AOC employees are by and large a smart bunch who ask smart questions of their management. Sometimes those questions don’t get answered by management and occasionally they find their way to us.
Here are a few questions that found their way to us that went unanswered by management. Some of them are paraphrased a bit (and additional information might lead or follow the question in parenthesis like this to give you the whole picture)
- (The Judicial Council was charged with coming up with rules of court that parallel public contract code, but because rules of court have been widely reported to not apply outside of the courts and are unenforced) AOC employees want to know why the rules regarding long term contracts are being trampled on and why a favored few continue to get contract after extension after contract. Mr. Hoshino, might you be able to answer why your contracting rules are continued to being trampled upon under your leadership?
- (Since violations of ethics are also rules of court) AOC employees want to know from Mr. Hoshino why contract managers continue to get showered with trips, vacations, lunches, rounds of golf and other freebies from contractors who receive business contracts when these are ethical violations that should be career ending?
- (The AOC has structured a number of contracts in a manner that permits the contractors performance based initiatives, like cash or additional follow-on no-bid contract work but AOC employees claim they are all smokescreens for the AOC to grossly overpay because these initiatives are awarded regardless of performance and managers continue to beat down employees on issues and complaints that would prevent these awards from being made) So the question to Mr. Hoshino is, are you going to look into these types of contracts and end them because there is no accountability in making performance based awards when performance sucks but contract managers beat down employee concerns and set aside complaints to ensure the awards are made?
- (Certain managers and supervisors have the ability to self-approve travel and abuse that self-approval to perform wholly unnecessary travel, like visiting every courthouse to boost frequent flyer miles and hoteling points that later amount to free paid vacations. The prudent route might be to have the AOC schedule and benefit from all travel air miles and hotel points to spend on other business trips) AOC employees want to know from Martin Hoshino when he intends, if ever to clamp down on these excessive, abusive travel requests from his directors, managers and supervisors and when are people going to be held accountable for wasting public funds to line their own vacation pockets?
- (certain people seem to have a revolving door from AOC vendor to AOC employee and back to AOC vendor and have a tendency of steering work in a non-competitive fashion back to certain vendors or friends, because they have had a previous relationship with them.) The question to Martin Hoshino is Why, like your predecessors, do you permit certain AOC entities to continue to hire friends and former AOC vendors instead of excluding these people or the companies that they previously worked for a certain amount of time from going to work for the AOC after contracting with them?
Mr. Hoshino, isn’t it time?
Posted in: Judicial Council of California
Judicial Council Watcher 
Judicial Council Watcher
December 3, 2015
Advisory: We highly discourage you blowing the whistle in the judicial branch because they’ll just mark you as “the walking dead” (a term representing your career prospects) and fire you for unrelated reasons a year or more later after documenting your every breath.
If you feel the need to blow the whistle, do so ONLY at the state auditors office here. https://www.auditor.ca.gov/hotline or feel free to provide us with the information.
*edited
sharonkramer
December 3, 2015
Are you serious? This is still going on?
“(Since violations of ethics are also rules of court) AOC employees want to know from Mr. Hoshino why contract managers continue to get showered with trips, vacations, lunches, rounds of golf and other freebies from contractors who receive business contracts when these are ethical violations that should be career ending?”
Wendy Darling
December 3, 2015
Pigs will fly, and hell will freeze over – at the same time – before Hoshino substantively and honestly addresses even one of these issues. I’d bet money on it.
Still serving themselves to the detriment of all Californians.
Long live the ACJ.
katy
December 5, 2015
“Astroturf” Sound familiar? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-bYAQ-ZZtEU
SuppierDemand
January 19, 2016
Since someone brought up the frequent flyer/hotel loyalty point issues. Mr. Hoshino should specifically look into the points and freebies – including personal hotel stays and cruises – that have been awarded to Alla Urisman for contracting JC events at Marriott properties.
Wendy Darling
January 19, 2016
” Mr. Hoshino should specifically look into the points and freebies – including personal hotel stays and cruises – that have been awarded to Alla Urisman for contracting JC events at Marriott properties.”
This has previously been reported to those “in charge” at 455 Golden Gate Avenue, along with similar misconduct by others within AOC administration. It is a blatant violation of state law for a state employee to accept these types of “rewards” – more accurately gifts – and is also a violation of state law and the California government code for state employees to receive such gifts as a result of awarding/steering State vendor business to a specific vendor. In any other branch of state government such misconduct by a State employee would not only trigger a criminal investigation by an outside law enforcement agency, but also result in disciplinary action, most specifically dismissal/termination from state service under the California Government Code. A fact of which Mr. Hoshino is well aware of.
The response from 455 Golden Gate Avenue in response to being informed of this misconduct by a State employee at the AOC? Other than to punish those who were stupid enough to report it – nothing. Absolutely nothing.
Because you know, according to Mr. Hoshino himself, it’s going to take years, probably decades, to change the “culture” at the AOC. So thieve away, Alla Urisman. Thieve away. Because the Teflon Effect is in full force and effect at 455 Golden Gate Avenue.
Still serving themselves to the detriment of all Californians.
Long live the ACJ.
unionman575
January 20, 2016
https://www.linkedin.com/in/alla-urisman-02a77b7
unionman575
January 20, 2016
http://transparentcalifornia.com/salaries/2012/state-of-california/alla-urisman/
wearyant
January 21, 2016
The Royal Cruise Line. Nice! I have some foggy memory of a sullen, perplexed LA mayor Villagairosa returning some sports tickets after much persuasion that it was a conflict of interest … Poor guy. He should get on to the AOC with a consulting job if he likes to roll with perks and freebies.
unionman575
January 20, 2016
Indeed!