Board OKs Budget for Courts on Deadline

The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors on Tuesday narrowly approved a $402-million budget for the county’s Superior and Municipal courts, ending a last-minute showdown and clearing the way for $130 million in state aid.

Supervisor Pete Schabarum failed in his eleventh-hour drive to reject the budget as “fiscally irresponsible” when Supervisor Mike Antonovich said he had reached a private understanding with the presiding judge of the Superior Court, who pledged to hold down future costs.

The fiscal 1990-1991 budget for the Superior and Municipal courts countywide will jump about $60 million, or 17.5% to $402 million. Under the agreement approved by the supervisors on Tuesday, the county is required to pay about $185 million of the budget that takes effect on July 1. An additional $130 million is provided by the state, and the remainder is raised from the courts’ operations.

If the board had rejected the budget, it would have lost the state funding. Under a state law, annual budgets for county courts must be approved by majorities of the Superior Court judges, Municipal Court judges and the Board of Supervisors by Nov. 15. Failure to act on the budget by that date means the county would have lost the $130 million in state funds.

“We’d be real dodos if we don’t approve this today,” said Supervisor Kenneth Hahn in urging his colleagues to approve the measure.

The supervisors were also urged by private attorneys to approve the budget.

Ian Hertzog, president-elect of the California Trial Lawyers Assn., warned the board that some of the reforms sought by Schabarum and Antonovich--such as time limits on jury selection--are beyond the board’s authority.

Harry Hathaway, president of the Los Angeles County Bar Assn., said, “The court reforms you demand are far too serious to be used as mere political strings tied to the court’s funding request.”

Schabarum said approving a budget that he perceived as bloated with perks for judges was “a complete abdication of this board’s financial obligations.” And, Schabarum warned, the courts’ budget will continue to spiral in the future if the board did not take a stand this year.

Among the benefits is a $350 monthly payment to Municipal Court judges for “professional enhancement” such as seminars, and a $600 annual payment to Superior Court judges for home and car security.

But Supervisor Ed Edelman called the budget a compromise and told Schabarum that the increases were “simply keeping pace with demands” on the system.