Remember those 50 new judges that the governor was supposed to name to the bench any day now? Well, don't start unwrapping those new robes and gavels just yet.
One of Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's budget-writers told stunned lawmakers on Friday that those 50 judges probably won't be appointed until August. The administration will focus first on filling approximately 15 vacancies in existing trial court positions before it moves "aggressively" to begin naming the 50 new jurists, an unidentified staffer told the legislative Budget Conference Committee.
After long negotiations last year, lawmakers allocated more than $5 million to pay for the new judges and their support staff to start work this month, the last of the 2006-07 fiscal year.
"You haven't appointed any of the 50 judges yet?" state Sen. Denise Ducheny, D-San Diego, asked. Nope, the staffer said. Ducheny and other committee members then asked what happened to the $5 million. Not sure, the mystery staffer answered.
That reply led Ducheny and Committee Chairman John Laird, D-Santa Cruz, to demand from the governor's office a list of all the judicial appointments he's made over the last year — presumably to analyze the diversity of his picks. The state Assembly held up legislation authorizing the 50 new judgeships last summer over criticism that the governor had appointed too many white men.
Schwarzenegger spokeswoman Gena Grebitus had not seen the committee testimony but said the appointments have been slowed by the "significant number" of lawyers who have applied for bench positions since Judicial Appointments secretary Sharon Majors-Lewis launched "serious outreach" to minority attorneys in recent months.
"Some of those applicants will not be vetted through the JNE Commission until August," Grebitus said of the Commission on Judicial Nominees.
Lawmakers may react with some skepticism to that explanation since Schwarzenegger has known that he'd have to name 50 new judges — with legislators carefully eyeing the diversity of those picks — for almost a year. Committee hearings continue on Saturday.
— Cheryl Miller
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