Most Californians know a budget crisis besets our state. But they are only now learning a state bureaucracy in San Francisco, the Administrative Office of the Courts, plans to close every county courthouse on the third Wednesday of each month.
Handpicked and unelected members of the Judicial Council have blessed this ill-conceived plan.
Courts across the state are doing their part to reduce spending. We have already slashed Sacramento's court budget. But never in our history, even during the Great Depression, has our court system been closed to the public. Now this will happen – at the request of the Administrative Office of the Courts and by order of the Judicial Council.
Closing courts has real-life consequences: Justice delayed for neglected and abused children, crime victims and the accused. Injured people seeking relief will wait even longer for justice. Trials will be interrupted and jurors – even jurors in the middle of deliberations – will be sent home for a day off.
The Judicial Council and court bureaucracy response is remarkable for a peculiar omission: Its pin-drop silence on our central concern – that bureaucrats made closing courthouses the first option instead of the last resort.
Californians will lose access to their courts without a top-down review to see where budget savings could be achieved elsewhere. For example, the troubled billion-dollar-plus court computer system should be delayed or scrapped altogether. Millions of dollars in the account for new courthouse construction could be used to keep the doors of existing courthouses open.
And surely a thorough review of the Administrative Office of the Courts could produce significant savings. In 2003-04 the Administrative Office of the Courts had 490 employees. Today it has mushroomed to more than 900 employees, a third of them paid more than $100,000. Recently the Administrative Office of the Courts and Judicial Council spent $82,000 on dinners, San Francisco Hilton Hotel suites (including the Presidential Suite), and a professional "facilitator" at a conference called to discuss the budget.
We endorse The Bee's call for an independent audit of court operations. We expect the courts to manage operations wisely. Judges and the management staff should be held to the highest standards. At a minimum we must commit to preserving access to the courts. Even if that means cutting budgets for bureaucrats, computer projects, lavish conferences and new buildings.
Sacramento Superior Court Judges Loren McMaster and Maryanne Gilliard are responding to the July 21 editorial "State's court costs need more scrutiny."
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