Gonzalez Loses Bid for L.A. Court Post

Sheila Gonzalez, Ventura County’s top court executive, lost her bid Wednesday to become administrator of the Los Angeles Superior Court as the 234 judges there selected a rival contender in a runoff election.

John A. Clarke of Essex County, N.J., and Gonzalez were the finalists out of 49 applicants for the Superior Court post of executive officer and clerk, court officials said.

Gonzalez, 51, declined to be interviewed after the announcement and issued a one-sentence statement through her secretary in which she congratulated Clarke.

Long considered one of the nation’s top court administrators, Gonzalez will remain executive officer, clerk and jury commissioner of the Ventura County Superior and Municipal courts. Ventura County judges earlier this year gave her a 12.85% pay raise, in part out of fear she would be lured to work for another county.

Clarke has been trial court administrator of the Essex County Superior Court since 1990. That court has 102 judges and a $40-million annual budget. In contrast, Ventura County has 27 judges and an annual court budget of $21.7 million.

Gonzalez is credited with saving Ventura County hundreds of thousands of dollars in recent years by streamlining court operations, at the same time making the system more efficient by implementing state-of-the-art technology.

“I think that it’s probably our gain and Los Angeles’ loss,” said Diana Hancock, president of the Ventura County Trial Lawyers Assn. “I think she’s done an outstanding job. . . . I would certainly not think it was a reflection on her abilities at all.”

That opinion was echoed by Ventura County judges.

“I think that Los Angeles County would have been extremely well-served had she gotten the position,” said Judge John R. Smiley, who presides over the Municipal Court. “But for me and for Ventura County and the Ventura County court system, I am much relieved that we can continue to avail ourselves of her extraordinary ability.”

Smiley said Gonzalez’s strengths include being “a marvelous foreseer of the future” in court administration.

“I think she’s really on the leading edge of what courts should be doing,” he said.

Acting Ventura County Superior Court Judge Bruce A. Clark, who formerly presided over the Municipal Court, said he also is pleased Gonzalez will be staying in the county.

“She is a national treasure, in my view, and I think all the judges are delighted that she’s staying, from a personal point of view and from a selfish point of view,” Clark said.

Gonzalez came to Ventura County in 1986 to run the Municipal Court. Impressed with her work there, the county’s Superior Court judges persuaded Gonzalez to oversee a consolidated municipal and superior court administration in 1989.

Gonzalez started her court career in 1968 as a filing clerk in the Glendale Municipal Court. She became administrator of the Glendale court in 1980.

She is on the board of directors for the National Center for State Courts and is president of the National Assn. for Court Management.