”
The Alliance seemed to agree with McCabe on the numbers. “As much as we need more judges, we can’t justify more judicial appointments when we don’t have the money to meet our current staffing needs,” the group said.
In its statement following the council meeting, the Alliance urged the council to reform itself before demanding more money from the Legislature. The judicial branch, it said, has to restore its reputation with the other branches of government.
“We need to commit ourselves to reforming our bureaucracy, not just relabeling it,” the judges’ group said. “We need to remake the Judicial Council, with its cumbersome apparatus of standing committees, advisory committees, subcommittees and task forces, into a representative body that takes its oversight role seriously and that truly speaks for the judges it purports to lead. Our pleas for more money will never gain traction until our branch leaders demonstrate a commitment to real reform, and back that commitment with meaningful action.”
The Alliance has a history of pushing for reform of the Judicial Council and its bureaucracy, and has long-advocated democratizing membership of the council by allowing trial judges to vote for the judges that represent them. Council members are currently chosen by the chief justice from a pool of nominees.
http://www.courthousenews.com/2014/12/15/judicial-council-makes-push-for-more-judges-higher-filing-fees.htm
Long live the ACJ.
JusticeCalifornia
December 16, 2014
Remember when Mike Roddy and Kim Turner essentially told the Judicial Council to play chicken with the Governor and Legislature, by continuing on to build palatial overpriced courthouses and funding the black hole called CCMS? The Judicial Council went for it, and thumbed their noses at the legislature. It did not turn out well for the branch as a whole, but Sakauye and her staff have never really suffered. Sakauye is still allowed to behave like the Marie Antoinette of the branch, and handpick those that serve HER whims and desires rather than the public interest.
The branch has zero credibility as a result of Sakauye’s skewed priorities, and the irresponsible fiscal and policy choices Sakauye has made since she first assumed her position.
Unfortunately, notwithstanding the fact that the branch is at an all-time low and respected by almost none under Sakauye “rule”, she continues to receive a substantial measure of deference from the other two branches as a result of her status as Chair of her handpicked Judicial Council. And unfortunately, it is the trial courts, the court employees, and most especially the public that are suffering.
The Governor and Legislature are paid by the public to provide checks and balances functions to protect the public. They need to forcefully do it with respect to Marie Antoinette Sakauye. To the maximum extent possible the Governor and the Legislature need to stop deferring to Sakauye’s skewed priorities which focus on further taxing the public to fulfill her desires rather than maximizing available resources to serve the public’s needs. They can do this by just saying “NO” to her proposals, passing a budget that benefits the trial courts and public rather than Marie Antoinette Sakauye and her staff, and sponsoring and/or passing corrective legislation that does what Sakauye will not– make access and fairness a true branch priority.
Wendy Darling
December 16, 2014
The Governor and the State Legislature should do a number of things when it comes to the very real problems in the California Judicial Branch. Unfortunately, it is abundantly clear that neither will do any of them.
It has now been four, going on five, years since Queen Feckless assumed her throne. As has been asked before, can anyone name just one act of leadership by Tani Cantil Sakauye in all of that time that is worthy of following? Just one? Anyone?
[crickets chirping]
Yeah, that’s what I thought. And it is reasonably certain that the next year will just bring more of the same. Or worse.
Still serving themselves to the detriment of all Californians.
Long live the ACJ.
sharonkramer
December 18, 2014
“As has been asked before, can anyone name just one act of leadership by Tani Cantil Sakauye in all of that time that is worthy of following? Just one? Anyone?”
She’s proven that anyone can rise to a position of power if that’s their primary goal — and a lot of people have found it worthy to follow exactly how she does it. (Trying to be kind this holiday season)
unionman575
December 17, 2014
Who will staff this new Taj Majal?
😉
http://www.appeal-democrat.com/corning_observer/groundbreaking-on-new-courthouse-set/article_6efaa6f0-8598-11e4-9458-a736a5a974df.html
Groundbreaking on new courthouse set
Posted: Tuesday, December 16, 2014 6:57 pm | Updated: 6:58 pm, Tue Dec 16, 2014.
Groundbreaking on new courthouse set Julie R. Johnson/Corning Observer
A groundbreaking ceremony will celebrate the start of construction on the new Tehama County Courthouse at 2:30 p.m. today at 1760 Walnut St. in Red Bluff.
The ceremony will include remarks by Tehama County Superior Court Presiding Judge John J. Garaventa and Assistant Presiding Judge C. Todd Bottke, as well as Doug LaMalfa, U.S. Congressman, First District; Administrative Presiding Justice Vance W. Raye of the California Court of Appeal, Third Appellate District; David E. Gunn, Butte County commissioner and member of the Judicial Council of California; and Martin Hoshino, Judicial Council administrative director.
The new courthouse will house the Tehama County Superior Court and will consolidate court services in a single location, replacing the historic county courthouse built in 1920, the Tehama County Courts Building, and other facilities that have since been closed due to budget cuts.
The current facilities have been deemed overcrowded, in poor physical condition, with poor security and safety, and having accessibility issues.
The new, two-story, 62,033-square-foot courthouse will be on 4.4 acres on Walnut Street near several other county facilities. The acreage was acquired by the state from Tehama County for $1.2 million plus relocation costs for the county departments which were on the site.
The new courthouse will include five courtrooms, a jury assembly room, and separate corridors away from the public for the transportation of in-custody detainees.
The project was designated a cost-reduction demonstration project by the Judicial Council, and hence will utilize construction methods that reduce costs. The new courthouse has been designed to use 17 percent less energy than required by code, and its sustainability features include drought-tolerant landscaping, LED lighting for energy savings, and extensive use of recycled materials.
The project’s budget of $56 million is funded by trial court user fees rather than taxpayer revenues. The new building is designed by LPAS Architects and will be built by Rudolph and Sletten, Inc.
Completion is scheduled for fall 2016.
courtflea
December 19, 2014
A couple of real asshole.judges that is for sure.
wearyant
December 18, 2014
http://www.shorpy.com/node/18916?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+shorpy+%28Shorpy+-+The+100-Year-Old+Photo+Blog%29
Thinking of you this holiday season, JusticeCalifornia!
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year, All, baddies and goodies alike! [smooches!]
JusticeCalifornia
December 19, 2014
Back at you wearyant!!!
unionman575
December 19, 2014
http://www.courthousenews.com/2014/12/18/new-boss-of-court-bureaucracy-carries-burden-of-hope.htm
Wendy Darling
December 19, 2014
Today’s installment of Tani’s Follies. Published today, Friday, December 19, from Courthouse News Service, by Maria Dinzeo.
Quote of the day: “ “If they assumed that based upon that respect he could just re-brand what they’re already doing, and the Legislature and the governor would increase the judiciary’s budget — they’re sorely mistaken,” said White. ”
As Lando has asked: Is anyone at 455 Golden Gate Avenue listening?
New Boss of Court Bureaucracy Carries Burden of Hope
By MARIA DINZEO
(CN) – Before Martin Hoshino became the new staff boss for California’s Judicial Council, he was running the state’s enormous prison system under court orders for reform. The governor then called a press conference to unilaterally proclaim the reforms “now complete,” and state lawyers went on the attack against their opponents. One official stayed out of the fray.
“It wasn’t done with any notice to the plaintiffs’ counsel,” said reform lawyer Michael Bien.” The governor’s surprise announcement was accompanied by a legal blitz from the state that included personal attacks on the reform lawyers, Bien added. “They said we were in it for the money.”
“There were a lot of declarations filed in support of those motions by Secretary Jeffrey Beard and other high officials,” he continued. “One was noticeably absent. Martin Hoshino. He somehow kept himself out of that and we’ve always had open communication. He’d given me his cell number and I’d given him mine. He called me during that period and said, ‘I can’t explain why this happened but I just want to talk.’ He was the one person who reached out.”
Now, the 50 year-old Hoshino will be leading the 800 employees of the central bureaucracy for California’s vast court system, after a long and intense period of budget cuts from the governor and criticism from trial judges and legislators. He is the front man dealing with the judicial committees, the council and the powerful judge at the very top of the heap, Supreme Court Chief Justice Tani Cantil-Sakauye.
“I am digging in,” Hoshino said at his first council meeting. “And trying to get a good understanding of the challenges the branch faces. I’ve been able to introduce myself to virtually every member of the staff. I hope they feel as good about me as I feel about them a year from now, after I’ve had the luxury of making some zero-sum decisions that affect their workplace and their lives.”
Those who have worked with Hoshino over the years said he fixes things in a quiet way. “He’s not the kind of person who comes in and lops heads,” said Sacramento Judge Steve White. “He sees what needs it and does it in as painless a way as possible. But he will make it happen nonetheless.”
White leads the Alliance of California Judges, a group of roughly 500 judges in California that has hammered the central bureaucracy of the courts over spending habits, size and perceived arrogance. White is also Hoshino’s former boss. He worked as inspector general for California’s prisons and recruited Hoshino to his staff.
Governor Jerry Brown who has cut nearly $1 billion from the court budget in recent years also gave Hoshino high marks. He took the unusual step of commenting on the judiciary’s new hire. “Martin did an outstanding job of helping the state manage its prison system during a very difficult period,” Brown said. “We’ll all miss him.”
The council has been looking for a permanent director since the departure of embattled director Bill Vickrey, whose hasty exit in 2011 kicked off a slew of retirement announcements from the AOC’s top brass. Retired judge Stephen Jahr took the job after the last-minute withdrawal of several candidates who apparently thought twice about taking a position with so many pitfalls.
All the while, the AOC continued to take enormous hits to its budget and slams from the Legislature over its technology initiatives, top-heavy perks and repeated pay raises for the staff while trial courts throughout California were laying off hundreds of workers. With the agency mired in criticism, the council decided this summer to rebrand the Administrative Office of the Courts as simply “the staff.” About the same time, director Jahr announced his retirement and a search began for his replacement began, resulting in Hoshino’s selection this fall.
“The Governor and the Department of Finance gets that there has been very poor management of the Judicial Council and that resources have not been marshaled smartly and courts have been short changed in favor of Judicial Council programs,” said Judge White “The fact that Martin Hoshino has been installed as administrative director will not change that. The governor gets that. Martin understands it too. It will have to be by Martin making changes long overdue, restructuring and re-purposing the Judicial Council staff so they are consistent with the mission of the courts. If he does that the Judicial Council will have credibility again.”
“I assume the Judicial Council in hiring him knew they were getting someone who is respected by Department of Finance, the governor and the Legislature,” the judge warned. “If they assumed that based upon that respect he could just re-brand what they’re already doing, and that the Legislature and the governor would increase the judiciary’s budget, they’re sorely mistaken.”
Folsom Born
Born in 1964, Martin Nolan Hoshino spent the first part of his life in Folsom, the city that holds California’s second oldest prison, the subject of legend and song. “Inmates spent most of their time in the dark behind solid boiler plate doors in stone cells measuring 4 feet by 8 feet with 6 inch eye slots. Air holes were drilled into the cell doors in the 1940s, and the cell doors are still in use today,” said a history from the California’s Department of Corrections.
Hoshino graduated in 1986 from Lewis & Clark in Portland, Oregon with a degree in political science and received his masters degree in public administration and political science from UC Davis. But hours of research revealed no further biographical information about Hoshino, not even a resume. His early life remains a cipher.
His career in state government started with the Office of the State Controller, where he worked as an analyst and project manager in the late 1980s. Recruited by White, he moved over to the Office of the Inspector General, an independent office established by the Legislature to address complaints of widespread abuse in California’s prison system.
He became chief assistant inspector general in 2000 but left in 2003, the same year that White left. Hoshino took a job within the bureaucracy of the prisons and moved up until he was in charge of operations for that nation’s biggest incarceration system with 34 prisons, a staff of 60,000 and a budget of $10 billion.
The product of anti-crime campaigns from decades past in California, state institutions were stuffed with prisoners serving long, legislatively-set prison terms, often for drug offenses and other non-violent crimes. The crowding and lack of medical care brought a series of civil rights actions beginning the late 1990s that resulted in reform orders from federal judges. Over the decades, the enormous expense of the prisons contributed to a change in public opinion that resulted in last month’s passage of Proposition 47 reducing sentences in California for the first time in a quarter-century. The measure reduces nonviolent crimes like shop lifting, forgery, and grand theft from felonies to misdemeanors. The result is that roughly 10,000 inmates are eligible for sentence reductions and early or immediate release.
The reform litigation was handled by a number of lawyers, including Donald Specter with the Prison Law Office in Berkeley. He said Hoshino first came onto his grid when he instituted reforms brought about by the prisoner abuse case Madrid v. Gomez, a 1995 class action. Finding a pattern of excessive force and violence used to control prisoner behavior, U.S. District Judge Thelton Henderson ordered the end of harsh disciplinary practices, as well as the removal of mentally ill inmates from the security housing unit. The task of putting the judge’s order into effect fell to Hoshino.
“The state had to come up with a plan to reform their policies, their investigations, reform their discipline process and he was pretty much the point person in charge of doing that,” Specter said. “He did it really well, he organized it really well, had a timeline for everything. It was slow, as most things are with the CDCR, but it was effective and it was productive too.”
Specter added, “In our business, we value honesty and transparency and Martin has both of those qualities and he gets along pretty well with everybody. There’s no personal animosity even when there is disagreement. He’s taken positions on behalf of the state that we’ve disagreed with, but the discussions have always been very professional.”
Upcoming Audit
While it is too early to tell what kind of changes Hoshino will set in motion in California’s judicial administration, many expect him to trim the staff that has ballooned over the last two decades, partly the result of legislation that centralized local court rules and budget allocations in the Judicial Council. “If he does not trim the staff and refocus it so that it is consistent with the role of the judiciary and primacy of the courts, than the only explanation of that is he’s not being allowed to do his job,” said White.
The head of California’s judicial branch is the chief justice who chairs the Judicial Council and appoints a large majority of its members. She sets overall policy of the council and staff and lobbies the governor and Legislature for the court budget.
Hoshino declined repeated requests from Courthouse News for an interview for this profile. He did speak with reporters at a year-end press briefing held by the chief justice earlier this month. While Courthouse News has been invited to that briefing in the last two years, it was left off the list this year.
“He likes challenges and he gets this is a huge challenge,” said White. The most imminent challenge is a forthcoming audit of the council staff. Assembly member Reginald Jones Sawyer (D-Los Angeles) pushed for and earlier this year obtained a committee vote authorizing an audit of the council staff by California’s Office of the State Auditor. In his February 2014 letter to the Joint Legislative Audit Committee, the Jones-Sawyer wrote, “Despite several budget cuts, the Judicial Council’s budget grew while funding for trial court operations declined. For example, the Judicial Council’s budget for 2013-2014 is stated at $141.5 million. This is $20.9 million more than was spent in 2011-2012.”
Among the controversial financial policies that brought criticism from the Legislature were a pension system that rewarded the top 30 employees with another 22% in pension contributions from public funds on top of their salaries, and a pay raise for most of the staff of 3.5 percent in 2010 and another 3.5 percent in 2013, in the heart of California’s financial crisis.
