Roth Suggests Judges Work Longer Hours in Exchange for 4-Day Week

Board of Supervisors Chairman Don R. Roth said Friday that the county should consider asking its judges to work longer days in exchange for a four-day week in order to ease the courtroom logjam and jail overcrowding.

“I think some judges would love it,” Roth said. “I asked one of my judge friends if he would start a recall against me, and he said no.”

Roth’s comments come as the county is scrambling to find $1.1 billion for proposed new jail and court facilities.

A memo drafted by county administrators this week presented several funding options, including a half-cent sales tax increase for jail construction and operation and a multimillion-dollar bond issue to build a court complex.

Responding to the memo, Roth noted the county’s historic “reluctance” to approve new taxes.

Before voters are asked to spend more money for courts and jails, he said, they should be assured that the county is getting the most out of what it already has.

Judges could increase their productivity by working longer days, Roth said, and shortening their workweek would allow them to stagger schedules and share courtrooms.

Such a plan could also ease jail crowding, the supervisor said, noting that 45% of county jail inmates are defendants waiting to be tried or convicts waiting to be sentenced and transferred to state prison.

“The logjam is in the court,” he said. “I think because of the sensitive nature of the jail tax, we need better utilization of the existing facilities.”

Judges and other court officials contacted Friday said they would be willing to try a four-day workweek, although some questioned whether it would be more productive than the present system.

The Board of Supervisors does not have the authority to order the change, so backers would have to convince judges of a four-day system’s merit. Supervisors do, however, control money for court construction and staffing.

In neighboring Los Angeles County, supervisors encouraged reluctant judges to hold night court by suggesting that a refusal to do so might hurt their chances to gain more court construction money. Los Angeles County was one of the first in the nation to hold night criminal court, in a pilot program that began in early 1986.

Supervisor Thomas F. Riley suggested Friday that Orange County consider hearing civil cases at night.

“I guess the big thing is, we’re getting so far behind in court cases,” he said. “Over the years we’ve talked of going to night courts. . . . I’m very supportive on anything that will free up the courts.”

Prosecutors and public defenders said the idea of a four-day week had been broached in their latest round of pay negotiations with the county.

“It is an attractive concept,” Public Defender Ronald Y. Butler said. “The only problem might be a disruption of the family lives of some employees, especially those with small children.”

Several judges said they think that the schedule could work for non-jury trials and other court proceedings but that the longer day would impose too much of a hardship on jurors, especially those with young children.

The result could be a smaller, older and less representative pool of potential jurors, Superior Court Judge William F. McDonald said.

“One of the things we do now is watch our demands on jurors,” McDonald said. “Obviously, a 10-hour trial would make a problem for a juror that had to get to day care.”

Options for dealing with the county’s overloaded dockets and crowded jails were highlighted this week in a three-page memo from County Administrative Officer Ernie Schneider to board members. The memo does not rank the options, but county administrators said they plan to make a recommendation to board members next week.

County analyst Eileen Walsh, who drafted the memo, said her office will probably recommend that the county ask voters to approve a $250-million bond issue in November for building a new court complex in downtown Santa Ana.

County administrators are also expected to recommend that voters be asked to consider a half-cent sales tax for jail construction in the June, 1991, elections, Walsh said.

Both initiatives would require approval by two-thirds of the voters, but Walsh said it is too late to get a sales-tax referendum on the November ballot.