Justice Kennard to Join Supreme Court Staff in Taking Pay Furlough

State Supreme Court Justice Joyce L. Kennard is joining scores of court staff members in taking a voluntary, four-day unpaid furlough to try to avoid mandatory staff pay cuts in the wake of the state budget crisis.

“You cannot ask your staff to be subject to financial sacrifice when you yourself are not subject to it,” Kennard said Friday. “I view loyalty as a two-way street.”

She added that if pay cuts also are imposed on court staff members, she will accept such a cut for herself as well.

The 50-year-old Kennard, known as one of the most independent members on the high court, apparently is the first Supreme Court or Appeals Court justice to join the furlough plan. A court spokeswoman said, however, that several appellate justices had voiced interest in the program.

Under the furlough plan, Kennard, who receives an annual salary of $121,207, will take off four work days by the end of the fiscal year next June. She has not calculated how much income she would lose.

The state court system’s voluntary furlough program was instituted by Chief Justice Malcolm M. Lucas at employees’ requests in the hope of warding off court staff pay cuts.

Court officials plan to trim about $12.5 million from the $156 million annual budget of the state Supreme Court, Courts of Appeal, Judicial Performance Commission and the Administrative Office of the Courts.