The Alliance of California Judges threw its support behind the audit, and its members testified forcefully at a Joint Legislative Audit Committee hearing in March 2014. State Auditor Elaine Howle also testified. “There have been reductions in trial court funding over the last three years. Has the AOC’s functions been modified as a result of that? Are there AOC functions that are no longer necessary or overstaffed?” asked Howle. The legislative committee voted unanimously in favor of the audit.
Hoshino’s number one task is generally described as repairing those frayed relations with the state Legislature. “He is somebody who knows how communicate even in a charged atmosphere,” said reform lawyer Bien, a partner in the San Francisco firm of Rosen, Bien, Galvan & Grunfeld. “He knows how to gain your confidence, which is done by being transparent and honest.”
“I’ve been dealing with this case for 30 years now,” Bien added. “I know one person doesn’t make decisions and there are many things that can stand in the way of a public policy change, but Martin was the type of person who would call me with a heads up and say, ‘I want to tell you about what’s going on and why we may have some challenges.’ I might get angry or upset but the difference was he was straightforward, he was not hiding information.”
Referring to the Judicial Council, Bien added, “I think that that one of the challenges that agency has and they lost a lot of political capital in this. I think he can great them going on the right track again.”
Hope’s Burden
That hope is shared by many but it is laced with caution.
The council staff changed its name but the staff stayed the same. The controversial technology committee responsible for a half-billion-dollar software fiasco changed its name but its leadership stayed the same. In recent years, the bureaucratic edifice of the council has withstood fierce gusts of criticism from the legislative and executive branches of California government, voluminous internal recommendations for reform and waves of scorching surveys from the trial court officials, along with the extraordinary rise of a 500-judge organization primarily dedicated to taming the bureaucracy, cutting it down to size and bringing democracy to the process of selecting council members. Through it all, the bureaucracy has changed little.
“If they assumed that based upon that respect he could just re-brand what they’re already doing, and the Legislature and the governor would increase the judiciary’s budget — they’re sorely mistaken,” said White. “In my experience with him, he gets what the organization is supposed to do. He gets what the Constitution and statutes contemplate and intend, and then he looks to achieve that in an economical and efficient and credible way. And he has no personal agenda, he is not into self aggrandizement, he is not a power seeker. He is a person who gets the ball over the goal line. In short order, he gained credibility with the department of corrections, with the Legislature and with the governor’s office, and he continues to have that kind of respect, which makes him a very valuable asset for the Judicial Council. If they do not let him do his job, they’re squandering that asset and I’m confident he’ll leave. He does not need a job.”
http://www.courthousenews.com/2014/12/18/new-boss-of-court-bureaucracy-carries-burden-of-hope.htm
Long live the ACJ.
JusticeCalifornia
December 19, 2014
Marie Antoinette Sakauye will not willingly change. The following excerpts from the above courthouse news article summarize almost EVERYTHING there is to be said regarding arrogant, self-absorbed, not-too-bright “me, me, me” Sakauye:
“Despite several budget cuts, the Judicial Council’s budget grew while funding for trial court operations declined. For example, the Judicial Council’s budget for 2013-2014 is stated at $141.5 million. This is $20.9 million more than was spent in 2011-2012.”
“Among the controversial financial policies that brought criticism from the Legislature were a pension system that rewarded the top 30 employees with another 22% in pension contributions from public funds on top of their salaries, and a pay raise for most of the staff of 3.5 percent in 2010 and another 3.5 percent in 2013, in the heart of California’s financial crisis.”
“The council staff changed its name but the staff stayed the same. The controversial technology committee responsible for a half-billion-dollar software fiasco changed its name but its leadership stayed the same. In recent years, the bureaucratic edifice of the council has withstood fierce gusts of criticism from the legislative and executive branches of California government, voluminous internal recommendations for reform and waves of scorching surveys from the trial court officials, along with the extraordinary rise of a 500-judge organization primarily dedicated to taming the bureaucracy, cutting it down to size and bringing democracy to the process of selecting council members. Through it all, the bureaucracy has changed little.”
“Hoshino declined repeated requests from Courthouse News for an interview for this profile. He did speak with reporters at a year-end press briefing held by the chief justice earlier this month. While Courthouse News has been invited to that briefing in the last two years, it was left off the list this year.”
Political force will be necessary to school Sakauye regarding her obligation to serve the public rather than herself and her buddies, and if she doesn’t learn, to oust her. While the branch as a whole is going down in flames, she is feathering her nest, giggling about her parties and State Bar acting gigs, laughing and whispering to Hoshino while speakers during public comment talk about domestic violence and murdered children (she did that at the last JC meeting), trying to tax the public (via ongoing backbreaking fees) to support her bizarre priorities, and repeatedly and suddenly violating/changing published judicial council rules and procedures to further her personal agenda.
With respect to her retaliatory exclusion of Courthouse News from her “briefing”, isn’t she just a little old to be throwing temper tantrums?
unionman575
December 20, 2014
https://recalltani.wordpress.com/
Recall Tani Organizing Committee (RTOC)
A Judicial Council Watcher public accountability project
unionman575
December 20, 2014
http://www.courts.ca.gov/trafficac.htm
January 8, 2015 Meeting (Closed)
2:00 p.m.
January 27, 2015 Meeting (Closed)
12:00 p.m.
unionman575
December 20, 2014
http://www.bizjournals.com/sacramento/news/2014/12/16/chief-justice-how-courts-are-dealing-with-lower.html
Chief justice: How courts are dealing with lower funding
The California judicial branch has wrestled with a $1.5 billion budget whack since 2011, but is forming ways to cope with lower funding, Chief Justice Tani Cantil-Sakauye told members of the Sacramento County Bar Association at their annual meeting Monday….
unionman575
December 20, 2014
http://www.fresnobee.com/2014/12/19/4294381/many-fresno-courtrooms-will-be.html
Many Fresno courtrooms will be closed extra days during holidays
By Pablo Lopez
The Fresno Bee December 19, 2014
Because of budget cuts, Fresno County Superior Court will close the main criminal courthouse and B.F. Sisk civil courthouse, as well as the Self-Help Center and Archives Department, for days before and after the holidays the next two weeks.
Most of the county’s courts will be closed Dec. 24, 26 and 31 and Jan. 2…
😉
unionman575
December 20, 2014
And now a Word from ELAINE M. HOWLE, CPA, State Auditor
https://www.auditor.ca.gov/pdfs/reports/2014-401.pdf
Page 2 & Page 3: Additionally, in assessing the reliability of the Oracle Financial System (Oracle) and the Phoenix Financial System (Phoenix) data, we identified pervasive weaknesses in selected information
system controls that the Administrative Office of the Courts (AOC) and the superior courts
have implemented over their information systems. As stated in our December 2013 report, we
expected that the AOC and superior courts would have well-developed plans, policies, and
procedures related to information systems controls. However, we found that some of the AOC’s plans were either nonexistent, or in one case, the plan had not been updated since 1997. Further,in its reviews of the superior courts, the AOC repeatedly identified the same concerns withthe superior courts’ plans, policies, and procedures, some dating back to 2003. The results of our review indicate that there is an unacceptably high risk that data from the applications the AOC and superior courts currently use to perform their day-to-day operations could lead to an incorrect or improper conclusion. Therefore, we determined the data were not sufficiently reliable, regardless of the purpose for which the data are used. Moreover, the weaknesses we identified, including practices we do not divulge because of their sensitive nature, could compromise the security and availability of these information systems, which contain confidential or sensitive information, such as court case management records, human resources data, and financial data.
In some circumstances we recommended that the audited agency take corrective action. For
example, to strengthen and continuously monitor the effectiveness of the controls over its
information systems, we recommended that the AOC implement all of the best practices
related to general and business process application controls as outlined in the GAO’s Federal
Information System Controls Audit Manual no later than December 31, 2014.1 In addition,
we recommended that the AOC immediately begin implementing improvements to its
controls over access to its information systems and place these improvements into effect by
February 2014. Finally, we recommended that the AOC provide guidance and routinely follow
up with the superior courts—requiring updates every six months until all identified issues are
corrected—to ensure that they make the necessary improvements to their general and businessprocess application controls.
😉
Note: The chart on Page 9 is also quite nice.
JusticeCalifornia
December 21, 2014
With a staff of almost 800, and while demanding more money from taxpayers and the State, “top leadership” of the biggest judiciary in the world proves once again it cannot be trusted to properly manage and account for what it already has.
Unionman, thank you for finding and posting things that keep us informed.
unionman575
December 21, 2014
Thanks and Happy Holidays!
😉
unionman575
December 20, 2014
http://www.courts.ca.gov/familyjuvenilecomm.htm
Family and Juvenile Law Advisory Committee
December 23, 2014 Action by Email
Council certification of two support calculation computer software programs
10:00 a.m.
unionman575
December 20, 2014
Congrats to another Death Star/AOC/JC slime dog alum from the class of ’05 to ‘07:
Peter Krause, 45, of Sacramento, has been appointed legal affairs secretary in the Office of the Governor, where he has served as chief deputy legal affairs secretary since 2013.
Mr. Krause earlier was supervising deputy attorney general at the California Department of Justice from 2011 to 2012, where he served as a deputy attorney general from 2007 to 2011. He was an attorney at the Judicial Council of California, Administrative Office of the Courts from 2005 to 2007 and a litigation associate at Sheppard, Mullin, Richter and Hampton LLP from 1996 to 2005, where he was a litigation clerk from 1991 to 1996.
This position does not require Senate confirmation and the compensation is $163,212. Mr. Krause is registered without party preference.
http://www.centralvalleybusinesstimes.com/stories/001/?ID=27387
unionman575
December 20, 2014
BRB need to freshen up my Vodka Tonic
unionman575
December 20, 2014
http://www.courts.ca.gov/documents/hr-staffing-metrics-1415-11.pdf
😉
JUDICIAL COUNCIL HR METRICS BY OFFICE
DATA AS OF DECEMBER 1, 2014
(End of November Pay Period)
sharonkramer
December 20, 2014
“our review indicate that there is an unacceptably high risk that data from the applications the AOC and superior courts currently use to perform their day-to-day operations could lead to an incorrect or improper conclusion. Therefore, we determined the data were not sufficiently reliable, regardless of the purpose for which the data are used. Moreover, the weaknesses we identified, including practices we do not divulge because of their sensitive nature, could compromise the security and availability of these information systems, which contain confidential or sensitive information, such as court case management records…”
{P]ractices we do not divulge because of their sensitive nature? And what? This has to be addressed within 45 days? Asthe saying goes, good things come to those who wait.
Lando
December 20, 2014
Hoshino may have the best of intentions but HRH-2 and her chief minions J Miler and J Hull will never let go of their power. There is not a shred of evidence that the insiders at 455 Golden Gate have ever intended to change the direction of current branch policy. They continue to hire staff, continue to seek to control technology policy with the same people that brought us CCMS, continue to ignore all calls for meaningful reform ( whatever did happen to the SEC report) and come up with ideas like allowing public speakers at their meetings all of 1 minute to offer input. I hope Judge White has this analyzed right but I won’t be holding my breath waiting for anything other than business as usual at the Crystal Palace. Thanks everyone here for all of your great contributions this year in bringing about change and reform. Merry Christmas to everyone !
sharonkramer
December 21, 2014
What, specifically, do you all think it is that has “an unacceptably high risk that data from the applications the AOC and superior courts currently use to perform their day-to-day operations could lead to an incorrect or improper conclusion”?
I think its improper entries in the stealth CCMS Case History that don’t match the CCMS ROA or the physical court files; yet are what judges and court personnel see when they look at what has occurred in a case.
Whatever it is, its something pretty bad if they are ordered to correct it by Feb.
wearyant
December 21, 2014
JCW, thanks for the lovely snow flakes.
Stuart Michael
December 22, 2014
To all JCW followers:
Please accept, with no obligation, express or implied, best wishes for an environmentally conscious, socially responsible, low-stress, non-addictive, gender-neutral celebration of the winter solstice and holiday seasons, practiced in the most enjoyable traditions of the religious persuasion or secular practices of your choice, with respect for the religious/secular persuasion of others, or their choice not to practice religious or secular traditions at all. Have a fiscally successful, personally fulfilling, and medically uncomplicated new year, with recognition of the onset of the generally accepted calendar year 2015, but not without due respect for the calendars and traditions of choice of other cultures whose contributions to our society have helped make America what it is today. This is, of course, neither to suggest or imply that “America”, as noted herein, is the only America in the Western Hemisphere. May these heartfelt wishes be received with equal intensity regardless of distribution of individual wealth, documented carbon footprint, or perceived social privilege among the wishes addressed herein. This wish is made without regard to the race, creed, color, age, physical condition, religious faith, or sexual preference of the recipient.
These politically correct wishes should cover it for all.
May the new year bring real progress in the fight for the future of the California courts.
.
JusticeCalifornia
December 22, 2014
LOL. Back at you, Stuart Michael.
All kidding aside, yes, let’s aim for “real progress in the fight for the future of the California courts.”
Really unbelievable that Team George has successfully brought the branch to and is keeping the branch at the depths of disgrace and destruction.
wearyant
December 23, 2014
😀
JusticeCalifornia
December 24, 2014
Happy Holidays everybody!!!
unionman575
December 24, 2014
Ditto!
😉
unionman575
December 30, 2014
http://www.courts.ca.gov/aac.htm
Appellate Advisory Committee
Purpose:
This committee is charged with making recommendations to the council for improving the administration of justice in appellate proceedings.
Date Established: 1993
• MEETINGS
March 10, 2015 Meeting (Closed)
10:00 a.m. – 4:00 p.m.
sharonkramer
December 30, 2014
Members of the Appellate Advisory Committee:
Hon. Raymond J. Ikola, Chair, Associate Justice of the Court of Appeal, Fourth Appellate District, Division Three
Hon. Kathleen M. Banke, Associate Justice of the Court of Appeal, First Appellate District, Division One
Hon. Jennifer R.S. Detjen, Associate Justice of the Court of Appeal, Fifth Appellate District
Mr. Kevin K. Green, Partner, Robbins Geller Rudman & Dowd LLP
Mr. Michael Hersek, State Public Defender
Ms. Lisa R. Jaskol, Directing Attorney, Public Counsel
Hon. Kent M. Kellegrew, Judge of the Superior Court of California, County of Ventura
Mr. Daniel M. Kolkey, Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher LLP
Mr. William J. Kopeny, Attorney at Law, Law Offices of William J. Kopeny
Mr. Joseph A. Lane, Clerk/Executive Officer, Court of Appeal Second Appellate District
Mr. Jeffrey Laurence, Deputy Attorney General, California Department of Justice, Office of the Attorney General
Hon. Louis R. Mauro, Associate Justice of the Court of Appeal, Third Appellate District
Mr. Frank A. McGuire, Clerk of the California Supreme Court
Hon. Nathan D. Mihara, Associate Justice of the Court of Appeal, Sixth Appellate District
Ms. Sheran L. Morton, Court Executive Officer, Superior Court of California, County of Fresno
Mr. Dallas Sacher, Executive Director, Sixth District Appellate Program
Ms. Kimberly A. Stewart, Appellate Court Managing Attorney, Court of Appeal, Fourth Appellate District
Hon. Thomas Lyle Willhite, Jr., Associate Justice of the Court of Appeal, Second Appellate District, Division Four
JUDICIAL COUNCIL STAFF TO THE COMMITTEE
Ms. Heather Anderson, Lead Staff, Senior Attorney, Legal Services, Judicial Council of California
unionman575
December 30, 2014
http://www.courts.ca.gov/civilandsmallclaims.htm
Civil and Small Claims Advisory Committee
Purpose:
Under rule 10.41 of the California Rules of Court, the Civil and Small Claims Advisory Committee (C&SCAC) is charged with making recommendations to the Judicial Council for improving the administration of justice in civil and small claims proceedings.
