Friday
August 12th, in Sacramento Assembly
Bill #2341 authored by Assemblyman Jay Obernolte (R-Hesperia) was killed by
the Senate Appropriations Committee, despite amendments that removed opposition
from major labor groups. The Legislation would have provided San Bernardino and
Riverside counties with additional judges to address their severely backlogged
court systems.
AB 2341 would have provided for
a more equitable distribution of judgeships by shifting four vacant judgeships
to courts with fewer judges than their assessed need. According to the Judicial
Council’s 2014 Judicial Needs Assessment Report, San Bernardino and Riverside counties are at the top of the list of
under-resourced counties.
This Bill
was introduced after a number of attempts to fund new judgeships in California
were vetoed by Governor Jerry Brown. The Governor has been reluctant to fund
new judgeships until action is taken to distribute judge positions based on
workload needs.
In his
veto message for SB 229 (Roth) in 2015, which was co-authored by Assemblyman
Obernolte and would have appropriated $5
million to fund new judgeships, Governor Brown stated a desire to work with
the Judicial Council to develop a more system-wide approach to balance the
workload and the distribution of judgeships around the state, before funding
any new positions.
Assemblyman
Jay Obernolte represents the 33rd Assembly District, which includes
the San Bernardino County communities of Adelanto, Apple Valley, Baker,
Barstow, Big Bear City, Big Bear Lake, Big River, Crestline, Fort Irwin,
Hesperia, Johnson Valley, Lake Arrowhead, Lenwood, Lucerne Valley, Needles, Oak
Hills, Phelan, Running Springs, Silver Lakes, Trona, Twentynine Palms Base,
Twin Peaks and Victorville.