On The Money: Pay Hike Protest Update

Controversy is growing over a million dollars pay hike proposal for an obscure government agency that most people never knew existed. It's called the Administrative Office of the Courts – comprised of roughly 800 state employees who work for the Judicial Council and oversee California's trial courts.

Today in San Francisco, supporters defended the 3.5% pay raise, worth over $1.1 million in public funds destined for state bureaucrats.

Miriam Krinsky of the Judicial Council said, "It's simply a way to say to employees who have been doing more and earning substantially less year after year that we're not going to forget about them."

An active group of trial court judges, known as the Alliance of California Judges is speaking out in protest over the raises, after being denied an opportunity to publicly proclaim their verbal outrage in court Friday.

"There are courthouses up and down this state that close early to the public," said Judge Maryanne Gilliard of Sacramento Superior Court. In an exclusive interview with CBS 13, Gilliard stated trial courts, "cannot keep regular working hours because we have no money to do so. It is so wrongheaded, so ill-conceived to be granting pay raises to bureaucrats."

In an exclusive interview with CBS 13, Sacramento's Presiding Judge Steve White added, "That's a million, 113-thousand dollars that will not be spent to keep court rooms open, to run trials and hire staff, in a system that is all but broken."

It is exceedingly rare for trial court judges to speak out from the bench, but they are angry about being denied a chance to speak publicly in San Francisco.

In response, the Administrative Office of the Court issued this statement to CBS 13:

"The funding for the step increase, if approved, would not come from trial court funds. In fact, at Friday's meeting, the Judicial Council is expected to allocate more than $200 million to the trial courts for help support trial court operations after the severe budget reductions earlier this year. And the funds will help keep courts open and operating every working day of the year." – Lynn Holton

It is now up to Chief Justice Ronald George to make a final decision on the $1 million pay hike. That decision is expected to come some time next week.

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