• MEETINGS
February 27, 2015 Meeting (Closed)
10:00 a.m.
unionman575
December 30, 2014
http://www.courts.ca.gov/familyjuvenilecomm.htm
Family and Juvenile Law Advisory Committee
Purpose:
Makes recommendations to the council for improving the administration of justice in all cases involving marriage, family, or children.
Date Established: 1993
• MEETINGS
January 8, 2015 Meeting (Closed)
4:30-5:30 p.m.
unionman575
December 30, 2014
http://www.courts.ca.gov/tcbac.htm
Trial Court Budget Advisory Committee
Purpose: Provides input on the trial court budget process for the benefit of all trial courts statewide and to propose recommendations to the Judicial Council on trial court funding consistent with council goals.
Start Date: June 2013
• MEETINGS
January 15, 2015 Meeting
9:00am to 12:00pm (closed educational session for new members)
1:00pm to 3:00pm (business meeting, open to the public)
Judicial Council’s Sacramento Office,
2860 Gateway Oaks Drive,
Suite 400, Veranda Room
Public Call-In Number: Conference Call Access:1-877-820-7831, Passcode: 1682324
unionman575
December 31, 2014
http://www.courts.ca.gov/documents/W15-07.pdf
unionman575
December 31, 2014
Pinching myself…Hmmm. WHO will staff this new 6 courtroom courthouse when it opens?
(See Riverside courthouse closures at the link at the bottom)
http://www.pe.com/articles/council-757120-city-hemet.html
BANNING GETS JUSTICE
The story: A long-awaited new courthouse is under construction in Banning. The 68,000-square-foot building is costing $63 million. The new courthouse will have six courtrooms, three times the number in the existing courthouse.
What could happen in ’15: Cases could be heard in the new courthouse.
What’s next: Construction is expected to be completed in the first quarter of 2015.
Why it is important: Banning leaders believe it will spur economic investment downtown and help support existing businesses in the corridor.
Quote: “We were looking for a courthouse that reflects the stability and unchanging nature of the law,” said Riverside County Superior Court Judge Mark Cope.
😉
http://listserv1.riverside.courts.ca.gov/cgi-bin/wa?A2=ind13&L=RIVERSIDE_COURT&F=&S=&P=16306
😉
unionman575
December 31, 2014
Uh huh…folks will need a helicopter ride to court.
“The new 26-courtroom, approximately 301,000-square-foot courthouse will replace seven court facilities located in Modesto, Ceres, and Turlock. Consolidating these facilities will enable the court to centralize operations, improve public access…”
😉
http://www.stanct.org/site-purchase-completed-new-stanislaus-county-courthouse
The Superior Court of Stanislaus County, the City of Modesto, and the Judicial Council of California announced today the close of escrow on the site for the new Stanislaus County Courthouse. The approximately 3.5-acre site in downtown Modesto includes the city block bounded by G and H Streets and 9th and 10th Streets. Portions of the 13-parcel site were previously owned by the City of Modesto; the other parcels were privately owned.
The new courthouse site was chosen for its close proximity to freeway access, public transportation, and the downtown business core. Completion of site acquisition allows the project to proceed into architectural design, which is expected to take approximately two years. The State Public Works Board approved the purchase of the site on November 14.
The new 26-courtroom, approximately 301,000-square-foot courthouse will replace seven court facilities located in Modesto, Ceres, and Turlock. Consolidating these facilities will enable the court to centralize operations, improve public access, increase efficiencies, and improve security by providing a secure sallyport for the transportation of in-custody detainees.
With all court services under one roof, the new courthouse will become a one-stop location for county residents.
Construction on the new courthouse is currently scheduled to begin in early 2017, with an expected completion date of 2019, subject to change. The Judicial Council, which manages the project, has engaged the architecture firm of Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, LLP, to design the courthouse. Ranked as an “immediate need” in the judicial branch’s capital outlay plan, the new courthouse is among the branch’s highest-priority infrastructure projects.
More information on the project can be found on the California Courts website at:
http://www.courts.ca.gov/facilities-stanislaus.htm.
Last updated: December 23, 2014 1:13 PM
😉
WHO will staff this new, bigger courthouse?
http://www.courts.ca.gov/documents/68106-Stanislaus-20121204.pdf
unionman575
December 31, 2014
http://www.courts.ca.gov/documents/68106-Stanislaus-20121204.pdf
unionman575
December 31, 2014
CONSENT ITEM—1
JUDICIAL COUNCIL OF CALIFORNIA (0250) EDMUND D. EDELMAN CHILDREN’S COURTHOUSE
LOS ANGELES COUNTY
JC Facility Number 19-Q1, DGS Parcel No. 10804
Authority: Trial Court Facilities Act of 2002, Chapter 1082, Statutes of 2002, commencing with
Section 70301 of the Government Code, as amended
Consider accepting real property through a transfer of title
https://us-mg205.mail.yahoo.com/neo/launch?.partner=sbc&.rand=e6a3a1qutl35d#
unionman575
January 1, 2015
http://www.courts.ca.gov/documents/aac-20150303-notice.pdf
Notice of Closed Meeting of the
Appellate Advisory Committee – Rules Subcommittee
Meeting Date: March 3, 2015
Time: 4:00 – 5:30 PM
😉
JusticeCalifornia
January 2, 2015
Cold but sunny and gorgeous here up North!
Best wishes to everyone for a healthy, happy 2015.
unionman575
January 2, 2015
http://www.courts.ca.gov/documents/jc-20150107-agenda.pdf
JUDICIAL COUNCIL OF CALIFORNIA MEETING
WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 7, 2015, AGENDA
CLOSED SESSION (RULE 10.6 (b)(1) AND RULE 10.6 (b)(3))—
PERSONNEL AND OTHER CONFIDENTIAL MATTERS
Session 12:00–1:30 p.m.
NOTE: Time is estimated. Actual start and end times may vary.
😉
unionman575
January 2, 2015
http://www.courts.ca.gov/documents/68106-butte-20141230.pdf
12/31/2014
SUPERIOR COURT OF CALIFORNIA, COUNTY OF BUTTE
NOTICE OF CLOSURE OF CHICO COURTHOUSE EFFECTIVE MARCH 20, 2015
😉
Stuart Michael
January 5, 2015
I know many of you just listened to Jerry’s speech
everybody’s getting something but nary a word about the courts
but we can be sure the Chief and the JC still won’t get the message
maybe she should have added a funding plea to the oath of office
Wendy Darling
January 5, 2015
“We can be sure the Chief and the JCW still won’t get the message.” Yes, we most certainly can.
Still serving themselves to the detriment of all Californians.
Long live the ACJ.
wearyant
January 6, 2015
The Chief and the JC Staff, formerly known as the infamous AOC, are as happy as pigs in mud as long as they are skimming off the top of the meager taxpayer dollar! Happy New Year, all!
Lando
January 6, 2015
The word on the street is that the audit results of the AOC will be made public on January 7th. The insiders at 455 Golden Gate may have a lot of explaining to do or they may maintain their usual position of denial and lack of acceptance of responsibility. In the great words of Kevin Bacon in Animal House , “Remain Calm, All is Well ” lol . Happy New Year everyone !
Delilah
January 6, 2015
On Oct. 1, Martin Hoshino became the administrative leader of California’s judiciary, leaving his role of undersecretary of operations at the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation. He immediately found himself part of the judicial branch’s annual campaign for more budget money. And he was faced with the passage of Proposition 47, the initiative that reduced sentences for certain drug and property crimes.
Q: Certainly your role at the Department of Corrections was challenging enough. Why did you decide to move to the judiciary?
A: I’d always had some interest very early on as a young adult with criminal justice, essentially court matters. I was one of those folks who picked up a couple of degrees in the areas of political science and public administration and had always thought about and considered going to law school and had some passion for the area of law. Ultimately that wasn’t my path. Public service is something I grew up with, my father being from the military and the like, so I wasn’t a stranger to it. And this was an opportunity to maybe come back to some of that.
Q: What have you been up to for the last few months?
A: It’s been what I would call a first dive into the operating sections of the Judicial Council staff. And then my attention really has been swallowed up by the budget at large, as well as Proposition 47, which is part budget, part workload, part understanding and trying to answer all the questions and actually get the early stages of implementation going on a statewide act that was effective the day after the voters approved it. And that’s really what’s swallowed up and made the eight to 10 weeks here a real blur.
Q: Any first impressions about the courts’ operations and structure?
A: One of the big early impressions for me was just the governance structure of the Judicial Council, how it was much more democratic than I had thought and more akin and analogous to the state Legislature. It has a series of internal committees that vet, analyze and decide upon their agendas and their own priorities and then make recommendations upwards to the council to make its decisions. I was surprised not only by the number [of committees] but the composition of the membership.
The other thing is the budget is a little more complicated than I thought it was at first blush. It’s a series of different funds and funding formulas that they have here. It’s not as complicated as I think corrections or some other places. But it’s still more complicated than I think other people might think at first glance, coming from outside.
Q: Where do you think the state budget is heading in terms of the courts?
A: Because of prop 47 we’re having a discussion about what the effects of that are and whether or not there should be some additional funding for the courts that makes sense, not only because it’s new but because the state of funding in the branch has changed so much over the last three or four years and that change, of course, was the loss of $1.2 billion.
Courts are already working through backlogs and delays associated with losses of reserves. They can’t readily absorb the [costs of] Prop 47 without either exacerbating the existing challenges or … really harming the innovations and reforms that were spurred by the reductions. The courts didn’t just sit idly [after the cuts] because of their commitment to access and public service. There’s a fair amount of innovative activities that were occurring here and we’d like those to continue. Prop 47 puts a damper on that if we can’t find some way to weather the early demands of the act.
Q: You’ve worked in the executive branch and as a gubernatorial appointee. Do you have a red phone to the governor?
A: The governor that I know is one that makes decisions based on analysis and information and on the merits. It isn’t whether you have a red phone or a direct line to him or not. It really is about getting it right and making fiscal decisions that are in the best interests of California. But having said all of that the chief and I are making a pitch on behalf of the branch.
Q: Do you think you’ll ever get that law degree?
A: Probably not. I was telling the judges that wasn’t my path at the end of the day, but maybe I’ve got just the next best thing that you could possibly have, which is to be the top aide to the judges in the largest judicial system.
Read more: http://www.therecorder.com/id=1202713666804/Judicial-Councils-Martin-Hoshino#ixzz3O3XGh4ng
Wendy Darling
January 6, 2015
Joke of the day: “One of the big early impressions for me was just the governance structure of the Judicial Council, how it was much more democratic than I had thought and more akin and analogous to the state Legislature.”
What state Legislature would that be? The state Legislature of North Korea?
Long live the ACJ.
JusticeCalifornia
January 6, 2015
Wendy, we are on the same page. I wrote the below comment about Hoshino while you were posting yours. Bizarre thing for him to say.
unionman575
January 6, 2015
http://calbarjournal.com/January2015/TopHeadlines/TH1.aspx
Q&A: New director defines goals for Judicial Council
Martin N. Hoshino joined the Judicial Council as its administrative director last fall. Bar Journal
Editor Laura Ernde recently spoke with him about his approach to the job and his plans.
Before you joined the Judicial Council you were a top administrator at the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation. I’m curious what prompted you to make the move to the Judicial Council.
It’s a long story…
😉
unionman575
January 6, 2015
JusticeCalifornia
January 6, 2015
lol. lol. lol. OMG. Unionman. First Hoshino compared the patently non-democratic process of the Judicial Council to the democratic process of the State Legislature, and now he said this???::::
Reporter Question: “You mentioned that the budget cuts have led to some reforms. Do you have any specific examples?”
Hoshino answer: “On a broad level what I see is an opportunity to identify and advocate for the reforms I think that are in progress or have already occurred as well as identify new ones along the way. It’s very early on, but I’m looking for what that is because I know some of that’s already occurred by instinct. It can’t be that the branch sat still, static, while this was happening. It just doesn’t work that way.”
Lord help the branch.
IS THE GOVERNOR AND THE LEGISLATURE GOING TO TAKE THIS GUY SERIOUSLY?
Yes, Martin, you damn well know your boss is sitting still–wait no, you know she is giggling and laughing at Judicial Council meetings about her acting feats and fancy parties, and being chauffeured around by the CHP, and giving her massive staff raises–while the branch is going to hell in a handbasket. No wonder you seem at a loss for coherent words to describe what is going on around you.
wearyant
January 6, 2015
Good Lord! Well, now we know where Hoshino is coming from!
Wendy Darling
January 7, 2015
As Justice California has astutely observed Ant, Hoshino has drunk the Kool-Aid. New Year – same old BS from 455 Golden Gate Avenue. Just spewing from a different mouthpiece.
You just can’t make this stuff up. Really.
Long live the ACJ.
JusticeCalifornia
January 6, 2015
Welcome back Delilah!
It is painfully obvious that Sakauye and the Judicial Council are not walking their talk about access and fairness being the number one priority in the branch.
While the public is being overwhelmed with increased fees, court closures, and reduced services, Sakauye, the JC, and the JC staff are fat and happy. The JC staff budget and salaries are apparently increasing. Meanwhile, Sakauye hasn’t even tried to pretend that she requires council members and staff to observe proper business and record-keeping practices, notwithstanding direction by the state auditor to do so. Instead, she has defiantly continued to surround herself with the same failed “advisors” who have spent years ignoring laws, rules of court, and accepted business practices; playing hide-the-ball; and/or otherwise leading the branch down the garden path.
The Governor and Legislature know that the public is suffering, but also know that feeding Sakauye’s addiction to power and money for her and her massive misguided “staff” is not in the public’s best interest. What are they to do under the current governance structure? Now is the time to propose (or re-propose) answers to that question.
Luckily, times have changed. The legislature is becoming increasingly well-versed in knowledge about waste and mismanagement of branch resources. The legislature has a lot of oversight and corrective power. Money is not their only tool to correct branch practices that undermine the trust and confidence in the branch.
By the way, rolling on the floor laughing (but at the same time very concerned) about Hoshino’s bizarre comment: “One of the big early impressions for me was just the governance structure of the Judicial Council, how it was much more democratic than I had thought and more akin and analogous to the state Legislature.”
Dude drank the kool-aid. How else can he compare a tiny group of people handpicked by ONE person who purports to “rule” over the largest judiciary in the world to a legislative body comprised of representatives who have to actively and regularly seek re-election by the public they serve?
unionman575
January 6, 2015
http://calpensions.com/2015/01/05/will-brown-propose-paying-judges-pension-debt/
unionman575
January 6, 2015
http://www.calpers.ca.gov/eip-docs/about/committee-meetings/agendas/financeadmin/201403/item5a-00.pdf
unionman575
January 6, 2015
http://www.calpers.ca.gov/eip-docs/about/pubs/employer/2013-jrs.pdf
unionman575
January 6, 2015
http://www.courthousenews.com/2014/12/26/elected-judges-sue-calpers-over-pensions.htm
unionman575
January 6, 2015
In accordance with California Rules of Court, rule 10.75(e)(1), public notice is hereby given that the Advisory Committee on Providing Access and Fairness will hold a meeting open to the public on January 14, 2015, 12:15-1:15 p.m. A copy of the agenda for this meeting is available on the advisory body web page on the California Courts website listed above.
