Judicial Council to Consider “Indefinite Delay” of Seven New Courthouse Projects

October 19, 2012

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Judicial Council to Consider “Indefinite Delay” of Seven New Courthouse Projects

Other projects are recommended to move forward assuming no further redirection of courthouse construction funds

SAN FRANCISCO—On the second day of its public meeting on October 25-26, the Judicial Council will consider recommendations from its Court Facilities Working Group to indefinitely delay seven new courthouse projects due to state budget cuts.

The recommended delay to the seven projects--in the counties of Kern, Los Angeles, Monterey, Placer, and Plumas--is due to the cumulative and ongoing redirection of construction funding to the state’s General Fund and to help fund state trial court operations. The working group is recommending that other new courthouse projects move forward assuming no further redirection of construction funds.

The working group first released its recommendations in September after two-and-a-half days and 26 hours of public meetings. The working group also posted its recommendations on the California Courts public website for public comment before submitting them for review by the Judicial Council next week. Once the Judicial Council reviews and either accepts or adjusts the working group’s recommendations, projects slated to move forward will be reviewed by a cost-reduction subcommittee.

The council’s public meeting is scheduled from 2:00 p.m. to 5:10 p.m. on October 25 and 8:30 a.m. to 1:10 p.m. on October 26 in the Judicial Council Conference Center, Hiram Johnson State Office Building, Third Floor, Ronald M. George State Office Complex, 455 Golden Gate Avenue in San Francisco. A live audiocast of the meeting will be on the California Courts website and the agenda and reports are posted online.

Other items on the council meeting agenda include:

Courts Apply for 2% Reserve Fund: The council will consider requests by trial courts applying for urgent needs funding from the 2 percent reserve in the Trial Court Trust Fund due to unavoidable funding shortfalls.

Update on Judicial Council-Approved Realignment of AOC: Report on progress of the recommendations approved by the council to restructure the Administrative Office of the Courts (AOC); the recommendations were developed by the council’s Executive and Planning Committee (E&P) and are based on the report by the Chief Justice’s Strategic Evaluation Committee (SEC).

Report and Recommendations from Summit on Judicial Diversity: Cosponsored by the Judicial Council and the State Bar, the summit gathered more than 75 branch and bar leaders to develop recommendations for achieving the judicial branch’s goal of a more diverse bench.