Welcome to the first post in our 6th year of tracking one of the most corrupt government institutions in California. The new year brings with it a proposed budget increase for California’s judicial branch that begins to chip away at years of cuts. It also includes tens of millions to chip away at nearly two billion in deferred maintenance. Apparently that will be managed by a former Walmart associate that was hired to replace Burt Hirshfeld as director of facilities, which is probably appropriate given the AOC’s big box construction mentality….. now we’ll be able to see the world’s cheapest particle board check stands brought to a clerks window or judges bench near you. This choice has AOC employees statewide busting out in laughter while quietly ridiculing their new fearless leader.
2016 has also ushered in some sadness in the rock world as well with the passing of two rock legends, while a few other rock legends were enlisted to provide the soundtrack to what we would argue is the most moving political commercial of the 2016 election season to date.
First up: This gentleman’s music released in 1985 single-handedly caused everyone that listened to it to rethink the war on drugs by highlighting the creation of many of the same criminal elements that doomed prohibition in the 1933. He produced this soundtrack for one of the most watched television shows of the eighties: Miami Vice. He was also a founding member of the Eagles. The staff at JCW continues to mourn over the passing of Glenn Frey and although he may have checked out of a hospital in New York, he never left Hotel California.
Next up: We also mourn the passing of another rock legend who would consistently reinvent his music over the years to stay relevant and are saddened by the passing of David Bowie.
And last: We’d like to bring to you a now viral sensation (2 million views in 48 hours) that we would argue is by far, the best political commercial of the 2016 election season to date that was compiled to a compelling music track of Simon & Garfunkel.
We’re still working on a promised post about the construction debacle that is the Long Beach courthouse and the shady characters involved and continue to collect information, much of which is being supplied by readers such as yourselves. We urge you to keep that information flowing and thank you for your continued support.
Judicial Council Watcher 
unionman575
January 24, 2016
Give ’em hell JCW.
😉
Nathaniel Woodhull
January 24, 2016
Thanks for the new thread! Smuggler’s Blues was always in the power rotation in my chambers, along with the Man Who Sold the World (on its original 1970 vinyl). Both of these great artists will be sorely missed.
Looking forward to reading about the Long Beach hi-jinks. By the way, did we ever figure out who negotiated those great CCMS contracts in which the warranty expired long before the product was ever due to be released and the taxpayers were paying for “add-ons” which were really fixes????
Michael Paul
January 24, 2016
I just had turned 21 years old when smuggler’s blues came out as a track on an album called The Allnighter. I lived in an apartment in the tenderloin at the time and witnessed a day and night barrage of alcohol, sex and drugs for sale blanketing every street of literally every block in my neighborhood. The words of this song struck more than a few chords.
It assisted me in forming the opinion early on that legal alcohol caused far more carnage and despair than any illicit drug ever did and that marijuana was illicit because unlike tobacco, it could be grown anywhere and that it just might cut into someone else’s corporate profits….like both cigarettes and alcohol. In states that have legalized it for recreational use, it has done just that.
Sometimes the music of an era portends future events. In my case, I was in a highly experimental stage in my conscious life observing the insanity of newly minted twenty plus year mandatory minimums for some drug offenders. My chosen line of work had me dancing an extremely fine line between the real world and the other world as a purveyor of specialized electronics services. Today, it is my generation that is unwinding these laws and promoting legalization for both medical and recreational use. It has taken a generation to turn the tide. Hopefully it does not take another generation to finish the job.
Delilah
January 29, 2016
JCW, I hope you can soon post the latest press release sent out by the Alliance of CA Judges about the meeting referenced below. My favorite quote from that press release is this:
“If recent history teaches us anything, it’s that the AOC has the Midas touch in reverse when it comes to local court administration.
Just for the heck of it, I would also note that “Malcolm” is misspelled. Oopsy-doopsy.
Commission on the Future of California’s Court System
Public Comment Session
February 8–9, 2016
Judicial Council Conference Center
Malcom M. Lucas Board Room
455 Golden Gate Avenue
San Francisco, California 94102
Agenda:
Click to access futures-commission-20160208-09-agenda.pdf
Wendy Darling
January 29, 2016
Speaking of the Alliance of California Judges – today’s installment of Tani’s Follies. Published today, Friday, January 29, from The Recorder, the on-line publication of CalLaw, by Cheryl Miller. Things never really change at 455 Golden Gate Avenue – new year, same old agenda, same old doublespeak/lying through their teeth.
Not that anyone is actually going to do anything about that.
Judicial Council Floats Controversial ‘Concept’
Cheryl Miller, The Recorder
SACRAMENTO — In November, the Alliance of California Judges issued a critical press release warning that the chief justice-appointed Futures Commission was pondering big changes that would shift trial courts’ personnel duties to the Judicial Council. Appellate Justice James Humes, a member of the commission’s executive committee, said then that everyone should just take a deep breath, that commission members were just spitballing some ideas, not forwarding proposals.
Two months later, it looks like the commission is doing more than just chatting. The panel is holding a public hearing on Feb. 8-9 to discuss a number of ” concepts.” Among them: centralizing the trial courts’ administrative services and shifting court-based employee bargaining to a regional or statewide system.
The brief report accompanying the concepts—they’re not called proposal—says the commission is just considering ways to save money. Court labor groups see something darker afoot, as they said in a letter to the commission’s leader, Supreme Court Justice Carol Corrigan.
“We strongly urge you abandon this endeavor that would only raise questions as to the real goal of such proposals and create havoc in a judicial system that is already imperiled with distrust …” representatives of nine employee groups wrote. The letter was copied to the governor and nine state lawmakers.
The hearing starts at 10 a.m. Feb. 8 at the Judicial Council conference center in San Francisco.
http://www.therecorder.com/home/id=1202748387263/Judicial-Council-Floats-Controversial-Concept?mcode=1202617072607&curindex=3
Long live the ACJ.