SACRAMENTO (CN) - Chastened by the fury of court employees hurt by layoffs, court closures, and years of repeated cuts to funding for trial courts, the California Legislature voted to restore $100 million to the judicial branch's budget.
The money will be an ongoing addition to the budget, but it comes with a few caveats:
It must be used specifically for keeping the trial courts running, and officials from the Administrative Office of the Courts must account for the money received both before and after it is spent.
Reginald Jones-Sawyer (D-Los Angeles), chair of the Assembly budget sub-committee, said the Administrative Office will be required to submit a report each August - before it receives the money -- outlining its spending plans, and then later they, "will come back to us to show they did what they said they were going to do."
He added, "Whatever they've cut, these monies are specifically to go to augmenting or hopefully reversing all of that."
The unanimous vote was preceded by a lively period of public comment punctuated by bursts of cheers and applause.
Cheryl Clark, an Alameda court worker who drew some of loudest cheers, said, "Where has all this money gone? Why do we have to close at 2:30 [p.m.]? I'm with everyone else -- accountability for the AOC. But if they're not going to be accountable, give the money to the trial courts and let us be responsible for us. We can bypass all of that.
"The money is well needed," Clark continued. " And ... if they're not going to account for the money, it needs to be taken away from them and let the courts take care of it- each court equally."
The court workers, many of whom wore yellow t-shirts emblazoned with the words "Public Safety First, Keep LA Courts Open," called on lawmakers to hold the central court bureaucracy accountable for the spending of the new funds.
Paris Fox, an employee at the Alameda County Superior Court, said it disheartening for him, "as a court employee" and "servant of the people of the state of California" to tell people the court closes at 2:30 p.m., while at the same time acknowledging a new, $2.3 billion courthouse is being built nearby - a reference to a controversial courthouse construction project in Long Beach.
"People don't understand that," said Fox, whose comments were greeted by loud applause from other speakers. "So I hope and pray that as the money goes from this body, the legislature, which is trusted by the people of the state, to this body in front of me, the Administrative Office of the Courts, the one word that is in my head here is accountability. And transparency."
The court workers' comments were not lost on the lawmakers, who for years have been listening to allegations of misspending and waste, while local trial courts, starved for funds, have been shuttering courthouses and laying off staff.
The judiciary is still reeling from the failed implementation of a new Court Case Management System, a project that was terminated last year after it became mired in cost overruns and other issues, and was widely criticized by trial judges and court employees.
Assembly member Diane Harkey (R-Orange County) said the AOC's handling of the judicial branch's money has been "almost a constant controversy" in her five years in the Legislature.