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If it's okay, Chief, I'd like to talk about the two liaison programs that have been instituted.
At a planning session last June, the Judicial Council asked the Executive and Planning Committee
to develop changes to the Judicial Council governance to make it more transparent and
accountable. We want it to be better informed and to be able to better communicate the actions
that we take here at the judicial council to the judicial branch.
You may remember that we made some pretty significant changes immediatelyómaking it
easier to give public comment and opening up our educational sessions, which used to
be closed.
As the Chief Justice noted in her opening remarks, we are now instituting two more initiatives
that were approved in those governance meetings to improve communication and accountability:
we will be assigning Judicial Council members as liaisons to trial courts as well as to
the divisions within the AOC. Earlier this month she signed the liaison appointment letters
for council members, and they are included in your information packet and will also be
posted online.
By assigning these liaisons to the trial courts, we are making sure that each trial court has
direct access to the Judicial Councilóa point of contact to raise concerns and issues. We
will rely on Judicial Council members to bring back to the Council any and all issues and
concerns they may hear from these different assigned courts.
Of course, several Judicial Council committees already have similar functionsóthe Trial
Court Presiding Judges Committee that Judge Rosenberg chairs, and the Court Executives
Advisory Committee, that Alan Carlson chairs.
But we're doing with the liaison program is creating another, more personalized avenue
for trial courts to have access to the Judicial Council.
This is a new program, so we will continue to monitor it and evaluate it, and make adjustments
as necessary.
I did want to say what I think the value of those are, I along with David Rubin from CJA
were invited to visit Stockton and visit with the judges there. We had a wonderful time.
We had a great dinner with them and then we both spoke to them. And to me that's what
these programs are about. I learned a wealth of information from the judges and from their
staff about their court, about their issues, about their concerns. We had a great discussion
after dinner where they were able to ask questions and receive responses and I have to tell you,
I have brought back a number of incredibly good ideas that I heard from the judges, and
a number of incredible concerns and immediate and critical concerns that they have, that's
the value of this program and it will help us keep in touch with them with regards to
that aspect.
The second liaison program involves connecting Judicial Council members to various AOC divisions.
Although the divisions support the Judicial Council and carry out its policies and directives,
a third of the council members are replaced each year and new council members are often
familiar with only the work of one or two divisionsódepending on what committees they
may of served on in the past.
The AOC liaison program will help facilitate knowledgeable communication among those on
the Judicial Council, AOC staff, and others within the judicial branch about how AOC staff
supports and implements Judicial Council policies designed to benefit our branch, our justice
state partners, and the public.
We expect and hope with these liaison programs, especially with the AOC, that weíll be able
to share with other council members any information that may be helpful to the council and we
will ask the liaisons to report back to the council with regards to their visits and discussions
with those particular divisions.
Again, it's a new program. We're going to watch it. We're going to monitor it and evaluate
it and make any changes or adjustments that need to be made.