CASSIE MacDUFF: Three branches growing in one direction

By CASSIE MACDUFF

At last, a remedy appears to be on the horizon for Riverside and San Bernardino counties’ critical – and long-standing – shortage of judges.

A three-pronged attack on the problem is being mounted from the governor’s office, the state Legislature and the Judicial Council, the policymaking body of California’s court system.

Gov. Jerry Brown’s proposed 2016-17 state budget suggests moving five vacant judgeships – and, importantly, their support staffs – to courts in counties that desperately need them. Riverside and San Bernardino counties are at the top of the list.

The state Senate Judiciary Committee introduced a bill that would allocate $5 million to hire 12 new judges, of 50 positions that were approved but never funded. It’s the same legislation Sen. Richard Roth, D-Riverside, successfully passed last year but the governor vetoed.

And the Judicial Council’s commission on the courts’ future, taking a hint from the administration, is seeking legislation that would allow the California Supreme Court chief justice to shift 50 judge slots, when they’re vacant, to counties that need them. Again, Riverside and San Bernardino counties are the poster children of judicial need.

All three branches of state government seem to be on the same page at last where this important issue is concerned.

You can thank the region’s leaders, especially Riverside County Presiding Judge Hal Hopp, former San Bernardino County Presiding Judge Marsha Slough and senator Roth, for putting the issue on the front burner.

Slough, now an appellate justice, has focused on the issue for years, and her position on the Commission on the Future of California’s Court System has given her a platform to continue doing that, even after she was elevated from the superior court bench.

Hopp, who became presiding judge last year, is an influential voice on the subject, testifying in recent weeks before the Senate committee and the Judicial Council commission, which quoted him in its report, issued Tuesday.

And Roth has tirelessly advocated for adding judges in the needy counties, and gotten bipartisan support for his legislation in both Senate and Assembly.

But let’s back up for a moment. How did there come to be a judge shortage in the Inland counties?

Simple. The number of judges has stagnated, while the population of inland Southern California exploded. Over the past 30 years, the Inland population more than doubled from under 2 million to more than 4 million.

The imbalance of superior court posts across the state became common knowledge 15 years ago, and since then, the Judicial Council has been assessing biannually how many judges each county needs based on caseloads, using national standards.

The most recent survey in 2014 showed Riverside County has 76 judges but needs 127 (a shortage of 51) and San Bernardino County needs 143 judges but has 86 (a shortage of 57).

In 2006, the Legislature authorized 50 new judgeships, funded them and the positions were filled. In 2007, it authorized 50 more but didn’t fund them. And you know what happened in 2008: the Great Recession killed hopes of funding more positions.

When he vetoed Roth’s legislation that would put $5 million toward funding 12 of the unfunded 50 judgeships, the governor said he instead wanted to work with the Judicial Council to redistribute judgeships from counties that have an abundance to those that need more (specifically citing Riverside and San Bernardino counties).

Brown declined to comment on whether he would support the new Senate bill that mirrors Roth’s vetoed one. But his staff told me to watch the May budget revision. I’m hoping that means he may add funding for new judges, while redistributing vacant seats.

If not, I hope it means he’ll be open to signing the new bill, which is likely to pass.

Meanwhile, the Judicial Council has taken the governor at his word and is seeking the authority to redistribute the vacant seats (present law doesn’t allow it to do so).

Roth hailed this as a critical step to convincing the governor the judiciary is doing all it can to address the problem without increasing costs.

Roth also hopes the bill being carried by the Senate Judiciary committee has a better chance of being signed. It got the unanimous support of committee members last week, and now is bound for the Appropriations Committee, then the Assembly.

San Bernardino County Presiding Judge Raymond Haight III is concerned that if the governor vetoes the new Senate bill, counties will be pitted against each other competing for scarce resourses. Courts viewed as over-judged will resent having their vacancies shipped off to under-judged counties.

“They’re not over-judged; they have what they should have,” Haight said, adding that he’d rather the problem be solved by adding new judgeships than taking away existing ones.

“I don’t think the solution is just reallocating,” said Hopp, the Riverside County presiding judge, adding that if five judgeships were reallocated to Riverside County every year, it would take 10 years to catch up with the number of judges that were needed two years ago. (That ain’t progress.)

The earliest the Judicial Council can take up the courts-future commission’s recommendation for legislation authorizing the chief justice to redistribute the judgeships is its June 23-24 meeting.

Until then, one hopes the state budget is flush with cash so the governor will feel comfortable using some of it to add seats on the bench. Then I hope he quickly appoints judges to fill them, in the Inland counties first.