***************Public Comment
This meeting will be conducted by electronic means. As such, the public may only submit written comments for this meeting.
😉
http://www.courts.ca.gov/accessfairnesscomm.htm
Advisory Committee on Providing Access and Fairness
😉
January 14, 2015 Meeting
12:15-1:15 p.m.
Public Call-in Number: 1-877-820-7831 and enter Passcode 1456449 (Listen Only
unionman575
January 6, 2015
unionman575
January 6, 2015
Thursday, January 8, 2015
Executive and Planning Committee
12:10 to 1:10 p.m.
Public Call-In Number: 877-820-7831; passcode 846-8947 (listen only)
😉
http://www.courts.ca.gov/epmeetings.htm
unionman575
January 6, 2015
http://www.dailydemocrat.com/news/ci_27242110
Power brought to Yolo County Courthouse construction
JusticeCalifornia
January 6, 2015
Annual salaries of top US government officials:
http://usgovinfo.about.com/od/governmentjobs/a/Annual-Salaries-Of-Top-Us-Government-Officials.htm
Vice President of the United States
2014: $230,700
2000: $181,400
Legislative Branch – US Congress
Rank-and-File Senators and Representatives
2014: $174,000
2000: $141,300
Also See: The 10 Wealthiest Members of Congress
Speaker of the House
2014: $223,500
2000: $181,400
House and Senate Majority and Minority Leaders
2014: $193,400
2000: $156,900
Note: Last salary increase for Members of Congress came in 2009.
Also See: Salaries and Benefits of US Congress Members
Judicial Branch
Chief Justice of the United States
2014: $255,500
2000: $181,400
Associate Justices of the Supreme Court
2014: $244,400
2000: $173,600
Federal Circuit Judges
2014: $211,200
2000: $149,900
Federal District Judges
2014: $199,100
2000: $141,300
Hoshino’s 2014 salary for serving the former gambling barmaid (and that is without his hefty handsome perks, right???): $240,828
I am sure he is thanking his lucky stars he never wasted his time going to law school so he could became a lawyer or a judge– he can make more than the vice president of the United States by simply being Sakauye’s water boy.
Jerry Brown has a salary of $174,000 a year, and other CA lawmakers get far less:
http://losangeles.cbslocal.com/2013/06/19/calif-lawmakers-gov-brown-to-get-pay-raise/
No wonder “top leadership” of the Judicial Branch has no credibility when it consistently cries poor mouth.
Nope, Sakauye and her staff just don’t walk their talk.
Lando
January 7, 2015
Wendy as usual nailed it. Hoshino has now lost all credibility . While it was arrogant for him to say that he had the ” luxury” to fire AOC employees it is beyond belief that he could claim the Judicial Council is in any way ” democratic”. Please tell me Mr Hoshino who elected any Judicial Council member to any of the positions that they hold? Their selection rather than any election created by HRH-1 and continued by HH-2 lacks any and all constitutional authority and since all members are selected by 1 person no one will ever believe that is anything like a representative democracy. Within hours the State Audit results will be released. I can’t wait to see how Mr Hoshino and the other 455 Golden Gate “insiders” spin all that . My guess is that they will throw Vickrey and J Jahr under the bus, claim they fixed everything since and proclaim they have made great reforms which is straight out of the Soviet and Ron George playbook. You can’t make any of this up. Really.
unionman575
January 7, 2015
http://www.courts.ca.gov/clac.htm
unionman575
January 7, 2015
You have now entered the Twilight Zone.
😉
MaxRebo5
January 7, 2015
The CA State Auditor’s report on the AOC is out.
https://www.auditor.ca.gov/pdfs/reports/2014-107.pdf
Dante
January 7, 2015
And a scathing report it is, too. There is much to read, but here is a quote:
“Given the lapses in the Judicial Council’s oversight and the AOC’s decision making, we believe significant change is necessary to ensure that the State’s courts receive the critical funding they require to provide access to justice for all Californians. As such, we made numerous recommendations that we believe will improve operations, increase transparency, and ensure accountability within the judicial branch. Although the AOC in its response to this report indicates that it will consider our recommendations through the deliberative processes established by the Judicial Council and its advisory bodies, it did so without proposing a specific plan. Consequently, we are concerned that meaningful change may not occur; however, we expect that the AOC’s future correspondence will contain detailed plans, including time frames for implementation, of what the Judicial Council and the AOC intend to do or have done to address our recommendations.”
Wow!
Delilah
January 7, 2015
Tell us something we didn’t already know. And wake me when anything is done about it.
When pigs fly and Hell freezes over.
Wendy Darling
January 7, 2015
When pigs fly and hell freezes over . . . at the same time.
Long live the ACJ.
Wendy Darling
January 7, 2015
The moment we’ve all been waiting for. Published today, Wednesday, January 7, from Courthouse News Service, by Maria Dinzeo. Not surprising to anyone here. And not that it will change one damn thing at 455 Golden Gate Avenue.
California Auditor Issues Scathing Catalog of Judiciary Overspending
By MARIA DINZEO
(CN) – California’s judicial bureaucracy wasted millions on overpaid employees and “questionable business practices,” as Judicial Council supervisors turned a blind eye, an exhaustive investigation by the state auditor published Wednesday states.
“The level of the Judicial Council’s involvement in the AOC’s budget process and expenditure decisions appears to have been more ministerial than substantive. In the absence of adequate oversight, the AOC engaged in questionable compensation and business practices, and failed to adequately disclose its expenditures to stakeholders and the public,” Auditor Elaine Howle wrote.
Howle pointed to generous salaries and compensation packages for employees of the Administrative Office of the Courts, which has recently undergone a name change to “Judicial Council staff,” as well as its employment of at least 70 high-cost contractors and temporary employees, its keeping a fleet of 66 vehicles for office use without justification and its maintaining offices in Los Angeles, Sacramento and San Francisco.
“We identified about $30 million in questionable compensation and business practices over a four-year period, plus the additional estimated annual savings of more than $5 million that would result if the AOC were to consolidate its operations in one location. For example, the Judicial Council allowed the AOC to provide its staff with salaries and benefits that significantly exceed those that executive branch employees receive, without sufficient justification,” Howle wrote. “Moreover, the AOC made questionable-and costly- business decisions, such as maintaining multiple office locations and hiring an excessive number of consultants, contractors, and temporary workers. In light of the significant funding cuts to the judicial branch, it is difficult to understand why these practices have continued. Had the AOC discontinued some or all of the questionable business practices, additional funds might have been available for redirection to the trial courts.”
According to the auditor’s report, the average AOC salary is $82,000, while executive branch employees make $62,000 on average. “Furthermore, at a salary of over $179,000, the AOC pays eight of its nine office directors more than the governor and other high-ranking state officials receive, yet those officials have much broader responsibilities,” Howle wrote, also noting the AOC’s practice of paying some employee’s shares of their retirement contributions “at a total cost of more than $858,000 over a four-year period.”
Had the Judicial Council, the judicial rule-making body that oversees the AOC, done better job of supervising the staff, it might have caught the AOC’s dubious spending, Howle found. It may have even identified ways to direct more money to the state’s trial courts from the AOC’s own budget.
But, she wrote, “The lack of Judicial Council involvement in the budgeting process resulted, in some cases, in the AOC having sole autonomy in deciding how to spend certain judicial branch funds.”
The 21-member Judicial Council is chaired by Chief Justice Tani Cantil-Sakauye, who chooses the bulk of its voting members. The AOC’s administrative director also reports to Cantil-Sakauye.
Howle’s report also expressed the same concern that many trial judges have vocalized over the years- that the Judicial Council and its bureaucracy will champion reform publicly, without making any actual changes. “We are concerned that without significant changes, the Judicial Council and AOC will continue to publicly embrace addressing the weaknesses that we and others have identified but fail to take the steps necessary to actually repair those weaknesses in a meaningful and transparent way,” Howle wrote.
The 96-page, long-awaited audit was pushed for by Assembly member Reginald Jones Sawyer (D-Los Angeles), who obtained a committee vote authorizing an audit of the council staff by California’s Office of the State Auditor last year. The committee’s meeting in March 2014 was well-attended by members of the Alliance of California Judges, a reform group of roughly 500 judges, that has hammered the central bureaucracy of the courts over spending habits, size and perceived arrogance.
In his February 2014 letter to the Joint Legislative Audit Committee, Jones-Sawyer wrote, “Despite several budget cuts, the Judicial Council’s budget grew while funding for trial court operations declined. For example, the Judicial Council’s budget for 2013-2014 is stated at $141.5 million. This is $20.9 million more than was spent in 2011-2012.”
Lawmakers have also expressed frustration with the bureaucracy in recent years over controversial financial policies, such as a pension system that rewarded the top 30 employees with another 22% in pension contributions from public funds on top of their salaries, and a pay raise for most of the staff of 3.5 percent in 2010 and another 3.5 percent in 2013, in the heart of California’s financial crisis.
Developing story . . .
http://www.courthousenews.com/2015/01/07/california-auditor-issues-scathing-catalog-of-judiciary-overspending.htm
Long live the ACJ.
Wendy Darling
January 7, 2015
And from the Sacramento Bee, by Alex Koseff. You’ll be relieved to know that according to Martin Hoshino, 455 Golden Gate Avenue has already fixed everything identified as a problem in the audit report.
State audit questions California judiciary’s administrative spending
BY ALEXEI KOSEFF
Questionable financial and operational decisions by the administration of California’s judicial branch has limited the amount of money available to the courts, a new state audit has found.
The Judicial Council did not adequately oversee the Administrative Office of the Courts in managing the branch budget, according to an audit released Wednesday, allowing for dubious business practices, including generous staff salaries and benefits.
“To maximize funding available to the courts, we expected that the Judicial Council and the AOC would have carefully scrutinized their operations and expenditures to ensure they were necessary, justified, and prudent,” state Auditor Elaine Howle wrote in a letter. “However, we found that this was not always the case.”
The audit held the Judicial Council, which has policy authority over the judiciary, responsible for not always spending its multibillion budget in the public’s best interest after recession-driven budget cuts that resulted in dozens of courthouse closures and thousands of layoffs.
The report identified $30 million in “questionable compensation and business practices” over a four-year period, plus additional savings if the AOC were to consolidate its operations in a single location.
Among the items it highlighted: average employee salaries of $82,000 and eight office directors who earn more than the governor’s annual $177,467 salary, savings of $7.2 million annually if about 70 contractors and temporary employees were replaced with state employees; and a fleet of 66 vehicles that had not been justified as necessary.
The audit also noted that the AOC had spent about $386 million on behalf of the trial courts over the last four fiscal years using the trial courts’ local appropriations, but a portion of those payments could have come from its own state appropriations instead.
“As a consequence, an indeterminate amount of additional funds might have been available to support the courts,” the report stated.
The audit recommended that the Judicial Council conduct regular reviews of the AOC’s compensation practices and transfer any savings to the trial courts. It also called for the creation of a separate advisory body to bring more transparency to the AOC’s spending and regular surveys to ensure that the administration’s services align with the needs of the courts.
In a response, recently appointed administrative director Martin Hoshino agreed with many of the recommendations, but noted that some were already underway, including efforts to increase the Judicial Council’s oversight.
http://www.sacbee.com/news/politics-government/capitol-alert/article5557542.html
Long live the ACJ.
Delilah
January 7, 2015
“In a response, recently appointed administrative director Martin Hoshino agreed with many of the recommendations, but noted that some were already underway, including efforts to increase the Judicial Council’s oversight.”
HAHAHAHA. That is hilarious. The Judicial Council has always pretended it exercised ultimate oversight over the AOC, even though it has always been the other way around, the tail was wagging the dog, and the JC bobble-headedly rubber-stamped everything the AOC put before them by way of those huge binders the AOC plopped in front of them five minutes before the JC meetings, with all of the AOC recommendations being a foregone conclusion. Do they really think they can get away with such banal excuses? Of course they do. Because it’s worked for them for all these many years. Might as well stick with the same strategy, It never seems to fail.
JusticeCalifornia
January 7, 2015
So nice to have a not-too-bright former gambling barmaid, who brags about reading “tells”, and who could not get a job out of law school, in charge of the largest judiciary in the world.
NOT.
Judicial Council Watcher
January 7, 2015
It’s a scathing audit report but no surprise to us. Many of the items the state auditor brought up can be found right here in over 600 pages of this blog and many more can be found over on AOC Watcher. Due to time constraints and other scheduled operations, we’ll be commenting more in depth on this probably over the weekend. One thing is for certain, this comprehensive audit exposes that the AOC holds courts to a much higher standard than they hold themselves. Of course, if you’ve been following us for the past four years, this is no surprise either.
Wendy Darling
January 7, 2015
There’s a “standard” to which the AOC holds themselves? Wow. You learn something new every day here on JCW. 🙂
Long live the ACJ.
JusticeCalifornia
January 7, 2015
I have been studying the CJ, JC, AOC, and their favorites for years. They consider themselves above the law, and answerable to no standards at all.
courtflea
January 7, 2015
And who will ensure that the agency formerly known as the AOC, will comply with the audit findings? No one. Nice to see the press exposure though.
JusticeCalifornia
January 7, 2015
As Sakauye admitted on camera before she was suggested as George’s successor, Sakauye — as a Judicial Council member–was personally well informed as a Judicial Council member about problems in the branch before she assumed her current position. She has had well over FOUR (4) long, excruciating years to show her stuff as Chair of the Judicial Council.
Marie Antoinette Sakauye has done that, by choosing to pursue an arrogant same-as-it-ever-was (or worse-than-it-ever-was), let-them-eat-cake approach that never did, and never will, work.
Marie Antoinette Sakauye has not, and cannot, lead the biggest judiciary in the world, and needs to resign.
JusticeCalifornia
January 7, 2015
The title page of the report:
“Judicial Branch of California”
“Because of Questionable Fiscal and Operational Decisions, the Judicial Council and the Administrative Office of the Courts Have Not Maximized the Funds Available for the Courts.”
Contents page:
Chapter 1: “Generous Compensation Practices and Questionable Business Decisions Have Limited Funding Available for the Courts”
Chapter 2: “The Judicial Council of California’s Lack of Oversight Allowed the Administrative Office of the Courts to Spend Judicial Branch Funds in a Questionable Manner”
Chapter 3: “The Administrative Office of the Courts Has Not Sufficiently Justified Its Current Budget and Staffing Levels”
Chapter 4: “Significant Change is Necessary to Ensure the Future Accountability, Transparency, and Efficiency of the Administrative Office of the Courts”
In other words, the CJ, JC and AOC under Tani Cantil Sakauye’s 4-year “reign” have continued to miserably fail the public and the branch.
Two suggested significant changes, IMHO:
1. Sakauye resigns immediately to prevent further damage to the already-fractured CA Judicial Branch and the public it serves.
