State-mandated furlough days end, so local courts open more
often
After shuttering local courts on the third Wednesday of the
month since last September to save money as part of a
state-mandated furlough, the San Benito County courthouse plans to
reopen full-time starting in July.
”
We want to maintain as much public service as possible,
”
said Gil Solorio, executive officer of the San Benito County
superior court.
”
I’m trying to walk that fine line, because there’s still a
budgetary issue we have to monitor and address. We just hope to do
it another way.
”
State-mandated furlough days end, so local courts open more often
After shuttering local courts on the third Wednesday of the month since last September to save money as part of a state-mandated furlough, the San Benito County courthouse plans to reopen full-time starting in July.
“We want to maintain as much public service as possible,” said Gil Solorio, executive officer of the San Benito County superior court. “I’m trying to walk that fine line, because there’s still a budgetary issue we have to monitor and address. We just hope to do it another way.”
The closure was announced last summer after the state’s Judicial Council voted to close every court in the state on the third Wednesday of every month to help reduce a $414 million budget gap in the court system. The effort was expected to save $85 million during the fiscal year. The mandated closure order expires at the end of this fiscal year, which ends June 30. As of July, it is up to individual counties whether to continue, rescind or expand the closures.
Locally, that meant approximately 35 county employees at the Fifth Street building didn’t work and didn’t get paid on the closure day. Judges Steven Sanders and Harry Tobias could not be forced to take a pay cut because they are constitutional officers of the state, but they both volunteered to take a one-day cut in pay as a show of solidarity with their colleagues.
Having one less day of court each month meant officials had to revamp the calendar to squeeze in all of the hearings, trials and other matters.
Eliminating the monthly court closure day is designed to serve both the public and the agencies that Solorio calls the court’s “justice partners,” including the sheriff’s office, probation, Hollister Police and the district attorney’s office.
“It’s been very difficult, since it limited their access to conduct business,” he said. “They will now have that access back.”
Reopening the courts on the third Wednesday of the month does not mean that the court no longer has budget issues, Solorio said.
“The court still foresees budget problems (though) there is a difference between having a problem and foreseeing a problem,” he said, noting that the local court’s frugality over the past five years has allowed it to build up “significant” reserves. “Our current financial stability is enhanced by the fact the court doesn’t offer any retirement health plans, a benefit that can be extraordinarily expensive. Although this information is nothing to bet the farm on, it supports the position that the court has a financial cushion that, with continued frugality, can carry us through the next two budget cycles.”
The state’s uncertain budget outlook “could torpedo our financial stability,” Solorio said, “the overriding point is that the status of their budget is still unknown and likely to remain so until at least September or October.”
When discussing whether the local courts should remain shuttered once a month beyond the expiration of the state order this month, Solorio said the court “prefers not to use the public’s access as the solution to budget problems, especially when our individual budget is strong enough to support us until the impact of the state’s budget is known.”
Reopening on the former furlough Wednesday will not ease all of the backlog experienced in local courts, Solorio noted, though “this allows the public to conduct their business with us and we don’t think it would be a good idea to force our justice partners to continue” to work around a mandated closure day.
