Silence At Judicial Council Meeting Doesn't Mean Data Breach Drama Has Passed

[Cheryl Miller]

The dicey topic of Sacramento Superior Court’s computer troubles came up at Friday’s Judicial Council meeting and the reaction was, well, silence.

Justice Richard Huffman, chairman of the Council’s Executive and Planning Committee, reiterated the events of April and May: Court leaders told the AOC they were unplugging (sub. req.) from a remote server to take local control of the beleaguered computer system. Huffman’s committee shot them a letter (free reg. req.) essentially saying don’t you dare. The committee also told the AOC to prepare a report on the situation for the council’s meeting today.

But today there was no report. There was no discussion of the Sacramento issue or the public debate (free reg. req.) over who was to blame for a major security breach. And there was no response from angry judges, who have previously let in be known that they don’t think Huffman and his committee have the authority to tell a trial court what it can and cannot do.

So does that mean we have peace in our time between Sacramento and the AOC? Not exactly. 

Supreme Court Justice Ming Chin and LA Judge Michael Vicencia, president of the California Judges Association, recently visited the court in an effort to create a little détente between the two sides.

Vicencia said Friday that he has “real concerns” about Huffman’s letter, “but my first concern is that Sacramento gets a working computer system.”

As for the report, AOC chief administrator Bill Vickrey said “there’s nothing to report” yet because both sides are still talking and working on the problems.

“I’m hoping we can work out something that works for everyone,” Vickrey said.

Sacramento Presiding Judge Steve White hasn’t returned messages left this week, although an aide said Friday that he was out of the office.

Comments

[Fred Woods]

The Alliance of California Judges sent a letter to the Judicial Council last week. It not only asked the Council to address Justice Huffman's letter to Judge White, but also the broader issues of CCMS and trial court governance.

If someone wanted to send a copy of the letter to Cheryl Miller, is there an e-mail address that can be sed for this purpose?