SF court workers rally for additional staffing ahead of contract talks
Blaming staff vacancies for the trial delays that led to last week's dismissal of 70 misdemeanor cases in San Francisco Superior Court, dozens of county court workers rallied Wednesday outside the San Francisco Hall of Justice and the Civic Center Courthouse.
A statement by the workers' union Service Employees International Union Local 1021 said that staffing levels were not enough to manage the number of cases in court.
"High numbers of vacancies and staffing levels out of alignment with caseloads have been causing delays that unjustly deprive defendants of their Sixth Amendment right to a speedy trial—one of several interconnected issues court workers flagged recently in a survey ahead of contract negotiations," the statement said.
SEIU spokesperson Jennie Smith-Camejo said the workers' contract expires at the end of September. Negotiations were supposed to start Tuesday with a budget presentation from management, but it got called off at the last minute.
"One of the reasons we're here today is we had a meeting scheduled with management," said Rob Borders, a courtroom clerk who handles minutes and documentation in three different courtrooms. "The day before the meeting at 6 p.m. we got an e-mail saying that it's off, no reason given. No offer to reschedule."
If the workers had seen that budget presentation, they might have seen how state budget cuts could affect them.
On July 12, the Judicial Council of California, the rule-making arm of the state court system, approved funding allocations that include a $97 million reduction to local trial courts in the 2024-25 budget.
In addition to the $97 million reduction to the trial courts, the state budget also calls for a commensurate reduction of 7.95% to the state-level judiciary, which includes the state Supreme Court, Courts of Appeal, Habeas Corpus Resource Center, and the Judicial Council.
In July, San Mateo County Superior Court announced it will reduce several services due to the state budget cuts.
The 70 case dismissals last week came about a month after an appellate court ruled that a San Francisco Superior Court judge abused his discretion in March when he cited the COVID-19 pandemic as a reason to deny a motion to dismiss a case that had taken two and a half years to go to trial.
Under California law, a person accused of a misdemeanor has the right to request a trial within 45 days of being charged. Numerous and extensive delays were granted during the COVID-19 emergency, which was formally ended by the governor in February 2023 and by President Joe Biden in April of that year.
The misdemeanor cases in San Francisco Superior Court were dismissed because they had taken too long to go to trial. The exact reason for the delays is still being contested by stakeholders.
San Francisco District Attorney Brooke Jenkins blamed the court for the delays that forced the dismissals. She said in a statement that the court had wrongfully put the burden of prioritizing certain cases on prosecutors.
A spokesperson for San Francisco Superior Court said Friday that the backlog of misdemeanor cases had shrunk by nearly 80% since June 2023.
Presiding Superior Court Judge Anne-Christine Massullo said in a statement that the court would review the 70 cases that were dismissed to better understand why they were delayed.
San Francisco Superior Court had no comment on the workers' rally Wednesday.
"We want more transparency," said Borders, the court clerk at the rally. "We want to see a more of a long-term plan developed and know how they're going to address these issues because right now we're all kind of in the dark about it."