Gov. Jerry Brown
March 15, 2015
Page 1
Franklin Bondonno
15325 Kennedy Road
Los Gatos, California 95032
(408) 356-1516
March 15, 2015
Gov. Edmund G. Brown, Jr.
State of California
c/o State Capitol, Suite 1173
Sacramento, CA 95814
Re:Crisis in Judicial Funding for Santa Clara County Superior Courts
Dear Governor Brown:
This letter is written in my capacity as a citizen rather than as a judicial officer for the last nine and a half years in Santa Clara County. Over the period of the Great Recession, our court managed to keep its doors open by gradually increasing our staff vacancy rate from the low teens to almost 33 percent today. As the vacancy rate ratcheted up, we were able to save enough money every year so that we could meet the following year’s shortfall in State funding.
That luxury has now passed. To keep our doors open to the end of the fiscal year will require extreme measures.
The continued uncertainty in Trial Court Funding from year to year has required our Court to already:
●Closenine courtrooms.
●Compel our citizens to travel, in many cases, for more than an hour for small claims court. This is especially burdensome for poor litigants.
●Reduce our clerks’ office hours.
●Reduce our Self-Help Center hours.
●Increasethewaiting time for people appearing on traffic tickets to between two and a half to three hours; and
●Driven our staff vacancy rate to the breaking point.
This is a disgraceful situation that reflects badly on your administration and the Legislature.
Governor, you will remember that last May, in the fiscal budget negotiations, the trial courts were required to turn in any savings they had managed to achieve. The result was that on July 1, 2014, we had no buffer left. In addition, for this fiscal year, the Court system needed $260 million; $90 million was provided.
I appreciate the fact that your budget proposals for fiscal year 2016-2017 include additional money for the courts, but the reality of your proposals are not enough even to allow us to tread water. When it is all said and done, for my county, that means a shortfall of approximately $8 million, with no funding that will allow us to meet that shortfall.
I have never enjoyed a job as much as being a Superior Court judge. I find the work stimulating and fulfilling. At the same time, these endless budget cuts are stretching my court’s capacity to the breaking point. I do not mind buying my own supplies (which I often do), nor do I mind doing my own vacuuming, dusting and tidying up (which I also do), but I do mind seeing justice rationed. We have reached the point where I must consider whether or not I can fulfill my oath of office as a judicial officer in these conditions.
I realize that many in Sacramento look upon the courts as just another state agency akin to the DMV or any other department. The courtsare not another state agency; we are a third branch of the state government, and we are critically important to maintaining the tri-part foundation upon which our democracy rests. If the State continues to provide inadequate funding, the courts will not be able to function and maintain the independence that is a critical element of our democracy.
Let me add that while I was appointed by Governor Schwarzenegger, I am a registered Democrat, and I believe that you have done an excellent job in steering the state through an extraordinary financial downtown. Thank heaven, times are better now, and it is time for you, your administration and the Legislature to address the court’s desperate need.
Very truly yours,
FRANKLIN BONDONNO