Judges to Craft Merger Details for Local Courts : Judiciary: Combining administrative functions is expected to streamline operations and save money.

Breaking away from the traditional rivalry of a two-tiered court system, Glendale and Burbank judges will meet today to hammer out details of a plan to streamline operations and save taxpayers money. All seven judges in the Glendale Municipal Court and Superior Courts in Glendale and Burbank signed agreements last week to merge administrative and clerical operations. The merger is expected to cut costs and reduce delays in hearings and trials. The Glendale district is only the third in Los Angeles County to agree to a merger. The Long Beach and Santa Monica districts were the first to take action, both in mid-January, said James Dempsey, Los Angeles Superior Court executive officer. James Rogan, presiding judge of the Glendale Municipal Court credited with spearheading the local unification drive, said the private meeting today will concern specifics on eliminating waste in the overburdened judicial system. “We are all just sort of experimenting,” Rogan said. “Our main goal is to try to cut costs, save the taxpayers money, get rid of duplicated services and make the system more efficient.” Legislation passed in 1991 and 1992 encourages courts throughout the state to merge operations. Additional legislation proposed this year could penalize judicial districts that fail to streamline operations. Superior and municipal courts traditionally have fought fiercely to maintain independence, officials said. Even though many share quarters in a single building, they have separate administrators and clerical staffs who often duplicate duties, such as ordering supplies, distributing mail and maintaining facilities. Some districts maintain separate jury pools for municipal and superior court trials. The legislative effort to streamline operations has been led for the last three years by Assemblyman Phillip Isenberg (D-Sacramento), chairman of the Assembly Judiciary Committee. The thrust of the legislation is to increase collection of fines and penalties that help support the court system while reducing operational costs and trial delays. A part of the package requires that Social Security numbers be reported on all drivers’ license applications, which allows the state to collect unpaid court fines from state income tax refunds, said Alison Harvey, Isenberg’s chief of staff. That provision alone is expected to raise $500 million a year in previously uncollected penalties, Harvey said. Rubin Lopez, chief counsel to the Assembly Judiciary Committee, said legislation purposely has been designed to allow each of the 58 superior courts in the state--one for each county--to design their own consolidation plans. The goal, he said, is “to reduce the number of people who are doing the same job.” Los Angeles County, which has 11 districts in its Superior Court, has given each of those districts the same freedom. Rogan said area judges “took a position in the early stages that we were willing to do whatever it took among court administrators to consolidate.” Under the two-tiered system established by the state Constitution, felony trials and civil cases involving major damages are the realm of superior courts. Municipal and justice courts try misdemeanor crimes and lesser civil cases. The system involves a great deal of duplication, Lopez and others say. A preliminary hearing for a felony, for instance, typically takes place in municipal court to determine if authorities have sufficient evidence to prosecute. A municipal judge hears the facts of the case and determines whether a suspect should be bound over for a superior court trial. In the event an individual pleads guilty to a felony charge in a municipal court hearing, the case traditionally still must be sent to a superior court for sentencing, Harvey said. Under unification, which allows cross-assignment of judges, sentencing could be completed at the municipal court level, she said. That has sent many municipal court jurists “back to judge school” to learn sentencing guidelines, Harvey said.