2. Democratize the Judicial Council.
Wendy Darling
January 7, 2015
Significantly, it is budget time in Sacramento. Given a choice between Queen Feckless’ cries of poverty or the findings of the Elaine Howle and the BSA audit report, Governor Brown and the members of the State Legislature with active brain cells are going to go with Howle and the BSA audit report, and rightfully so. No one is Sacramento with a scintilla of common sense is going to willingly continue to fund this nonsense, much less throw more money at it.
Meanwhile, back at 455 Golden Gate Avenue, Queen Feckless will continue to be chauffeured around by her taxpayer funded CHP limousine.
Still serving themselves to the detriment of all Californians.
Long live the ACJ.
unionman575
January 7, 2015
https://recalltani.wordpress.com/
Recall Tani Organizing Committee (RTOC)
A Judicial Council Watcher public accountability project
MaxRebo5
January 7, 2015
Here is an article from the San Jose Mercury News on the new audit of the AOC:
http://www.mercurynews.com/crime-courts/ci_27274353/california-judicial-leaders-slammed-spending
Wendy Darling
January 7, 2015
“Howle’s report also expressed the same concern that many trial judges have vocalized over the years- that the Judicial Council and its bureaucracy will champion reform publicly, without making any actual changes.”
This is the reality with the Office of the Chief Justice, branch “leadership”, and 455 Golden Gate Avenue: lip service, window dressing, smoke-and-mirrors word spinning, half-truths and outright lies. This is now at least the third audit, and the fourth “investigation” when you include the SEC report, to have identified serious mismanagement, fiscal recklessness, and administrative misconduct at 455 Golden Gate Avenue within the last 4 years. Has anyone seen any real reform? No. Has anyone seen any actual changes? No. How about real and actual transparency? No. Anyone seen anyone at all actually held accountable for this atrocious behavior? No.
This audit report is but the most recent exhibit in a long and substantive trail of documentation and evidence of the very real and serious problems in judicial branch administration Everyone and anyone in a position of authority and responsibility that could do something about any of this has been fully informed. And still not a single one of them will actually do anything about any of it. Like branch administration itself, those that have the enforcement authority to take corrective action regarding administrative misconduct in the California judicial branch continue to do nothing but turn a blind eye, and to do so intentionally.
Someone let me know when that changes. Because until that happens, nothing is going to materially change in branch administration and 455 Golden Gate Avenue, no matter how many “scathing” audit reports are released by Elaine Howle and the BSA.
And just an FYI – you think this audit report was scathing? Have Elaine Howle and the BSA audit the AOC’s Court Construction program.
Long live the ACJ.
unionman575
January 7, 2015
I smell something and its not carne asada at the Death Star HQ:
Lando
January 7, 2015
The State Audit of the AOC was devastating. It is an indictment of HRH-2 and her Judicial Council ” staff” and minions. As I predicted, HRH-2 and Hoshino are all in denial claiming yet again that they have addressed the Auditor’s concerns. Yet the Auditor exposes all that by correctly pointing out how few of the SEC’s recommendations were ever adopted despite the insiders claims to the contrary. HRH-2 bears the full responsibility for this now. She is no longer new to the job and has had 4 years to investigate followup on and change how 455 Golden Gate is governed. Most of what I read today I fully expected, waste of millions, bloated management salaries, misuse of retirement benefits etc. The shocker for me was the AOC’s ownership or leasing of 66 cars. Are you kidding me? 66 cars? What in the world is the AOC doing with 66 cars? Who are these cars assigned to and why? Where are they being driven to? How much was expended on their purchase and lease? Where are they parked and if they are parked in the crystal palace basement the monthly parking expenses must be incredible. This is on par with giving away public money similar to allowing AOC lawyers to telecommute from Europe. Will HRH-2, Hull , Miller or Hoshino explain why their Judicial Council and staff has 66 cars? The Audit supports exactly what we have all been saying here for years. To remedy this disgraceful abuse of taxpayer funds HRH-2 should resign, Hoshino should resign and the legislature after conducting a followup investigation should write legislation to democratize the Judicial Council.
JusticeCalifornia
January 8, 2015
http://www.sacbee.com/news/politics-government/capitol-alert/article5557542.html
Gotta love Team George’s interesting excuse for wasting money:
‘Rosenberg added that the audit covered less than 5 percent of the judiciary’s budget – “a bucket of water in Lake Tahoe” – and would not resolve its funding problems.’
unionman575
January 8, 2015
http://www.latimes.com/local/california/la-me-courts-audit-20150108-story.html
JusticeCalifornia
January 8, 2015
LA Times:
“Auditors also said the Judicial Council could save $5 million in rent each year by moving its San Francisco and Burbank offices to Sacramento, where rents are cheaper.
Cantil-Sakauye has said such a move would be too disruptive, though it would personally benefit her. The administrative office is in a state-owned building that also houses the California Supreme Court and the 1st District Court of Appeal.
Cantil-Sakauye’s primary residence is in Sacramento. She purchased a condominium in San Francisco to be close to the court and its administrative offices during the workweek. The California Supreme Court has been based in San Francisco since the late 1800s.”
Joe Dunn’s tussle with the State Bar apparently involved angering Sakauye by suggesting that the State Bar move its headquarters to Sacramento to save money.Right?
Give it up Tani, time to pack your bags and go home (in more ways than one). Sacramento would be much cheaper for employees too. No more excuses that they need outrageous amounts of money to meet the SF cost of living.
http://www.businessinsider.com/san-francisco-is-more-expensive-than-new-york-city-2014-9
unionman575
January 8, 2015
http://www.bizjournals.com/sacramento/news/2015/01/07/state-audit-court-budget-decisions.html
Lando
January 8, 2015
The big lie has begun and look out for the spin created by the 455 Golden Gate insiders. They claim under HRH-2 enormous transformation has started and that all the concerns of the State Auditor have been addressed. Really. If so the State Auditor would have identified that. If indeed the insiders are correct why does the Judicial Council maintain three or more offices around the state? Why are they paying such huge rent at 455 Golden Gate? Why do they maintain a fleet of 66 cars many of which they can’t account for? Why does the Judicial Council maintain a huge staff for technology when the trial courts are going their own way to implement case management systems? Why did the number of Judicial Council employees and consultants increase when the trial courts were massively downsized.? Why does Mr Hoshino make so much more than the Governor or the trial Judges of the state? The public , legislature, Governor’s office , court employees and judges of this state need to see through all the fog of misinformation and arrogance that represents what Ronald George and HRH-2 stand for. Now HRH-2 claims she has appointed yet another committee to review the State Auditor’s recommendations. Any guess if any actual trial court or AOC employees or ACJ judges are part of that process ?
anonymous
January 8, 2015
TCS: “The hallmark of the judiciary is a deliberative process” which is orwellian for we read the audit and we read all the other audits and reports and for years we’ve been considering them.
I guess we should all be thankful that they are considering them rather than acting upon them. Two years have passed since the release of the SEC report and hardly anything has changed. The chief courts administrator TCS needs to step down for gross mismanagement.
We’ve grown weary of words and it’s time for some action.
courtflea
January 8, 2015
“The audit contained useful recommendations”. Tani just flipped them the bird. I hope the governor flips her one back and specifically cuts the AOC budget big time in his upcoming budget. Wake up and smell the coffee Tani. Shit, what’s it going to take. Oh yeah like Delilah says pigs flying and hell freezing over. Ah yeah. ….
JusticeCalifornia
January 8, 2015
The report is a real page-turner.
It is unforgivable that the ACJ, the unions, the public, former court employees, and so many others (AOC Watcher and JCW!) have had to spend years providing free oversight efforts to force constant exposure of Tani’s follies. So much time and money has been spent on this expensive and often perilous volunteer effort, and on the multiple damning official audits and reports that say the same thing: the cj/jc/aoc are wasting taxpayer funds, playing hide the ball, have zero business or administrative skills, and zero effective oversight. This latest audit report is about what is is STILL going on. No surprise. Sakauye has defiantly continued to surround herself with the same old historically failed and ethically compromised “advisors”, while slamming the door shut on the 25% of the judiciary publicly calling for change.
In my view the ACJ has proven to be an effective “oversight” group rather than a “dissident” group. They stepped in originally to stop CCMS (Remember how Sakauye started her term by insisting that Vickrey and CCMS were just great?) and notwithstanding Team George’s claims that all is well, continued to put the pressure on for financial audits of the AOC.
Let’s face it. Critics of branch administration–volunteer and official– have been right. Party-liners who have continued to defend the status quo need to read every page of that report, and review prior reports, and, with the benefit of 20-20 hindsight, join in a call for new and responsible branch administration.
Marie Antoinette Sakauye and Team George need to resign. It is very clear they have no intention of effecting real change, and no one wants to listen to or fund them anymore. They are an embarrassment. And they are impeding the resurrection of California’s once great branch.
Stuart Michael
January 8, 2015
what’s the link to the report?
thanks
Michael Paul
January 8, 2015
http://bsa.ca.gov/pdfs/reports/2014-107.pdf
MaxRebo5
January 8, 2015
Anyone remember this analysis by Justice Huffman about consultants and their costs?
All we’re suggesting is from a policy perspective over time you should be concerned with instances where you have a consultant working as a consultant for the council 10, 12, 15 years. It may be necessary but it ought to be the exception to a generalized rule in our view. Following the human services entities’ own view, and the normal view is hiring the employee is probably better than most financially prudent mechanisms. However, again, you are facing this world of technology change, limited resources, and limited ability to hire. So we simply raise it in our responsibility as being, I suppose, I guess we’re now the appointed nitpickers for the Judicial Council.
>> [Laughter]
>> So that’s our report, Chief Justice. I’d be happy to answer questions.
>> Thank you, Justice Huffman
The CA State Auditor said in their summary document yesterday that the AOC:
Employs over 70 contractors and temporary employees and could save about $7.2 million per year by using state employees in comparable positions.
That was 7.2 million dollars that could have been redirected to trial courts! I lost my job in one of those trial courts because there was not funds to pay for it. That 7.2 million is not abstract money to me at all! It could have saved me from going on unemployment. How dare Justice Huffman call ending waste at the top nitpicking. Stop wasting valuable taxpayer money, get out of your fortress of a court, and start taking your duties to people seriously.
The LA Times reported today the Judicial Council/AOC wasted 30 million on massive salaries for the top admin. That money could have saved hundreds of jobs for trial court staff. For shame Chief!!!
Add in the waste on CCMS which didn’t even work as promised and it gets really bad. Then add in the courthouse construction waste on the Long Beach Courthouse, since the Chief keeps saying the scope was limited, and it gets to be obscenely bad management for over a decade.
For the record, there were voices saying the scope needed to be broader for this audit and I specifically recall Michael Paul was at the hearing saying courthouse construction should be included. His small voice of reason was overruled but the legislature should remember it now. Given how much waste the Auditor found at the AOC with this limited scope I think the Legislature and Governor should go back and review the courthouse construction to find the rest of the public funds wasted. The Chief shoots herself in the foot by saying this was limited in scope. As comedian Dave Chappelle might say “Fine, lady fine” (on the scope being limited). portraying Tani he would say, “Just because the report says I did bad in this limited scope audit does not mean I am a total administrative failure.” Chappelle would then reply as himself, “That is true. That is true. The scope was limited and we should not forget it. But you are an administrative failure everyplace the auditors reviewed so far I’ll tell you that much”
Huffman and all of the Team George leftovers (Jody and the Curts) clearly have to go. There needs to be all new blood in the AOC “leadership” and on the Judicial Council itself. Tani should say she is sorry to all trial court staff for the unnecessary hardships her waste at the top has caused for those in line positions in trial courts who lost jobs around the state. She could have saved some of those jobs by making salary cuts at the AOC but she didn’t. Shame on her!!! That was her job to do as Chair of the Judicial Council but she didn’t do it. Don’t change the subject to the other cuts the branch took (like all state government had to take due to the recession). That is weak! I want a Chief Justice who is mature enough to take personal responsibility for her mistakes not redirect blame elsewhere.
Lastly, I would like to see a reporter follow up and ask Retired Justice Arthur Scotland if he still feels this audit was a waste of taxpayer money? That was the position Justice Scotland expressed at the legislative hearing calling for it to take place. He wanted to just let the Judicial Council fix it on their own. Given his advice to the legislature I think his opinions on court administration issues have now just been proven to be 100% wrong. He is a Team George player through and through as are Justices Huffman, Miller, and Hull. They have lost all credibility in the real world. It is time for new “leadership” on the Judicial Council. Time for the Chief to stop being defiant and admit her own personal admin failures. Much of this waste is on her time and she owns it.
Fortunately Governor Brown is bringing in all new Justices to the CA Supreme Court and is reshaping the courts from below as well with new appointments of judges to the trial courts. Ron George’s legacy is going to be that he was the clearly a horrible dictator of an administrator for CA Courts not ‘Great” at all. The only way to define him as “Great’ is if the word “Bully” and “Great” are made to be synonymous and I don’t mean bully the way Teddy Roosevelt used the word. I think Tani should now change sides and respect the voices of the Alliance CA Judges or she too will be remembered as a bully in a robe who only wanted to hear certain voices yet pretended to be democratic and open to all. That shell game is over. Time for real changes and most of that change just needs to happen in Tani’s head.
JusticeCalifornia
January 8, 2015
MaxRebo, change is never going to happen in Tani’s head. She was on the Judicial Council before becoming CJ, and she has had 4 years as CJ to wake up and smell the coffee. She has refused to clean house.
If the audit was a report card, the cj/jc/aoc would be wallowing in D’s and F’s. If the jc/aoc was a true business (interesting that Hoshino refers to the trial courts as “customers”) they would have had to shut their doors long ago due to gross mismanagement, conflicts of interest, and terrible customer service.
The branch cannot afford 8 more years of Sakauye.
MaxRebo5
January 8, 2015
Never mind my post. The Chief created another committee and Justice Miller is the chair. Problems solved. Lol
http://www.courts.ca.gov/28341.htm
Michael Paul
January 8, 2015
Let’s assign the same people to the another new committee and expect a different result…..
Michael Paul
January 8, 2015
http://www.kcra.com/news/audit-blasts-financial-management-at-california-courts/30584792?absolute=true?par=nbcnews&site=nbcnews.com&cm_ven=nbcnews&cm_cat=Article
sharonkramer
January 8, 2015
Attend just one Judicial Council meeting and the problem becomes glaringly apparent. Its an organization in which no member dares to mention underlying real problems — let alone figure out how to correct them. If the way that org is designed and assembled is not changed, then it seems to me that nothing else will ever change.
