Recently, we told you about the closure of the Plumas/Sierra Regional Courthouse, the first courthouse construction project managed from start to finish by the AOC. It was built at a cost of $4.7 million, it was open only four days a month at its peak, and it shut its doors just four years after it opened.
It’s bad enough that the AOC built a little-used courthouse and had to close it down soon after it opened. But the story gets worse. Now, and for the indefinite future, we have to pay to maintain a big empty wooden building in snow country. As the city manager of Portola pointed out, “Right now it’s even too expensive for them to even mothball the thing. . . . It’s costing them a fortune just to have it sitting there, and it’s wearing out quicker than it would have if it had occupants.” The AOC is trying to get local officials to rent it for nothing, so long as they pay for the upkeep. You can read the Plumas News’s story on the courthouse here.
So there it sits—a beautiful, brand-new, empty cedar-sided courthouse rotting in the snow, a monument to the AOC’s folly.
We need to figure out how this happened. We need to know how a proposal for a courthouse that would serve the public only four days a month somehow jumped to the front of the line for construction funds, while desperately needed construction and renovation projects got pushed to the back. Judges and staff work in those outdated and unsafe buildings, and even scheduled projects to renovate them have been put on indefinite hold while a lovely new courthouse sits idle.
Just four years ago, the AOC’s publicity machine gushed that the Portola courthouse was “a building both timeless and of our time.” They were right. This building is timeless because its time ran out. And a closed, money-wasting courthouse is a sad but fitting symbol of our troubled time.
One final note: The AOC-produced YouTube video announcing the opening of the courthouse is no longer accessible to the public—much like the courthouse itself.
There is, however, cause for hope. When asked about his thoughts about the recent audit of the Judicial Council, the incoming chair of the Assembly Judiciary Committee, Mark Stone (D-Scotts Valley), told The Recorder:
As we’ve been struggling with court budgets here in California, to get an audit at that level is something we absolutely needed to understand the context in which some of the budget requests were being made. And it points to some weaknesses in the way the court system at that level of the AOC is run. And I want to distinguish between that and the trial courts because the trial courts have been working very hard on efficiencies. . . . All Californians deserve to have as efficiently run a judiciary as possible and the audit will help us all get to that point.
We agree wholeheartedly. It looks like Assembly Member Stone, like Assembly Member Reggie Jones-Sawyer, gets it. It took an audit of the CCMS project to expose the project as a failure and ultimately get it shut down. It took an audit to expose the AOC’s continued waste of precious judicial resources. Now the Legislature should direct respected State Auditor Elaine Howle to thoroughly audit the court construction program.
Judicial Council Watcher 
JusticeCalifornia
March 3, 2015
“We need to figure out how this happened. We need to know how a proposal for a courthouse that would serve the public only four days a month somehow jumped to the front of the line for construction funds, while desperately needed construction and renovation projects got pushed to the back.”
“Now the Legislature should direct respected State Auditor Elaine Howle to thoroughly audit the court construction program.”
Indeed.
This MASSIVE elephant in the room has heretofore remained untouched, but. . . . .
Auditing the court construction program is the obvious next logical and responsible step.
Anonymous
March 4, 2015
The driving force behind the need for new courthouses was Ellie Nesler walking into a Tuolumne County courtroom with a loaded pistol and shooting suspected child molester Daniel Driver 5 times in the head.
It was that lack of security in turn of the century courthouses that sealed the argument for new court construction. They didn’t have three different pathways for criminals, the public and court employees nor did they have metal detectors in the 1800’s and early 1900’s when many of these courthouses were constructed. Unlike big cities, they also could not afford new courthouses that incorporated these design changes.
There was a courthouse list that was created to address these issues where the judicial council held up as similar examples other courthouses throughout the state that have the same security problems. Team George lobbied heavily for a five billion dollar bond to address this list of courts.
Once the bonds were approved, the priority list was reordered and two courthouses that were so far down the list that they never should have been built jumped to the front of the line as gifts to Team George loyalists. This included Portola-Loyalton and East Contra Costa County’s Aronson Justice Center.
In return for these gifts the judicial council got two of the brownest noses you’ve ever seen in the judicial branch. Ira Kauffman and Terence Bruiniers. And these are just two examples. I sincerely hope that the legislature looks into the court construction and maintenance programs and follows the money.
Let us not forget that Judge Mark Ciavarella and Senior Judge Michael Conahan, were convicted of accepting 2.6 million dollars from Robert Mericle, builder of two private, for-profit youth centers in Pennsylvania. These kickbacks were considered referral fees. I’m pretty confident that a deep dig into the finances of all California state judicial projects will turn up referral fees going to the insiders.
You might also want to look into how our last few chief justices became multi-millionaires while in office…….
Wendy Darling
March 3, 2015
“So there it sits—a beautiful, brand-new, empty cedar-sided courthouse rotting in the snow, a monument to the AOC’s folly. . . . And a closed, money-wasting courthouse is a sad but fitting symbol of our troubled time.”
Yes, it is. Emblematic of the fact that everything the AOC touches turns to rot. And does so with the full knowledge, blessing, and consent of the Office of the Chief Justice and branch “leadership”.
And as for whether or not Assembly Member Mark Stone, Assembly Member Reggie Jones-Sawyer, or anyone else in Sacramento “gets it” at this point, I’ll believe it when I see it. Michael Paul pointedly told members of the State Legislature in 2009, in an open hearing, that there needed to be an audit of the court construction program, and was promptly told to shut up.
For at least the last 7 years, despite being provided several audits and other hard evidence of the fraud, corruption, lying, mismanagement, malfeasance, and appalling fiscal irresponsibility of 455 Golden Gate Avenue, all anyone in a position of responsibility and authority that could do something about any of that has done is run away as fast as they can in the opposite direction. Meanwhile, the folks in charge of the California Judicial Branch continue, to this day, to brag that they can whatever they want, there is no one that can hold them accountable, there is no one that can touch them, and the Teflon effect continues unabated.
So I’ll believe it when I see it.
Long live the ACJ.
Lando
March 3, 2015
Thanks Justice California. I admire your courage and totally respect the insights you give us. You absolutely nailed it. The State Auditor needs to fully investigate the courthouse construction program’s waste of probably billions when all is said and done and compare the 455 Golden Gate insiders oversight of this mess to the way federal courthouses are built. The place to start is Long Beach and as they said in in Watergate, ” follow the money”.
JusticeCalifornia
March 4, 2015
Thank you Lando but I was just agreeing with JCW, the ACJ, and everyone who posts here.
THANK YOU JCW, ACJ, AND EVERYONE WHO POSTS HERE.
unionman575
March 4, 2015
More nice work ACJ and JCW.
😉
TAB
March 4, 2015
Even after all the many different types of audits on the AOC they still keep doing what they do best, wasteful unaccountable spending! How is it there are no consequences to this and why are they still here?!?
unionman575
March 4, 2015
http://www.courts.ca.gov/ctac.htm
Court Technology Advisory Committee
March 16, 2015 Joint Appellate Technology Subcommittee Meeting (Teleconference)
3:00 – 5:00 p.m.
Call-In Number: 1-877-820-7831
Public Access Code # 4348559 (listen only) 😉
unionman575
March 5, 2015
https://recalltani.wordpress.com/
Recall Tani Organizing Committee (RTOC)
A Judicial Council Watcher public accountability project
😉