County’s Courts Face Chance of Being Broke

The Los Angeles County court system, the largest local system in the nation, could be broke within a few weeks because the state owes it millions of dollars, the presiding judge of the Los Angeles Superior Court said Tuesday.

The Municipal and Superior courts face a $21-million budgetary shortfall, and the Superior Court may not be able to pay its 2,400 employees on June 15, Robert W. Parkin, presiding judge of the Superior Court, told state court administrators in a letter Tuesday.

Parkin said in his letter that the courts face an “extremely critical fiscal crisis,” which he blamed on “an ongoing deficiency” in funding by the state, which is in the process of assuming responsibility for the local courts’ finances.

According to Parkin, the state is “$75 million in arrears” to courts across California. About a third of that money is slated for Los Angeles’ courts. Because of the delay in funding, the courts face a cash crunch at the end of one fiscal year while preparing a budget for the next, Parkin told The Times.

Although such funding scares have been almost an annual occurrence during the 1990s, county officials said Tuesday that this crisis is more than budget season maneuvering.

The presiding judge’s dire fiscal prognosis was confirmed Tuesday by top state court officials and several county administrators, who are mounting an aggressive effort to convince state officials--including Gov. Pete Wilson, Controller Kathleen Connell and key finance and treasury officials--to come up with an emergency infusion of cash.

“This is a crisis,” said Supervisor Yvonne Brathwaite Burke, chairwoman of the county Board of Supervisors. “We are depending on the state to come forward” with tens of millions of dollars immediately.

William C. Vickrey, director of the state’s administrative office of the courts, said his staff has been in touch with state officials, attempting to free up general fund money to keep the courts running. He said he expects about $9 million to land in Los Angeles’ account by the end of this week, but acknowledges that that is not enough money to fund the courts through June.

The funding crisis threatens to throw about 300 courtrooms from Long Beach to Lancaster into chaos. And 18 other court systems across the state are about to run out of money, court officials said.

Much of the fiscal crisis is temporary and the result of bugs in implementing the state’s Trial Court Funding Act, which went into effect in January. The legislation placed much of the funding responsibility for the courts in state hands instead of at the local level.

Ironically, the law was intended to provide funding stability to the courts, which since the early 1990s have faced annual budget crises as they appealed for funds from increasingly strapped county governments.

The act consolidated court funding at the state level, capped counties’ contributions at 1994-95 levels, created 40 new judgeships and raised civil court filing fees.

But because the law was initially intended to take effect July 1, putting the new system in place has created a funding gap this fiscal year.

Other factors contributing to the local shortfall, Parkin said, were pay raises that ended a Los Angeles court clerks’ strike this year, as well as a court ruling that limited the use of electronic recording devices in courtrooms.

Combined, they added $3.8 million in unbudgeted personnel expenses, Parkin said.

The presiding judge said he learned of the courts’ cash flow problems late last week, when county Auditor-Controller Alan T. Sasaki informed him by memo that the Superior Court would end the month of June $16 million in the red.

The Municipal Court shortfall was estimated at $5 million.

Even those estimates are “somewhat optimistic,” according to Sasaki’s memo. The next payment from the state is not due until July 15. His memo urges the judges to “make every effort to obtain additional state cash deposits as soon as possible.”

Because the courts are now the responsibility of the state, Sasaki added, neither the state nor the courts should expect a bailout from the county.

Parkin said that without emergency funds, the Superior Court will not have the money to meet its $9-million monthly payroll. The payroll primarily covers court clerks and stenographers. Judges and commissioners are paid separately.

Some of the court’s 2,400 employees could be laid off and some civil courtrooms may be shut down, he added.

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Parkin said the budget crisis is not related to a statewide ballot measure before voters June 2 that would authorize counties to consolidate their Superior and Municipal courts into one system.

Sasaki was unavailable for comment Tuesday, but Assistant Auditor-Controller J. Tyler McCauley said that the cash flow crisis is very real, and could result in the courts running out of money within two weeks.

“So this issue needs to be resolved very quickly,” McCauley said. He added that the state has been aware of the courts’ cashflow problems for many months.

County officials stressed that they have no plans to bail out the mammoth court system. Now that the courts are state-run, the county cannot simply lend money from its general fund, according to McCauley and Supervisor Burke.

“All of us are very concerned,” Burke said, “because the courts have to function.”

Assistant Chief Administrative Officer Sandra Davis said that recent talks with state finance officials have indicated that a solution could be in the works.

“We have been advised by the Department of Finance and the administrative office of the courts that it is an administrative manner and that it should be corrected” before the situation reaches a crisis, Davis said.

Still, the governor, state controller and treasurer would have to agree and sign off on the paperwork before money starts flowing into the state’s courthouses.

“I certainly think that sometime by the end of next week we’re either going to be getting good news or we’re going to be hanging black crepe around here,” Parkin said.