MaxRebo5
January 8, 2015
A bit more press and this time from out of state:
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2015/jan/7/audit-blasts-financial-management-of-california-co/
MaxRebo5
January 8, 2015
SD Tribune ran the story too:
http://www.utsandiego.com/news/2015/jan/07/audit-blasts-financial-management-of-california/
MaxRebo5
January 8, 2015
Last one:
http://www.allgov.com/usa/ca/news/where-is-the-money-going/state-auditor-issues-scathing-report-on-california-court-administrators-150108?news=855311
I like it because the author links how CCMS came first and this is on top of that failure.
unionman575
January 8, 2015
http://www.bizjournals.com/sacramento/news/2015/01/08/state-auditor-move-court-administrative-hq-to.html
State auditor: Move court administrative HQ to Sacramento, save money on rent
Jan 8, 2015, 7:31am PST
Updated: Jan 8, 2015, 8:41am PST
unionman575
January 8, 2015
http://www.recordnet.com/article/20150107/NEWS/150109759/101087/A_NEWS
R. Campomadera
January 8, 2015
Chief Justice Tani Gomer Pyle, upon hearing of the Auditor’s report: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2TnkJ8_BmSI
Wendy Darling
January 8, 2015
Updated article from Courthouse News, by Maria DInzeo:
Quote of the day: “ Jones-Sawyer said his budget committee will hold a hearing on the audit, where the Judicial Council’s staff will be asked to testify. “We will ask the courts to explain approximately $200 million in efficiencies that I beleive this audit identified,” he said. “It will be difficult for the legislature to increase their budget by once cent until they can prove they are managing their budget efficiently.”
Note to Assembly member Reginald Jones-Sawyer: instead of “asking” Judicial Council staff to testify, you may want to consider issuing Judicial Council staff subpoenas and having them testify under oath. Not that committing perjury is any problem for them.
Scathing Catalog of Judiciary Overspending by CA Auditor
By MARIA DINZEO
(CN) – California’s judicial bureaucracy wasted millions on overpaid employees and “questionable business practices,” as Judicial Council supervisors turned a blind eye, according to an exhaustive investigation by the state auditor published Wednesday.
The auditor’s blistering, 96-page report noted that nine of the AOC’s office directors are paid more than the governor, and also pointed to a series of other indulgences that have eroded confidence in the bureaucracy and diminished resources that would have otherwise gone to the trial courts.
“The level of the Judicial Council’s involvement in the AOC’s budget process and expenditure decisions appears to have been more ministerial than substantive. In the absence of adequate oversight, the AOC engaged in questionable compensation and business practices, and failed to adequately disclose its expenditures to stakeholders and the public,” Auditor Elaine Howle wrote.
Shortly after the report’s release, the reform group Alliance of California Judges issued a statement saying, “The Judicial Council has lost touch with its primary mission of advising the courts, and has instead morphed into an over-bloated bureaucracy that places its own interests ahead of those of the trial courts it was created to serve.”
The group of roughly 500 judges that has hammered the central bureaucracy of the courts over spending habits, size and perceived arrogance, added, “We have never contended that we have all of the answers to the problems facing our court system, but we persist in one unwavering belief — money could not have been so tragically misdirected if the process whereby funds are allocated to the courts had been an open and democratic one.”
Former Alliance director and retired judge Charles Horan of Los Angeles said, “Once again, what we’ve been saying has been verified by an independent source. What the AOC and the chief justice have denied over and over and tried to minimize has been laid out for everybody to see.”
In her report, Howle offered an unprecedented solution, based on a survey conducted by her office that found each trial court in the state used an average of 55 percent of the AOC’s services.
“Given the lapses in the Judicial Council’s oversight and the AOC’s decision making that we identify in this report, we believe significant change is necessary to ensure that the State’s courts receive the critical funding they require to provide access to justice to all Californians,” she wrote. “One change could come in the form of a fee-for-service delivery structure for the AOC, which would redirect some of the funding that it currently receives to the courts and empower them to use that funding to pay for only those AOC services that they need.”
She added, “An expanded fee-for-service system could also lead to a right-sized AOC. If such a system was established, the AOC would derive part of its funding from the trial courts’ payments for services. Under the current system of service delivery, courts can use as many AOC services as they wish at no direct cost to the requesting court.”
Judicial Council leadership did not respond to a request for comment on the audit through its press office, but the council recently scheduled a closed session meeting for Wednesday afternoon, to discuss “personnel and other confidential matters.”
But Assembly member Reginald Jones-Sawyer (D-Los Angeles), who headed the effort to obtain the audit, said in an interview that he agreed with the auditor’s recommendations.
“My goal is to provide access to justice for everyone,” he said. “That requires that courtrooms are open and staffed. We must ensure that funding meant for the judicial branch gets to the trial courts. This audit shows that mismanagement has impeded our efforts to provide over $200 million in efficiencies. The audit recommends possible changes, including re-engineering of the services provided by the AOC, and possibly the alternative use of a fee-for-services funding structure and requiring an annual independent financial audit of the AOC.”
He added, “I support them all. Every last one of them.”
Well-Compensated Staff
Among the highlights of the auditor’s report were the generous salaries and compensation packages for employees of the Administrative Office of the Courts, which has recently undergone a name change to “Judicial Council staff,” and its employment of at least 70 high-cost contractors and temporary employees.
“We identified about $30 million in questionable compensation and business practices over a four-year period, plus the additional estimated annual savings of more than $5 million that would result if the AOC were to consolidate its operations in one location. For example, the Judicial Council allowed the AOC to provide its staff with salaries and benefits that significantly exceed those that executive branch employees receive, without sufficient justification,” Howle wrote.
“Moreover, the AOC made questionable — and costly — business decisions, such as maintaining multiple office locations and hiring an excessive number of consultants, contractors, and temporary workers,” she added. “In light of the significant funding cuts to the judicial branch, it is difficult to understand why these practices have continued. Had the AOC discontinued some or all of the questionable business practices, additional funds might have been available for redirection to the trial courts.”
According to the auditor’s report, in fiscal year 2012-13, the AOC spent $63 million on salaries. The average AOC salary is $82,000, while executive branch employees make $62,000 on average, and employees of four of the state’s biggest trial courts make around $71,000.
It also pays eight of its nine high-level directors more than $179,000 per year, “more than the governor and other high-ranking state officials receive, yet those officials have much broader responsibilities,” Howle wrote. “In fact, 88 of the AOC’s employees earn over $130,000 per year, which exceeds the salary level of the executive branch’s highest career executive assignment.”
Assembly member Jones-Sawyer called the salaries “very shocking,” adding, “as other people were denied raises and laid off, as resources were choked out of the local levels, it does not look like the people at the AOC upper level were sharing the burden.”
In the audit released Wednesday, Howle also noted the AOC’s practice of paying some executive employees’ shares of their retirement contributions “at a total cost of more than $858,000 over a four-year period.”
While state law does permit this benefit for employees who were hired before January 1, 2013, “the fact that the AOC continues to provide this benefit to its executives during a time when budget cuts are severely affecting the courts indicates that it is not taking all reasonable steps available to reduce its costs,” the audit said.
The Judicial Council, a 21-member rule-making body that oversees the AOC, is chaired by Chief Justice Tani Cantil-Sakauye, who chooses the bulk of its voting members. The AOC’s administrative director also reports to Cantil-Sakauye, who last approved staff salaries in October 2012. In September 2014, the council hired Martin Hoshino as its new administrative director.
In a letter to the auditor sent on Dec. 16, Hoshino said he welcomed the auditor’s input and agreed with many of the report’s recommendations. However, he added, “A number of the recommendations have already been implemented or are in the process of being reviewed.”
Howle replied with skepticism, saying, “We are concerned that the AOC’s assertion that it will review its current policies or bring our recommendation to the attention of the Chief Justice and/or the Judicial Council — without proposing a specific plan — suggests that meaningful change will not occur.”
Executive Perks
In addition to lavish salaries and benefits, the auditor said the AOC also picks up the tab for its executives’ parking, unjustifiably maintains a fleet of 66 vehicles for employee use, spends excessive amounts on catering and maintains three locations in Los Angeles, Sacramento and San Francisco.
According to the audit, had the council done better job of supervising the staff, it might have caught the AOC’s dubious spending. It may have even identified ways to direct more money to the state’s trial courts from the AOC’s own budget.
But, she wrote, “The lack of Judicial Council involvement in the budgeting process resulted, in some cases, in the AOC having sole autonomy in deciding how to spend certain judicial branch funds.”
Howle also expressed the same concern that many trial judges have vocalized over the years- that the Judicial Council and its bureaucracy will champion reform publicly, without making any actual changes.
“We are concerned that without significant changes, the Judicial Council and AOC will continue to publicly embrace addressing the weaknesses that we and others have identified but fail to take the steps necessary to actually repair those weaknesses in a meaningful and transparent way,” Howle wrote.
Reacting to the report, Cantil-Sakauye sent an email to judicial officers Wednesday morning saying, “In 2015, we will continue to move forward on many important priorities for the branch. This audit, while confined in scope, gives us another useful tool to help us make progress.”
Jones-Sawyer said, “The auditor was very fair. And the scope was almost exactly what was agreed upon by both the Judicial Council and our office. Now I think theis may be the tip of the ice berg. There could be some more inefficiencies that we could find and ferret out and make the department run smoother. This is about top management right now, and right now top management, according to the audit, needs to do more to ensure that every penny is spent appropriately and that funding gets down to where it’s most needed.”
For four years, lawmakers have expressed frustration with the bureaucracy over controversial financial policies, such as a pension system that rewarded the top 30 employees with another 22% in pension contributions from public funds on top of their salaries, and a pay raise for most of the staff of 3.5 percent in 2010 and another 3.5 percent in 2013, in the heart of California’s financial crisis.
The AOC was also heavily criticized over its mismanagement of a statewide computer project called the Court Case Management System. The software project was scrapped in 2012, but not before it had already spent at least $500 million. Howle also audited the project in 2011, finding that AOC bureaucrats had disguised its true cost to taxpayers.
‘Tumultuous History’
“The AOC has a tumultuous history with various stakeholders including the public, the trial courts, and the Legislature,” the audit noted. “In fact, the evaluation committee’s report noted that the AOC does not consistently seek input from stakeholders, present information that would allow stakeholders to be informed, or retain evidence of analyses it conducted to support certain decisions. Although the AOC has taken steps in recent years to improve its processes, these steps have coincided with amplified scrutiny and thus may not have been a proactive effort.”
Such scrutiny culminated in Cantil-Sakauye’s appointment of the Strategic Evaluation Committee, a 14-judge committee charged with reviewing the AOC. Its resulting report in May 2012 contained 124 recommendations for reform of the AOC’s bloated staff, overspending and lack of communication and strong leadership within its divisions. The council accepted the report, re-writing the recommendations into “directives,” of which it claims 109 of the 145 are complete. But according to the auditor, only 51 recommendations have been completed.
“The AOC has not been transparent or accurate in its reporting on the status of implementing the recommendations from the evaluation committee’s 2012 report,” Howle’s audit said.
Cantil-Sakauye’s Wednesday email nevertheless referred to the SEC report in saying the auditor’s concerns are already being addressed. “I believe every organization should constantly re-assess and continuously improve itself. I am, therefore, pleased to see that a number of the recommendations have been in process since 2012, when the Judicial Council accepted the recommendations of the Strategic Evaluation Committee (SEC),” she said.
Horan called the chief’s message “insulting,” saying, “I found it so disheartening and predictable, her statement that she released to every judge, pointing to the SEC report which the auditor made clear they have not complied with.”
In the audit, Howle included a caveat to ensure the council’s cooperation. “If the Judicial Council does not undertake sufficient and timely action in response to our recommendations, it may be desirable to amend the provisions of the California Constitution that prescribe the powers of the Judicial Council so that the reforms we recommend can be implemented,” Howle said in her audit.
Horan said Howle is right to be concerned. “She indicated she was afraid that without legislative intervention they’d do what they’ve always done, falsely claim to be making progress. Once again, despite their promises, we’ve seen four more years of the same nonsense from this bunch that’s in power. I agree 100 percent with the auditor, nothing good will come from that bunch. It will have to come from legislative fixes and may be a constitutional amendment.”
Jones-Sawyer said his budget committee will hold a hearing on the audit, where the Judicial Council’s staff will be asked to testify. “We will ask the courts to explain approximately $200 million in efficiencies that I beleive this audit identified,” he said. “It will be difficult for the legislature to increase their budget by once cent until they can prove they are managing their budget efficiently.”
http://www.courthousenews.com/2015/01/07/scathing-catalog-of-judiciary-overspending-by-ca-auditor.htm
Long live the ACJ.
wearyant
January 9, 2015
Excellent reporting by Maria Dinzeo again. Thanks for posting, Wendy. I’m glad people outside of JCW are realizing that the California Constitution may have to be amended to stop the thugs from continuing on with their business as usual. The “pay as you go” is a great concept too. It was good to hear from Horan! Long live the ACJ and Team Howle.
Wendy Darling
January 8, 2015
Published Wednesday, January 7, from The Recorder, the on-line publication of CalLaw, by Cheryl Miller:
Audit Blasts Judicial Council on Spending, Management Practices
Cheryl Miller, The Recorder
SACRAMENTO — California’s state auditor issued a damning audit of the judiciary on Wednesday, concluding in a 90-page report that branch leaders failed to adequately oversee an administration that spent lavishly on staff salaries, benefits and consultants while local courts’ budgets were slashed.
“Questionable compensation and business practices” by the judicial arm formerly known as the Administrative Office of the Court—agency workers are simply referred to as Judicial Council staff now—may have wasted tens of millions of dollars that could have been directed to beleaguered trial courts, Auditor Elaine Howle wrote in a letter presenting the audit to the governor and legislative leaders.
“Given the lapses in the Judicial Council’s oversight and the AOC’s decision making, we believe significant change is necessary to ensure that the state’s courts receive the critical funding they require to provide access to justice for all Californians,” Howle said.
The findings could not have come at a worse time for the branch, as the governor is expected to release his 2015-16 spending plan on Friday. For months, Chief Justice Tani Cantil-Sakauye and her staff have pleaded with Jerry Brown’s administration to provide additional court funding in his annual budget proposal to stop ongoing courthouse closures and public service reductions.
In a statement released early Wednesday to the branch, Cantil-Sakauye did not directly address the audit’s specific findings, saying only that it “includes useful recommendations.”
“We still have work to do,” she wrote. “As you know, the hallmark of the judicial branch is its deliberative process—and it’s a process we will adhere to as we evaluate the audit’s policy recommendations.”
Cantil-Sakauye announced late Wednesday that she’s created a committee of judges and a court administrator to consider the options laid out by the auditor.
Among the audit’s findings:
* The AOC overpays many of its employees—more than the governor in some cases—and provides expensive benefits, including the full retirement contributions of 11 executives and a generous employee-leave buyback program. The AOC recently hired a consultant to scrutinize its job classifications and salaries. A report is due in April.
* The agency maintains a fleet of 66 cars but has no policy for their use or tracking their costs. Three executives drive the cars for personal use about 80 percent of the time.
* The AOC overspends on contractors, temporary workers and consultants when hiring full-time employees would be cheaper. Using temps makes the AOC’s staffing numbers appear low. The AOC also spent local court funds instead of state-level operation money on some of the temps’ costs.
* Over the past four years, the AOC spent $386 million in money designated for local courts on things such as AOC employees’ travel expenses, consultants’ services and outside legal counsel. The AOC could have picked up at least some of those costs with its own budget, freeing up more money for trial court operations, the report said.
*The AOC is not transparent with its spending practices, and it overstated its compliance with 124 recommendations for improvements made by the Judicial Council’s Strategic and Evaluation Committee in 2012.
The report will surely provide political red meat to labor groups and some trial court judges who are lobbying for structural changes to the Judicial Council and for more spending authority at the local level.
