Fine Work, if You Get It : Since Bankruptcy, Judges Ask Offenders Who Can’t Pay to Help Maintain Courts

He couldn’t pay his court-ordered fine this month, but David Mesa stood before the judge armed with what would turn out to be a good excuse: the Orange County bankruptcy crisis.

“Your honor, I’m in construction, and the bankruptcy has just killed it,” said the tanned, tank-topped defendant from San Clemente. “I’ve tried, but there’s no work. It’s bad.”

Instantly evaluating excuses is part of her job, and Judge Pamela L. Iles of Municipal Court in Laguna Niguel said she’s heard them all. As it happens, the defense offered by the 32-year-old, who was convicted of drunk driving, was well-timed.

Because of the financial crisis, courthouse maintenance contracts have been slashed, leaving the Laguna Niguel courthouse and others in the county unkempt.

The answer? Let Mesa paint the courthouse.

“I’ll tell you what, David,” Iles told him at his sentencing, “I’ve got 20 gallons of paint downstairs, and I’ll get you started on the cells. But if you want to start working it off for me, you have to do a good job.”

Mesa’s painting sentence included bringing his own brushes, rollers and dropcloths.

It may be an unusual form of community service, but it’s a solution administrators at four of the five county Municipal Court buildings say they have adopted in one way or another since the county’s fiscal crisis began to unfold last December. In addition to supervised painting and landscape work, those sweating off court fines move office furniture, vacuum and even do windows.

“Last week, I purchased a lawn mower and hedge clippers,” said James Peterson, executive officer at Municipal Court in Newport Beach. “Our landscape contract was cut to once a month, so we’re going to have (sentenced offenders) maintain the outside of the facility.”

Peterson said 5% to 10% of offenders ordered into work programs by Municipal Court judges in Newport Beach are doing their service at the Jamboree Road building. The decision to redirect their services was a result of the cutbacks forced by the bond crisis, he said.

“We purchased paint and the public hallways were scheduled to be painted before the bankruptcy,” Peterson said. “We have a lot of young people who come through here who are out of work, or between jobs. It’s a good solution.”

The work is appreciated by those who spend their days in the courthouse.

Clean windows at Municipal Court in Laguna Niguel are a welcome sight, Executive Officer Joyce Ziegler said. “They hadn’t been done in a long while.”

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Maintenance for the county courthouses falls under the General Services Agency, which has suffered extensive cutbacks since the county’s $1.7-billion investment pool loss. Since January, about $12 million has been cut from the GSA budget and 222 employee positions eliminated, according to a county official. Much of the money cut was earmarked for maintenance and other services in and around the courthouses.

Things as basic as how often floors are swept or lawns mowed have been affected.

“They cut all the contract maintenance people, and we still have the trash,” said Executive Officer Richard Biggins of Municipal Court in Westminster. He also has implemented an expanded community service program.

“This way, we have the opportunity to use people who come through here, and they can get these things behind them and get on with their lives,” Biggins said.

A person convicted of a misdemeanor in Municipal Court faces several penalty options: Pay a fine, serve time in jail or do community service. Each court varies somewhat. In Laguna Niguel, for example, a person convicted of driving under the influence faces a mandatory minimum fine of $1,200. But if it’s determined they can’t pay, they might be ordered to spend 13 days behind bars or to perform 13, eight-hour days of community service.

Some offenders are sentenced to a combination of penalties at the discretion of the judge. “The object still is for them to pay restitution for the crime,” one court official said.

Any assignment to do in-house labor is dependent on the skills of those performing it. “If we had a plumber come in here and paint, we would have an amateur paint job. We want them in here doing something that they are comfortable in doing, that they do all the time,” said Lorene Mies, a deputy public defender whose clients are often assigned to community service.

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Picking up trash--usually along highways or at beaches--is still the No. 1 court-ordered job.

At the Municipal Court in Santa Ana, Executive Officer Bob Kuhel said offenders have been used at the building for trash pickup and maintenance for some time, but judges and court officials have become more creative in their service distribution since the bankruptcy.

“We now have them vacuuming and doing other things,” Kuhel said. “But they have to be supervised, and that takes staff. So we take that into consideration.”

Within the past 12 months, the Santa Ana county courthouse has used 72 offenders for in-house community service, and there are plans to direct more for that use, Kuhel said. The 72 offenders have logged 2,400 hours of work there, he added.

“That’s doing everything from dusting to emptying trash, to sorting recyclables, to what have you,” Kuhel said. “It’s successful.”

Only one of the five county courthouses, Municipal Court in Fullerton, has not expanded its in-house community service programs as a direct result of the bankruptcy.

“It’s something we’ve discussed, but not something we’re doing because of the bankruptcy,” Assistant Executive Officer Kathy Morrow said.

Morrow said the Fullerton facility has for a long time made use of some offenders to do routine chores, but their duties have not changed.

“The court has a judicial services function, but it hasn’t increased. We had one judge who wanted his library painted, and he came in and did it himself.”

Judge Iles said that in-house community service has been a successful solution in her courtroom and she is assigning more and more work to minor offenders.

“This way, they’re working right in their own community, and helping their community after the bankruptcy,” Iles said. “Just think of what a savings this is for the county.”

Some of those sentenced to painting, cleaning and trimming don’t find their terms unusually harsh.

Rolling out the second coat of paint next to the front entrance of Municipal Court in Laguna Niguel, Randy Huff said his job assignment “isn’t bad at all.”

“I’m a painter by trade, and doing it here is kind of neat,” said Huff, 25, of Dana Point, who was sentenced on a traffic violation. “There are people coming through all the time telling you how much better it looks. I’m glad I could work it off--the court fines were looking pretty ugly.”

Mesa, also painting the Laguna Niguel facility, said that when he faced Judge Iles, he didn’t know how he was going to pay the fines for drunk-driving.

“I was glad that (Iles) said they were hurt by the bankruptcy too,” Mesa said. “I’d rather be working than paying the fine out of my own pocket. This way, she was helping me out, and I’m helping her out.”