Last week, the Executive & Planning Committee held a brief public meeting by telephone. After approving the agenda for the next Judicial Council meeting, the committee’s chair, Justice Miller, asked the members to call a different number so that the committee members could privately discuss appointments to the Council’s advisory committees. An article in Courthouse […]
June 11, 2014
This is the contents of an email from the Alliance of California Judges to their members. The first paragraph demonstrates how the AOC misses the mark by about a thousand miles. After all, the AOC burned taxpayer money to stock up on iPads and passed out swag bags with electronic tablets in them to legislators, […]
December 10, 2013
“Transparency” is a word frequently utilized by the AOC and the Judicial Council. How does this terminology translate into practice when the AOC is involved? Recently the Chief Justice authorized raises of 3.5% for those working at the AOC. She authorized this pay raise with her signature. With courthouses across the state closing, necessary courtroom […]
November 21, 2013
It’s one of those unspoken issues that no one ever mentions. Those that make the rules in the AOC and Judicial Council want a rule of court rather than a state law because they know there exists no one outside of a courtroom to investigate or prosecute a violation of a rule of court outside […]
November 19, 2013
“I believe in absolute transparency.” * —Chief Justice Tani Cantil-Sakauye, interview with Courthouse News Service, March 22, 2011. As most of you know, the members of the Judicial Council are appointed by the Chief Justice, and the Council meets several times a year. These meetings, at which the Council ratifies decisions which affect us profoundly, […]
October 23, 2013
We provide you with a link to Dan Walters’ column in yesterday’s Sacramento Bee that discusses the formation of the Foundation for Democracy and Justice, a new public education foundation headed up in part by Chief Justice Tani Cantil-Sakauye. It is our understanding that this charitable foundation will be involved in public education regarding […]
September 26, 2013
September 26, 2013 31 Courtrooms in Long Beach cost $2.3 billion over 35 years Dear California Media, We write to highlight our continuing concerns about the Court Facilities Program. First we offer an editorial written by Milt Policzer of the Courthouse News Service regarding the Long Beach Courthouse, published September 23, 2013: ________________________________________________________ More Long […]
September 18, 2013
Last week the Alliance of California Judges celebrated its fourth anniversary. The Alliance was formed by 28 judges from around the state on September 11, 2009, after a handpicked Judicial Council had unanimously voted for the first time in history to close the state’s trial courts one day each month. That vote masked the real […]
August 19, 2013
“Soon, we will be spending more on court construction than we will be taking in” I know I saw this statement recently in a news article and as I recall, it was made by the AOC’s newest finance wizard. I guess it took a few days to sink in and realize that when the judicial […]
July 17, 2013
July 16, 2013 The following article by reporter Maria Dinzeo chronicles the lengths to which our court leaders have gone to block the media and judges from obtaining public information. This important article should alarm every judge in this state because the Judicial Council and its bloated bureaucracy purport to serve the courts “for the […]
June 22, 2013
In another thread MaxRebo presents a suitable cause\effect analysis of the politically astute Cantil-Sakauye‘s (HRH-2) offensive renaming of the Star Chamber conference center as the William C Vickrey conference center. I’ll add to that mix the offensive renaming of the Ronald M. George state office complex. Besides the fact that these characters are still above […]
June 21, 2013
As you know, the new state budget for the Judiciary provides only $60 million for trial courts in new General Fund revenue for the year. Contrary to the hope expressed by some, this amount, though helpful, is not sufficient to forestall further court closures and service reductions. Keep in mind that this amount does not […]
June 19, 2013
Coming in after the budget was a budget trailer bill. SB 75 (link) calls for, among other items, an audit to see how the old state court system is currently implementing public contract code. Starting on page 36 of the budget trailer bill it outlines that the state auditor shall conduct an audit of the […]
June 5, 2013
A few years ago JCW launched as “California’s ten billion dollar reality check”. The reason we picked that number in particular is because that is how much public monies were at risk of being mis-spent by the boondogglers that run the AOC and the hand-picked long time inside brown-nosed boondogglers of the judicial council. Over […]
June 4, 2013
It’s a new month and with it come some significant changes. For the past eighteen months or so, we’ve covered less of the story ourselves and have relied upon both our own aggregation of judicial branch news as well as aggregation with your invaluable assistance. The reasons for this was that our resources were redirected […]
May 29, 2013
May 28, 2013 By now you have heard that last Thursday the Assembly and Senate Budget Subcommittees voted to provide an additional $100 million to the trial courts this year, and raise the reserved funds limit from 1% to 12%. The Department of Finance made it clear that the Governor opposes this increase and change. […]
August 22, 2014
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