Battle Over Court Clerks Hits State Supreme Court

A San Diego County turf war over control of the power to hire, fire and promote Superior Court clerks moved to the California Supreme Court on Monday. The case will affect control of courtroom clerks in most counties in the state.

Robert Zumwalt, the elected San Diego County clerk, contends that the 1976 state law permitting Superior Court judges to transfer the duties of an elected county clerk to a judge-appointed court administrator violates the state Constitution.

The courtroom deputy clerks work for the judges, setting calendars, keeping files and managing operation of the court. Yet the deputy clerks are answerable to the elected county clerk, who has the power to hire, fire and promote them.

The judges argue that this system forces their courtroom deputies to choose between two masters--the judge in whose court they work and the county clerk who is their employer.

Zumwalt maintains the intrusion by the judges into the domain of county clerks violates the constitutional provision that elected clerks are ex-officio officers of the court.

Battle Over Control

The county judges are fighting to take Zumwalt’s authority over their clerks and give it to court executive William Pierce. On May 3, Pierce went to work for Zumwalt as his assistant chief deputy clerk.

Some counties have already altered their systems to remove the power from the county clerk, turning the power over to an administrator. Orange and Riverside counties have delayed enactment of the system pending the outcome of the San Diego case.

The other counties involved in the change of power include Fresno, Lassen, Madera, Mendocino, Santa Clara, Solano and Imperial.

Two prior state Court of Appeal rulings have upheld the practice.

The seven justices have three months to rule on the case.

Justice Stanley Mosk asked: “Aren’t we talking about a turf battle? Is there any more serious issue?”

Alden Fulkerson, the attorney for Zumwalt and San Diego County, said the question is a constitutional one.

Former appeal court Justice Kenneth Andreen, now attorney for the San Diego Superior Court judges, said: “The county provides a clerk for the court, not a court for the clerk.”

Andreen, who wrote one of the two appeal decisions upholding the judges’ authority, said the issue is efficiency.

‘Tools to Solve Problems’

“The courts ought to have the tools to solve their problems,” he said. The 1976 law “is the vehicle to bring the courts into the 20th Century,” he said.

Justice Edward Panelli pointed out that conflicts have arisen when courtroom clerks, officially state employees, are ordered to work on state holidays by judges who are county employees, without the same holidays.

Chief Justice Malcolm Lucas asked why all functions of the elected county clerk could not be transferred to the judges.

Justice Mosk suggested voters were unlikely to elect a county clerk who does absolutely nothing.

Andreen said the populist notion is that the clerk should be elected.

“Joe Six-Pack likes that idea, but the court has had enough experience with elections to know it is the most popular person who is elected,” he said.

Mosk, one of just two justices on the court to survive an election battle in 1986 that ousted Chief Justice Rose Bird and two others, said he did not want to talk about individuals.