Reinstate accountability to our courts: Pass Assembly Bill 2521 (Sacramento, California)

Great op-ed by Kathleen Russell defending California Assembly Bill 2521, which would promote accountability in the courts.

APRIL 20, 2010 PERSPECTIVE

Daily Journal

Reinstate Accountability To Our Courts: Pass Assembly Bill 2521

By Kathleen Russell

No part of our government is more integral to fairness and justice than our court system. That's why the people who must abide by the laws of our state deserve to see the courts administered with model efficiency, accountability and transparency. It is especially important that as taxpayers and businesses suffer the lingering effects of a deep recession, they see their tax dollars being spent prudently.

Everyone from business owners, to abused and neglected children, to victims of domestic violence count on our courts to be accessible and reliable.

Funding shortfalls from the state budget have resulted in courts being closed due to the public and massive layoffs of hard-working courts staff who serve critical functions like court reporting and collecting payments and fines. That makes wait times longer for simple transactions and means crime victims wait longer to see justice. Yet at the same time, the Administrative Office of the Courts, the state agency that oversees court operations, has pursued a $2 billion computer system and given double-digit pay increases to its top staff, calling into question whether our courts are being administered with financial integrity. When a member of the public visits their local courthouse and finds a "closed" sign on the door, they deserve to know if courtroom closures could have been avoided. But a loophole in current law shields court financial information from outside scrutiny.

The unintended consequences of a well-intended law known as the Trial Court Funding Act of 1997 have allowed our courts to escape the same kind of outside audits required of other public institutions, such as school districts and county and city governments, even as our courts should stand as shining examples of the accountability and transparency we expect of our government. The Trial Court Funding Act put local court administration under a larger state umbrella that lawmakers hoped would provide greater stability in funding and better services to the public, but it did not include some basic accountability measures such as independent audits. This lack of adequately independent financial oversight is a problem at both the state level, where no regular audits are required, and at the local level, where the audits are conducted only by the AOC itself.

Coming before members of the Assembly Judiciary Committee today, Assembly Bill 2521 is common sense legislation that will ensure that court finances are transparent by requiring independent annual audits of county courts and the AOC.

AB 2521 is a good government bill that will correct one of the flaws of the Trial Court Funding Act. The goal of this bill is simple - to apply the same transparency requirements that apply to school districts, cities and counties to trial courts in California.

Failure to conduct independent audits has serious consequences for our system of justice. For example, a multi-million dollar error resulted in layoffs of San Mateo Superior Court employees, a situation which hurts workers and families and compromised access to our courts.

A lack of transparency prevents our government agencies from operating efficiently and openly. No agency that runs on taxpayer dollars should be free from public scrutiny. Our judiciary exists to serve the people, and reinstating accountability to our court system will give taxpayers back the right to know whether state agencies are doing just that, or whether the courts are failing in their mandate to serve the public interest.

Kathleen Russell is staff consultant of the Center for Judicial Excellence.