“Today’s audit confirms the concerns frontline court workers have expressed for years and underscores the reason we advocated for an audit last year: the Administrative Office of the Courts’ mismanagement and misplaced priorities have compromised the delivery of justice to Californians,” Alameda County Superior Court employee Debbi Pearson said in a statement distributed by the Service Employees International Union, which represents thousands of court workers around the state and holds considerable sway in the Legislature.
The Alliance of California Judges called on the Judicial Council’s administrative director, Martin Hoshino, to make “meaningful changes” based on the audit’s findings.
“The Judicial Council has lost touch with its primary mission of advising the courts, and has instead morphed into an over-bloated bureaucracy that places its own interests ahead of those of the trial courts it was created to serve,” the Alliance said in a release issued Wednesday afternoon.
Howle’s report makes more than dozen recommendations to the council, including considering relocation to Sacramento, curtailing the costs of personnel and perks and more carefully scrutinizing the actions of the administrative staff.
The legislator who pushed last year for the audit, Assemblyman Reginald Jones-Sawyer, D-Los Angeles, said he intends to pursue the audit’s recommended changes through legislation or the upcoming budget process.
“It is time for change,” he said. “The people of California have suffered enough.”
And Howle expressed concern that the council is truly interested in making changes on its own, noting that Hoshino’s initial response, included in the audit report, did not lay out any specific plans for addressing the problems her office cited.
“If the Judicial Council does not undertake sufficient and timely action in response to our recommendations,” Howle wrote. “it may be desirable to amend the provisions of the California Constitution that prescribe the powers of the Judicial Council so that the reforms we recommend can be implemented.”
http://www.therecorder.com/home/id=1202714325703/Audit-Blasts-Judicial-Council-on-Spending-Management-Practices?mcode=1202615733861&curindex=0
Long live the ACJ.
wearyant
January 9, 2015
And God bless Reginald Jones-Sawyer for his efforts and the unions!
Lando
January 9, 2015
I love the great double standard that the Judicial Council created here. They send their auditors to the trial courts to torture our employees over every alleged minor auditing problem but they allow themselves the luxury of 66 cars and 200 cellphones which no one accounts for. In fact, no one at the Judicial Council made any effort to insure that these cars or phones were used only for work related purposes and no records appear to exist for when the cars and phones were used. The Chief Justice and her two top minions, J Hull and J Miller supervised this mess. They are responsible for the massive failings set forth by the State Auditor. The problems identified by the State Auditor are remarkable including the staggering amount of over 300 million dollars of wasted taxpayer funds at a time when trial court employees were losing their jobs and the public was being cut off from local access to justice. The Chief’s response to this is also rather remarkable. She is appointing yet another committee of ” insiders” including J Miller to respond to the Auditor’s devastating findings. This state, the citizens we serve and work for and the thousands of hard working employees of the trial courts deserve so much better. The Chief, Miller and Hull should resign. As that will never happen, the legislature should then democratize the Judicial Council and thereby end the tyranny and arrogance of this Chief Justice’s totally failed regime.
JusticeCalifornia
January 9, 2015
Exactly right.
courtflea
January 9, 2015
Could not have said it better myself Lando, about the hypocrisy of the trial court audits. Now let’s see, 300 million outlined in this audit plus 500 million in the CCMS. Audit and gee we are getting close to a BILLION dollars in wasteful spending and this is just the tip of the iceberg! !?? This blatant waste of tax payers money screams out for a take over of the AOC by a federal judge a la the department of corrections or some other type of drastic action. The shame these incompetent fools have brought upon the judiciary and the branch should inspire outrage in all of its members. At this point to sit passively by while such malfeasance occurs would be cowardly. Judges need retake control of the future of their branch by publicly supporting the audit findings and demanding reform of the AOC and a top to bottom audit of the organization. Hell at this rate such an audit would most likely find billions of waste and eventually restore the courts to full funding if changes were implemented.
OK yeah when pigs fly…
MaxRebo5
January 9, 2015
My hope is this is the Chief’s last chance to change. If real reforms are not made then the next step need not just be changing the CA Constitution but holding her accountable under the existing CA Constitution. This provision may need to be followed:
CALIFORNIA CONSTITUTION
ARTICLE 4 LEGISLATIVE
SEC. 18. (a) The Assembly has the sole power of impeachment.
Impeachments shall be tried by the Senate. A person may not be
convicted unless, by rollcall vote entered in the journal, two thirds
of the membership of the Senate concurs.
(b) State officers elected on a statewide basis, members of the
State Board of Equalization, and judges of state courts are subject
to impeachment for misconduct in office. Judgment may extend only to
removal from office and disqualification to hold any office under the
State, but the person convicted or acquitted remains subject to
criminal punishment according to law.
wearyant
January 9, 2015
So well said, Lando! And I seem to remember the spoiled brats at the crystal palace clamoring for iPads when they cost around $800 at the time …
unionman575
January 9, 2015
http://www.utsandiego.com/news/2015/jan/08/audit-blasts-courts-administration/
AUDIT GAVELS DOWN WASTE IN STATE COURTS
FROM CELL PHONES AND FLEET VEHICLES TO SALARIES AND PENSIONS, REPORT FINDS EXCESSES
The administrative office for California state courts has blown millions of dollars on high salaries, generous benefits and bad business decisions during a time of unprecedented budget cuts that have closed courtrooms and diminished public access.
Those are some of the findings in a report this week by state Auditor Elaine Howle criticizing the Administrative Office of the Courts.
The 96-page audit not only criticized the office for mismanagement, but also concluded the leadership of the state judiciary has failed in its duty to oversee the agency.
The report depicted an office with few internal controls and less oversight, one that doesn’t spend the hundreds of millions of dollars allocated to it by the legislature “in the most transparent and justified manner.”
Among other examples, auditors found the agency used $386 million that was supposed to support the state’s 59 local court systems for its own operations. In effect, the audit found the agency siphoned money designed for local courts for its own use.
More than half was spent on consultants, contractors and temporary employees, and $6 million was spent on office supplies and equipment for the agency, which has offices in San Francisco and Los Angeles.
Those funds could have been used to prop up local courts, which have had to shutter courtrooms, reduce hours, lay off staff and cut services during the past five years.
In San Diego alone, the courts have closed scores of civil law courtrooms (where lawsuits are heard) and reduced staff to 1,200 from 1,600.
More reductions are due this year. Plans call for closing traffic courts in El Cajon and Chula Vista courthouses and moving all cases to the Kearny Mesa courts, a longer drive for motorists from south and east county.
The criticisms largely track those leveled at the agency over the past several years by some members of the legislature, and most pointedly from the Alliance of California Judges, a group of jurists who have been calling for reform of the judiciary governance system.
Those judges have complained the administrative office in league with the Judicial Council that oversees operations has squelched dissent, while at the same time mismanaging funds to the detriment of local courts.
The extensive audit, which was called for by Los Angeles-area Assemblyman Reginald Jones-Sawyer in February, is sure to give those groups more ammunition to seek reforms.
San Diego Superior Court Judge Runston G. “Tony” Maino, a member of the alliance who has been a persistent critics of the administrators, said the audit confirmed what many of his colleagues have been saying.
“The time has come for action, not for appointing another group of hand-picked judges to look into problems that have been obvious for years,” Maino said.
State Supreme Court Chief Justice Tani Cantil-Sakauye, in response to the audit, announced a new working group headed by judges from around the state to review the findings.
• Martin Hoshino, the administrative director for the agency, said in a written response that he welcomed the report and that some of the recommendations made by the auditor are underway, the result of an internal review completed in 2012 by the courts agency.
The agency is undergoing a review of all employee duties and salaries and has stopped the practice of covering the employee’s share of pension contributions for executive and management level staffers. That stopped in 2012, though the report said the agency still pays all pension contribution costs for 11 employees.
Despite those assurances, the audit was skeptical. It noted the Administrative Office of the Courts has never had an independent financial audit and recommended that one be regularly done.
“We are concerned that the AOC’s assertion that it will review its current policies or bring our recommendation to the current Chief Justice and/or the Judicial Council — without proposing a specific plan— suggests that meaningful change will not occur,” the audit concluded.
Statewide, 53 courthouses have closed and more than 200 individual courtrooms have gone idle as the court’s budges has been cut by more than $1 billion since the state’s fiscal crisis began in 2008.
During the same time, the audit said, the courts agency — with as many as 1,000 employees — did not share in the pain.
Also of note:
• There are eight executives at the administrative agency who have a salary higher than Gov. Jerry Brown, who is paid $177,000 per year. A total of 88 agency employees earn more than $130,000 annually. In 2013, the average salary for an agency employee was $82,000, while the average for executive branch employees was $62,000.
• The agency has a fleet of 66 vehicles, but hasn’t justified why it needs them and doesn’t have a centralized inventory system for the fleet. Three top executives who had cars used them for business purposes 20 percent of the time. The rest was for personal use — primarily driving between home and work, the report said.
• The agency didn’t have a policy governing employee use of cell phones until this past May. Some 200 employees had been issued phones before the policy went into effect. The audit said the agency doesn’t track the expenses.
😉
unionman575
January 9, 2015
http://www.legalera.in/news-deals/global-legal-news/united-states/item/15493-audit-finds-30-million-in-questionable-court-spending-and-salaries.html
unionman575
January 9, 2015
http://www.courts.ca.gov/pclc.htm
January 15, 2015 Meeting (Closed)
4:45 p.m.
Notice of Closed Meeting of the Policy Coordination and Liaison Committee in accordance with California Rules of Court, rule 10.75(e)(1), public notice is hereby given that the Policy Coordination and Liaison Committee will hold a closed session on January 15, 2015 .The meeting will be closed pursuant to California Rules of Court, rule 10.75(d)(3). A copy of theagenda for this meeting will be available 5 days before the meeting on the advisory body web page on the California Courts website listed above.
Posted on: 01/08/15
http://www.courts.ca.gov/pclc.htm
pclc@jud.ca.govn Committee
JusticeCalifornia
January 9, 2015
I don’t know who is telling the press Hoshino’s salary is $227,000. According to the CA Court website announcing his selection, “his salary will be $240,828.”
http://www.courts.ca.gov/26992.htm
A new committee appointed by Sakauye and chaired by Miller to address a problematic situation created by Sakauye and Miller. Oh yeah, that is just what the branch needs.
Fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice, shame on me. . . . .
Sakauye and Miller have zero intention of changing anything. The SEC report was commissioned almost 4 years ago, and it was presented to the Council 2.5 years ago. That report has been treated as convenient window dressing for Sakauye, as is now clear from the new audit.
The legislature needs to cut to the chase NOW and start the process of amending the Constitution and taking other available measures to protect the public NOW.
sharonkramer
January 9, 2015
January 2014 “CA Chief Justice says Gov. Brown’s budget leaves courts substandard”.
http://www.scpr.org/blogs/politics/2014/01/15/15614/ca-chief-justice-says-gov-brown-s-budget-leaves-co/
Will she have the audacity to say that again when Brown’s newest budget plan is announced this Friday?
courtflea
January 9, 2015
Certainly! The woman is an egomaniac, sociopathic, and giddy with power that has no oversight or controls. She is the unchallenged undisputed dictator of the judicial branch who has run amuck, the masses she controls cowed with fear and cowardice in face of her absolute authority. I hope the governor has a silver bullet for her in his January budget.
MaxRebo5
January 9, 2015
The Governor was very kind to CA Courts in his budget summary. He proposed increasing judicial branch funding by 180 million dollars for FY 2015/2016:
http://www.ebudget.ca.gov/fullbudgetsummary.pdf
Wendy Darling
January 9, 2015
Published today, Friday, January 9, from Courthouse News Service, by Maria Dinzeo:
Brown Tells Courts to Use Extra Money Wisely
By MARIA DINZEO
SACRAMENTO (CN) – In unveiling his 2015-16 spending plan Friday, Gov. Jerry Brown said California courts will get more money this year, but the judiciary needs to do a better job of managing it.
Brown’s proposed budget sends an additional $180 million from the general fund to the judicial branch, with $90 million of it going to support trial courts. The total courts budget would rise from $3.29 billion last fiscal year to $3.47 billion in the coming one.
The money is part of a two-year funding strategy Brown released last year, which gave the judiciary $160 million in new money and promised the trial courts an additional 5 percent funding increase in 2015-16. Brown’s total projected budget is $113.3 billion.
“We’re giving the courts more money and we do think they are pressed. They’ve been facing pressures for a long time. We think we’ve given them the right amount of money but they have to manage it and there are some areas of savings they have to capture,” Brown told reporters.
Brown’s proposal for the courts includes $42.7 million to fund trial court employee benefits and $26.9 million to offset the predicted workload increase for the courts from the passage of Proposition 47, which reduces penalties in California for some misdemeanors.
Chief Justice Tani-Cantil-Sakauye said in a statement Friday: “I welcome the continued and additional investments by the governor in his proposed budget for California’s judicial branch. There is a much-needed increase in the overall branch budget as well as a baseline increase for trial court operations.”
She added: “The proposal is consistent with our multi-year approach to rebuild and create a more accessible and efficient court system to serve the people of California.”
The state auditor on Wednesday released a report highlighting, among other instances of dubious spending, salaries for judicial bureaucrats that are higher than the governor’s.
The audit found that the judiciary’s bureaucracy, the Administrative Office of the Courts, had wasted $30 million over four years that might have gone to keeping the courts running during the height of California’s fiscal crisis.
Brown cited the audit Friday, saying the chief justice is “well aware of the problem,” and that the audit should provide some guidance on where the judiciary can save.
He added: “She’s creating her own group to look into it and I think they can handle it fine.”
That group was created a few hours after the audit’s release Wednesday, when the Judicial Council met in an emergency closed session. Wednesday evening, a news release appeared on the council’s website saying several council members had been chosen to lead a new working group to review the audit’s recommendations.
But Auditor Elaine Howle did not seem to have much confidence in the Judicial Council’s oversight ability.
“Given the lapses in Judicial Council oversight and AOC decision making that we have identified throughout this report, we believe significant change is warranted,” Howle said. “We are concerned that without significant change, the Judicial Council and AOC will continue to publicly embrace plans to address the weaknesses that we and others have identified but fail to take the steps necessary to repair those weaknesses in a meaningful and transparent way.”
She added: “If the Judicial Council does not undertake sufficient and timely action in response to our recommendations, it may be desirable to amend the provisions of the California Constitution that prescribe the powers of the Judicial Council so that the reforms we recommend can be implemented.”
Shortly after the budget’s release, the Alliance of California judges, a reform group that successfully lobbied the Legislature to approve the audit, released a statement calling for funding to be sent directly to the courts, rather than to the Judicial Council that allocates the money to the courts, as the budget act dictates.
“As the governor releases his budget and members of the Legislature begin the task of making decisions on how judicial dollars should be spent, our message is clear: Without significant and systemic reform, the AOC will continue to siphon off the dollars we desperately need to keep our local courts running,” the group said.
“At a minimum, and until the statutory or constitutional changes necessary for real reform can be enacted, we call on our sister branches of government to bypass the Judicial Council and its bloated bureaucracy and directly appropriate branch dollars to the local courts.”
http://www.courthousenews.com/2015/01/09/brown-tells-courts-to-use-extra-money-wisely.htm
It’s worth noting that the Alliance of California Judges is no longer being referred to as a group of “rebel” judges.
