Judges and Judiciary
Aug. 30, 2016
Most state courthouse construction halted due to budget problems
Seventeen proposed courthouse projects cannot break ground unless state government frees up public money, the judicial branch's top policymakers unanimously decided Friday.
Daily Journal Staff Writer
SAN FRANCISCO — Seventeen proposed courthouse projects cannot break ground unless state government frees up public money, the judicial branch's top policymakers unanimously decided Friday.
The Judicial Council approved of a downsized judicial branch capital plan that halts construction on any courthouses that are still in the design or land acquisition phases.
The development is a damaging but unsurprising blow to a number of superior courts that are included on the list of 23 priority projects.
The branch has been pushing for new facilities to ease critical problems such as overcrowded courtrooms, dilapidated structures, onerous travel times for court users and concerns over public safety and seismic activity.
Siskiyou County Superior Court has one of the 23 priority projects, but its proposed Yreka Courthouse was not among the six projects approved for funding.
"We fully expected to have started on construction early last month," said William J. Davis, the presiding judge of Siskiyou County Superior Court. "We even had bids as of last April. They expired a week ago."
Davis told the Judicial Council that his court now worries that the project could face blight and deterioration by transients.
Brad R. Hill, the administrative presiding justice on the 5th District Court of Appeal, said the judicial branch's capital plan was on "life support."
"The money that came from court users was to build safe and secure and accessible court facilities," Hill testified Friday.
"So we need to obviously work with our friends and our colleagues in the other two branches of government to make sure that the promises that were made to them are kept," Hill added.
Hill chairs a Judicial Council committee assigned to recommend projects for funding.
Over the last several months, the Court Facilities Advisory Committee has held public meetings with presiding judges and court executives to discuss the distressed state of courthouses.
Brian L. McCabe, a Merced County Superior Court judge, testified Friday about the difficult conditions at the historic Placerville courthouse in El Dorado County.
A new Placerville courthouse is also among the 23 priority projects.
"Repairs are not attempted because the walls have asbestos," McCabe said about the old Placerville courthouse. "The temperamental elevator usually works although it was broken for three months not long ago."
"[The elevator] was repaired, yet a deputy was trapped two weeks ago when it decided to quit working," McCabe added. "Disabled litigants and staff had to be carried up stairs."
The construction projects are financially supported through a designated account, the Immediate and Critical Needs Account, which was created in 2008 through passage of Senate Bill 1407.
The account was expected to accumulate an estimated $270 million each year in fees and fines collected in state courts.
But the account was continually raided by the judicial branch and state government in response to budgetary pressures caused by the most recent national recession.
Since 2009, $1.4 billion has been taken from the account to backfill gaps in the state's general fund and to support trial court operations.
Moreover, a drop in court filings and recent initiatives such as Gov. Jerry Brown's traffic amnesty program — which allows unpaid parking tickets to be paid off at a reduced price — has depressed the account's revenue stream.
Chief Justice Tani G. Cantil-Sakauye said Friday that she and the Judicial Council had fought transfers from the construction account.
"We find ourselves now in a place where the money has not returned, and we found ourselves in a factually different place where the [court] filings are gone and the amnesty has changed our pocketbook," Cantil-Sakauye said.
Friday's approved capital plan does financially support six projects which have already broken ground. The facilities are expected to be operational within the next 12 months.
Those six projects are the East County Hall of Justice in Alameda County; Los Banos Courthouse in Merced County; Central San Diego Courthouse; Stockton Courthouse in San Joaquin County; Santa Clara Family Justice Center; and Red Bluff Courthouse in Tehama County.
Kevin Lee
kevin_lee@dailyjournal.com
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