Orange County Judges to Demand Court Funds

Setting the stage for a constitutional clash with possible statewide implications, Orange County’s presiding judges announced Thursday that they will order county officials to provide as much as $13.9 million in additional funding needed to prevent a shutdown of some court operations next month.

The decision, taken in a late afternoon meeting of the judges who preside over the county’s six courthouses, came after two county supervisors decided to abandon their monthlong attempt to hammer out a funding deal that would have kept the courts fully operational until the June 30 close of the county’s budget year.

Theodore E. Millard, presiding judge of the Orange County Superior Court, said the judges’ attorneys are making some last-minute revisions to a court order that will be served as soon as possible on the county supervisors, Chief Executive Officer Jan Mittermeier and Auditor-Controller Steve E. Lewis, who handles the disbursement of county funds.

County officials have said they will challenge any such order--a move that effectively places the matter before the state Supreme Court, which will assign the legal fight to a court outside Orange County.

If the Orange County judges were to prevail in that action, the county would have little choice but to appropriate the money being demanded.

The looming court fight would mark one of the few times in state history that state judges and county government officials have gone to court over a funding dispute.

Mittermeier “wanted a constitutional crisis, and I guess she is going to get her way,” Millard said. “This is the first time to my knowledge that there has been a case of the magnitude that we are now dealing with. . . . We feel we have no choice but to proceed.”

Orange County is but one of more than a dozen counties in the state dealing with severe funding problems. Other courts are watching the results of the Orange County showdown to see whether the judges force reluctant county officials to give them more money for operations.

The Orange County judges contend that county government has not provided them with sufficient funds to pay employees and purchase supplies through the end of the fiscal year, as well as to complete “critical” capital projects such as an airport-style security system for the Central Courthouse.

Mittermeier’s office has consistently rejected the judges’ dire predictions that a $13-million budget shortfall will force the courts to shut down in mid-May, saying that the courts needed at most $2 million to cover costs through June.

The two sides tentatively agreed in negotiations to a funding compromise that would have provided the courts with at least $4.2 million, and possibly as much as $8.5 million, but the deal collapsed last week with each side accusing the other of making last-minute changes.

Board of Supervisors Chairman William G. Steiner expressed disappointment, but little surprise, at the judges’ action.

“It is certainly their right [to issue a court order],” Steiner said. “But it will not be a hammer, because in some respect we welcome the opportunity to get a final definition of what the courts’ needs are. So if this is supposed to be intimidating, it’s not.”