Long live the ACJ.
wearyant
January 9, 2015
Ha ha! I was noticing the absence of the word “rebel” too, WD! LOL! Ol’ Jer continues to show his disregard for the judicial branch when he says the newly appointed *group* will take care of things. Long live Maria Dinzeo and the ACJ.
I wonder if the BSA has enforcement powers? That *group* will never change unless they are forced. Cutting off the public funds didn’t work.
sharonkramer
January 9, 2015
“a news release appeared on the council’s website saying several council members had been chosen to lead a new working group to review the audit’s recommendations.”
If anything is going to change, shouldn’t that say, “implement” instead of “review” the audit’s recommendations?
unionman575
January 9, 2015
Oops there went the audit down a JC Toilet:
JusticeCalifornia
January 9, 2015
No Unionman, the audit did not go down the toilet. Brown’s nonsensical response to the situation is just more information.
A plus B does not equal C.
A: “The Judicial Council is responsible for managing the resources of the Judiciary”. (p. 111, Brown’s proposed budget)
B: San Diego Union Tribune:
“The 96-page audit not only criticized the office for mismanagement, but also concluded the leadership of the state judiciary has failed in its duty to oversee the agency. The report depicted an office with few internal controls and less oversight, one that doesn’t spend the hundreds of millions of dollars allocated to it by the legislature “in the most transparent and justified manner.” Among other examples, auditors found the agency used $386 million that was supposed to support the state’s 59 local court systems for its own operations. In effect, the audit found the agency siphoned money designed for local courts for its own use.”
Courthouse News Service:
“The audit found that the judiciary’s bureaucracy, the Administrative Office of the Courts, had wasted $30 million over four years that might have gone to keeping the courts running during the height of California’s fiscal crisis.
“…Auditor Elaine Howle did not seem to have much confidence in the Judicial Council’s oversight ability. ‘Given the lapses in Judicial Council oversight and AOC decision making that we have identified throughout this report, we believe significant change is warranted,’ Howle said. ‘We are concerned that without significant change, the Judicial Council and AOC will continue to publicly embrace plans to address the weaknesses that we and others have identified but fail to take the steps necessary to repair those weaknesses in a meaningful and transparent way.’
She added: ‘If the Judicial Council does not undertake sufficient and timely action in response to our recommendations, it may be desirable to amend the provisions of the California Constitution that prescribe the powers of the Judicial Council so that the reforms we recommend can be implemented.’ ”
C. Courthouse News Service:
“Brown cited the audit Friday, saying the chief justice is ‘well aware of the problem,’ and that the audit should provide some guidance on where the judiciary can save. He added: ‘She’s creating her own group to look into it and I think they can handle it fine.’”
I am sorry, but you gotta wonder what the terms of the deal were.
Just calling it like the world sees it.
unionman575
January 10, 2015
Work group = another whitewash and more of the usual JC bullshit.
Lando
January 9, 2015
There is a historical perspective here. The AOC was run by Ronald George. All of this was created by him and reflected his total need for attaining more and more power. The crystal palace, the new overbuilt courthouses, the inflated salaries, CCMS and unlimited spending were monuments to his ego and need to control all including the trial courts. Vickrey his choice to run the AOC was more than happy to enable all that George wanted and more. Like the Soviet Union all within the Judicial Council was controlled by a single and powerful dictator who suppressed all dissent . I believe Ronald George handpicked our current Chief Justice who attempted to follow every move in the Ron George playbook which has devastated the judicial branch. Under her rule, trial courts have closed their doors, laid off thousands and reduced services to the public while the staff she supervised wasted over 350 million dollars on their own perks, retirement benefits, cars, cell phones, a horde of consultants and bloated salaries without justification. Now thanks to the legislature, the State Auditor, ACJ, and the people on this blog who have had the courage to tell the truth, the Ron George Soviet style rule of the branch is crumbling.The current Chief can no longer ignore and attack her critics as everything all of you have been saying and more was brought to the light of day this week. There is 1 and only 1 solution to this and that is for the legislature to create a democratically elected Judicial Council. It is the only way to put an end to the now discredited and failed Soviet style system which has run our once proud court system into the ground at a combined cost to date of about 850 million dollars . What a disgrace.
unionman575
January 10, 2015
CCMS II coming to a theater near you:
http://www.courts.ca.gov/ctac.htm
January 15, 2015 Rules and Policy Subcommittee Meeting (Teleconference)
12:00 p.m. to 1:00 p.m.
Call-In Number: 1-877-820-7831
Public Access Code # 4348559 (listen only)
😉
unionman575
January 10, 2015
CCMS II coming to a theater near you:
http://www.courts.ca.gov/jctc.htm
January 12, 2015 Meeting (Closed)
12:00 p.m. to 1:15 p.m.
Judicial Council Technology Committee
😉
unionman575
January 10, 2015
http://www.recordgazette.net/news/local/article_3b2b8c96-9762-11e4-9c21-6bb31f538850.html
Courthouse expected to open in February
Posted: Friday, January 9, 2015 3:30 am | Updated: 3:30 am, Fri Jan 9, 2015.
Courthouse expected to open in February 0 comments
by David James Heiss
Riverside County’s court system has yet to pinpoint an exact date for a grand opening, but there will be a dedication ceremony for the Banning Justice Center “at the end of February,” according to Judicial Council of California communications specialist Keby Boyer.
In January 2011, San Diego-based Gilbane Inc. project manager Jason Compton told Banning’s city council that they were hopeful to open the courthouse by “late spring 2013.”
While the courthouse was completed within its $68 million budget, there were some obstacles in getting it built within the anticipated timeframe.
The project is funded through a $497 million lease revenue bond sale conducted by the state treasurer’s office in 2011, that also funded court projects in San Bernardino and Porterville.
“There were delays in the placement of the architectural concrete and electrical wiring in the building, because of the site’s remoteness,” Boyer said. “In-demand, qualified subcontractors had to be recruited from Los Angeles, San Diego and Phoenix, causing delays in the schedule.”
It created a domino effect, she says, since it delayed completion of components by other trades.
“We were very careful in trying to use local subcontractors, and incorporating the community” when it came to hiring for construction, Boyer says. “When looking for someone with expertise for laying concrete, we took the time to make sure there weren’t any qualified local firms,” before expanding the search elsewhere.
The Banning Justice Center, which previously had been referred to as the Mid-County Justice Center, is at the corner of Ramsey and Martin streets. It will have six courtrooms, 14 central holding cells, deliberation rooms, judges’ chambers, and room for 10 window clerks, including one whose walk-up window will be at the ground level with access to the outside world, so visitors could come up and pay simple fines and fees without having to enter the building and go through a security checkpoint.
Once it opens, the county courthouse will accommodate six judges and 72 support staff.
The present courthouse would likely revert back to state ownership, according to Office of Court Construction Management Project Manager Gary Swanson, who previously has speculated that the state would likely lease the building back to the county. He did not know what functions the facility would then be used for, since that had not yet been determined.
People who are interested in learning more about potential job opportunities at the Banning Justice Center are invited to peruse the Web site,
http://www.riverside.courts.ca.gov/jobs/index.shtml .
Staff Writer David James Heiss may be reached at dheiss@recordgazette.net.
Tony Maino
January 10, 2015
Lando’s comments are very valuable.
We had a recent situation here in San Diego in which a woman claimed that her boyfriend tried to strangle her to death. When contacted the boyfriend said that she was his girlfriend and he could strangle her if he wanted.
What is going on here is that the boyfriend does not believe he has done anything wrong and feels entitled to do what he wants.
Is this not what we saw with Chief Justice George?
For example in his book ( page 123) he describes how he contacted the governor’s appointments secretary and threatened to run against a recent appointee to the Superior Court unless he received an appointment to the Superior Court. Chief Justice George saw nothing wrong with threatening a governor because he was entitled to the appointment.
Is this not what we see with the present Chief Justice?
The present Chief Justice sees nothing wrong with giving pay raises to AOC staff while the trial court staffs are being fired; she sees nothing wrong with the AOC having 66 cars; she sees nothing wrong with taking what appear to be her shopping bags out of the trunk of a CHP car.
Because she sees nothing wrong with doing these things she feels entitled to do them.
It is now up to the Legislature to tell her that what she has done is wrong and that she is not entitled to do it.
Richard Power
January 10, 2015
Hello, Judge Maino. Good to hear from you again. I have been watching developments in the court system and just hope that everyone can come together on solutions. I have said very little in recent months, hoping that there would be positive developments and cooperation. And I don’t really have much to add to what I previously said about the availability of simple solutions. All of the system’s problems have solutions. It is now up to people to implement them.
Although many of the posters to this blog have expressed negative thoughts, I am still hopeful that the court system’s listing ship can be tilted back upright. Courts are an important part of any good society. We cannot let the California state court system fail if we have the power to prevent that. And I fear that various catastrophes are imminent.
History teaches us that when justice fails, human catastrophes follow. We need to learn from the lessons of history and put all the animosities, pride, anger, hatreds, contempt, etc. aside.
The time has come to make critical decisions about the future.
Lando
January 11, 2015
Time now to review the totally failed regime of HRH-2. From the start she adopted the Ronald George attitude of believing in her self importance and power. She met with the ACJ once and thereafter ignored them or failed to acknowledge their existence. Upon the passage of AB 1208 , HRH-2 went on the attack and claimed she was lied to by the legislature. As the legislature funds the branch that misplaced attack was certainly a well thought out response. She and her “insider” minions defended CCMS right through to the bitter end never understanding that the waste of 500 million would not go unnoticed by the Governor, Legislature and public. Her arrogance manifested itself best when she was driven home by her CHP officer detail who was caught on film removing her bags from the trunk.To this day we still have no idea how many millions of dollars have been wasted on her honor having a CHP driver for non business trips. Like Ronald George, HRH-2 has used the Judicial Council to insure that little or no dissent would ever be aired out. Her first appointee to the Council the incredibly arrogant Harry Hull continues to represent all that is wrong with 455 Golden Gate. Hull was responsible for overseeing the search to replace Mr Vickrey and identified J Jahr as the most qualified person in the entire nation to head up the AOC. We know now in light of the State Auditor’s findings last week just how wrong Hull and HRH-2 were. Many of the most devastating findings of the Auditor occurred on HRH-2, Hull’s and Jahr’s watch.Even in the face of continued Judicial Council and AOC failings, HRH-2 never wavered from protecting Ronald George and his crumbling legacy. Despite another 360 million dollars of wasted taxpayer dollars, closed courthouses, thousands laid off and radically reduced trial court services to the public, HRH-2 and her latest most qualified head of the AOC , Mr Hoshino would have you believe they have rectified everything in the State Auditor’s report. That Soviet like response is right out of the Ronald George playbook, bringing us back to where we started. HRH-2 is not only failure, but a a miserable failure . She needs to resign. We need to get beyond the arrogant and long shadow of Ronald George. We need to restore democracy to our once proud branch of government now.
JusticeCalifornia
January 11, 2015
Sakauye and Patel are joined at the hip and they run the show flanked by longtime trusted “insider” Judicial Council and staff members.
It appears that the number one priority of Team George– namely the current and former CJ and their closest trusted staff and Judicial Council member-advisors (including certain crossover members from the litigation management committee and executive and planning committee)– has been to keep the wagons circled, insiders in and outsiders out, and relevant damaging information unavailable to prying eyes, so the depth and breadth of the waste, mismanagement, self dealing, conflicts of interest, and/or other forms of corruption that have taken place in the branch over the last couple of decades are never found out. We all know the latest audit uncovered just the tip of the iceberg.
And we all know that as long as the same set of insiders retains control of branch administration, nothing will really change. New blood is necessary to flush out the waste and toxic “factors” clogging up the current failed leadership system.
So how to understand and deal with Brown’s almost inexplicable suggestion last week that the very people who for years engaged in administrative waste and mismanagement can be trusted to clean up the mess they have created, perpetuated and covered up?
Maybe he is giving this branch leadership one more chance to clean up its act. Carefully giving them enough rope to hang themselves.
Or maybe not. I was personally warned by a high-level source that while Brown expects the branch to live within its finite financial means, he was not inclined to get personally involved in branch administrative tussles. I suppose that could arguably make some sense from a legal perspective. Attorney General Brown and his AG staff spent years receiving information about, and either defending or denying any oversight responsibility for, high-level branch misconduct. There is an inherent conflict of interest now– how can he personally condemn the same bad branch behavior and leadership that he once was paid to defend? Interesting situation.
But if for any reason Brown can’t or won’t presently help protect the public from branch waste and misconduct, he at least needs to stay out of the way of those stepping up. After years of ZERO branch oversight, concerned branch members, oversight bodies, reform entities, and members of the legislature are moving to ensure that branch waste, mismanagement, and misconduct are exposed and corrected. Brown should refrain from interfering, or further calling into question his own credibility and integrity, by making nonsensical statements supporting patently failed branch leadership, and undermining the informed conclusions of his own top state investigatory bodies charged with protecting the public interest.
Just my opinion.
unionman575
January 11, 2015
Mine too.
😉
wearyant
January 11, 2015
Well put, JusticeCalifornia. Especially the point made about Brown having been Attorney General and well apprised of the shenanigans going on for *years* in the third branch. Disheartening, but we must step up or be satisfied with the status quo, which is untenable.
By the way, ol’ Dan Walters at least remarked that the ACJ has been right all along. He had used the word “rebel” consistently. He just stated that these outspoken judges were correct.
Long live the ACJ.
JusticeCalifornia
January 11, 2015
“California’s judicial branch must reform it bloated, mismanaged administration, Dan says.”
http://www.sacbee.com/news/politics-government/capitol-alert/article5656194.html
courtreformer4change
January 11, 2015
Keep up the fight in California… http://www.njcourtcorruption.com staff and litigators are watching!
Lando
January 11, 2015
Justice California, thanks for that great analysis.
Lando
January 12, 2015
The motto of HRH 2’s 4 year administration. ” We can never fail to fail as it’s the easiest thing to do. ” While I wasn’t appointed to J Miller’s committee to review the State Auditor’s findings here are my thoughts on implementing what she said. Let’s see if the Miller group of insiders comes anywhere close to this. 1.Close the crystal palace and Burbank and consolidate all Judicial Council operations in Sacramento. 2. Thank and excuse all consultants and temporary workers. 3. Terminate Judge Herman’s technology committee and thank and excuse anyone working on doing anything with post CCMS case management plans. 4.Find and then sell 65 of the 66 cars that should have never been purchased. 5. Find and terminate the plans of all 200 cell phones. 6. Terminate the pensions of any former or retired employee that never paid into that retirement. 7 Fire Patel and the Curt’s for getting us into this mess. 8. Reduce the salary of any Judicial Council employee to the level of the Governor or trial court Judge. 9. In the spirit of self reform, recommend an audit of courthouse construction funds and a plan to democratize the Judicial Council. 10. Restore the Judicial Council and staff to the advisory role that the constitution and statutes contemplated before 1998. 11. J. Miller and all other current Judicial Council members should resign their Council positions including HRH-2 .
sharonkramer
January 12, 2015
That’s REALLY good, Lando. Add one more point and you have created a viable “12 Step Program” to reform those who are drunk with power!