Governor Calls County Bar’s Gripe ‘Absurd’

Gov. George Deukmejian has strongly rebuked the Orange County Bar Assn. for its request that his future Orange County judicial appointments not go to someone whose legal career is outside the county.

Deukmejian appointments secretary Marvin R. Baxter, writing on the governor’s behalf to Orange County Bar Assn. President Vernon W. Hunt Jr., called the bar’s position “absurd.”

“If we were to adopt your recommendation statewide, all persons who practice in a county other than their residence would be summarily disqualified for consideration regardless of qualifications,” Baxter said in his July 13 letter, made public Monday.

Baxter also discounted Hunt’s suggestion that candidates who worked within the county were uniquely qualified to understand the county’s court needs.

Baxter stated: “If we were to accept your argument . . . then the logical extension would lead to the absurd conclusion that all members of the California Supreme Court should be from San Francisco, since that is where the court is located.”

Traditionally, California governors make judicial appointments in a county only to residents of that county. In municipal judgeships, residency is actually required.

Judgeships Pending

The controversy often comes when the governor appoints someone who lives in the county but works outside the county. For example, when Deukmejian appointed the late Sidney Maleck to an Orange County Municipal Court seat two years ago, a lot of local attorneys grumbled. Maleck, a close friend of Deukmejian’s, was city attorney in El Monte, in Los Angeles County, for 10 years before his appointment.

Pending in the Legislature now are five new Orange County Superior Court judgeships and a new seat on the 4th District Court of Appeal in Santa Ana. Hunt says the local bar is concerned that about 20% of the candidates for those seats work outside Orange County.

The local bar’s executive board overwhelmingly voted to have Hunt write the governor last month about the issue.

Hunt said Monday that he was disappointed at what he called Baxter’s “rather truculent tone.”

“I don’t think he responded to the issue,” Hunt said. “Why should the governor pass over qualified people (who work in Orange County) unless it’s for some political reason?”

Hunt’s letter to the governor said that appointing outsiders would be unfair.

“Those who practice here should be given the opportunity to serve on the bench or to be advanced before others are brought in from other counties,” Hunt’s letter said.

Hunt emphasized--both in his letter to the governor and in a news conference--that the bar was not criticizing any of the appointments Deukmejian has made in Orange County. In fact, Hunt praised the appointees as “exceptionally well qualified.”