SAN FRANCISCO (CN) - A judge's attempt to get a straight answer out of California's embattled court bureaucracy has resulted in four weeks of stalling and partial answers on the total number of bureaucrats and how much they are paid.
"I can get a list of all the judges in the state in an hour," said Sacramento Judge Kevin McCormick. "I find it impossible to believe they can't provide me a list of who works for them in a time frame of less than a month."
McCormick planned to use the information in answering a survey sent out last month by an overhaul committee set up by Chief Justice Tani Cantil-Sakauye and headed by Justice Arthur Scotland.
That group, called the Strategic Evaluation Committee, is currently looking to see if the bureaucracy described by some legislators as bloated can be put on a diet. The group's work has taken on urgency with the budget slashing that hit the courts this year and that is expected to result in closed courtrooms around California.
To McCormick, who wanted the numbers in order to answer a survey by the overhaul committee, the task seemed simple enough. But a set of emails up down and around the Administrative Office of the Courts showed it was not.
McCormick began by contacting Bill Vickrey on July 21.
McCormick wrote, "Before I can intelligently evaluate and recommend what might make appropriate fiscal sense, I need to know precisely what actually exists in terms of personnel support connected with or provided to the AOC." He then requested the a list of "every employee (temporary or permanent), consultant, independent contractor, and/or person paid directly or indirectly by or through the AOC."
Finally, McCormick wrote, "I also would appreciate your providing the current pay and benefits information for each of the above individuals."
Vickrey replied, saying he was shifting the request over to Jody Patel, head of the AOC's northern regional office, one of the divisions whose need to exist is being questioned by the overhaul committee.
That move angered the head of the committee, Justice Scotland. He replied to McCormick with a cc to Vickrey, telling the outgoing director in no uncertain terms that it was his direct responsibility to provide the information.
"By this e-mail, with a cc to Bill, I am informing Bill that it is his responsibility, or the responsibility of the Human Resources Division at Bill's direction, to provide you with the public information you seek. Thus, I am directing Bill to have the AOC promptly comply with your request."
Two weeks later, Judge McCormick let Justice Scotland know that the administrative agency had still not answered his questions.
"The un-redacted payroll of the AOC and the names and pay rates of those employees (temporary or permanent), consultants, independent contractors, and/or persons paid directly or indirectly by or through the AOC certainly must exist somewhere so it can be easily accessed by a computer program," he urged, with a cc to Vickrey and interim director Ron Overholt.