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Hello. I'd like to welcome you to the Sonoma County Oral History project and thank you very much for participating. I wonder if you please start and tell me your name. My name is joe Murphy, joseph P Murphy Jr Thank you sir. And would you please tell

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me the role or roles that you've played in Sonoma County government and the years that you fill these positions? Well, I was appointed to the uh the municipal court which existed in those days in 1960 for and served two years in the municipal court and then

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was appointed by Governor Pat Brown to the Superior Court here in Sonoma County. I served there until 1980 for and then retired C. I. C. So a period of about 20 years courts. Um And your other quite distinct role in Sonoma County has been what uh

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more recently I've served on the the county Library commission uh from 1989 until the present date and my term expires in february of next year when I will walk down the garden path to the next chapter in your career. That's great. Well it's it's been a

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long period of observing Sonoma County. I'm sure in both of these. Yeah. Um if we might take your two roles separately, we'll run through some questions on on the first career as judge. And then secondly, we'll finish with your your time in the library Um with

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the court's I mentioned you mentioned that you had a two year stint, first in the municipal court and then the remainder of that 20-year period was in the county court. Could you start with those first two years please? All right, well, there were, there were two

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judges, Judge Al Scheidegger and myself, uh two departments And the municipal court essentially heard uh preliminary hearings in criminal cases and uh lawsuits, civil lawsuits that involved in those days, less than $5,000. think uh, it was it was a very busy court uh understandably when people

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were arrested. Uh their their first appearance was in municipal court for arraignment. And and we conducted trials uh in those days, uh, a very challenging assignment I thought was the traffic calendar. Uh, those were tough decisions to make. Typically it was the officer on one side

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and the the unhappy defendant on the other and uh, there there were usually conflicts in testimony. Uh but anyway, so uh after two years as I indicated, um I was uh appointed to the Superior Court And served there as you've noted for 18 years. Um I

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was the first occupant of Department four of the Spirit of Court which was newly created and I don't know how many judges there are, how many courts there are now, I think 15 or 16 or something like that. So there's been tremendous growth and uh in

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Superior Court, uh, we did a little bit of everything. Uh, Yeah, there weren't departments as to some extent, there are now where uh, judges hear nothing but criminal cases and uh so it it you were assigned whatever came in the back door and which was interesting

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uh Perhaps more challenging than than otherwise, but you had to be reasonably flexible and adaptable. And anyway we had a very congenial group of judges uh which was which made it a lot easier. There wasn't any back biting or or nobody was out to uh establish

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any kind of reputation for himself. Uh I say himself because there are no female judges at all in the county at that time. I think Serena Wong was probably the first woman judge and that was after I had retired. Um So a little bit of everything

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criminal cases, civil cases. Uh I was curious, you said you were the first appointee to, was it district four of the superior court or uh to uh department for? Yeah. Uh There were there were four departments i being the junior and uh the other three judges

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were experienced and helpful to me uh as a result. Uh But well were they? I was curious how did they happen to divide the workload up say within these four judges work? How did that go? Yeah, there there was a presiding judge uh and that position

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position rotated from year to year and it would be his responsibility to call what was termed a master calendar once a week and a sign cases to the other the other departments and to himself. So you you took what was given you and I see would

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would the presiding judge typically sort of allocate cases based on his thoughts on the suitability of the judge in question or I think I think not it was, it depended on, you know, some judges would be halfway through a particular case and it wouldn't be available.

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Uh So it was a matter of trying to fit uh cases in as best one could. Uh Did did the municipal court system continue beyond your time in those first two years? I know that the court nature has changed and yeah, no, that took place after,

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After I retired shortly afterwards. I'm not quite sure the exact year. And uh from that time on, there was just one court called the Superior Court. I see, I see um in your time on the Superior Court, those many years, those 18 years, what would you

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say the chief challenges were uh time pressures, I'd say basically, uh there there there wasn't enough time to think, uh you were just kind of batting cases aside one by one by one. Um That was I think my my biggest frustration, uh they you'd finish one

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case and there'd be another one waiting for you, so to speak. Uh And I found that a bit frustrating. Uh it was difficult to uh to have time to do research or to uh think deeply about what the result of a particular case might be. So

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uh that was challenging. Yeah. Um and the workload was pretty consistently heavy for, for the judges in that time period. It was, and uh, we could have used more help as I'm sure everyone you've talked to, uh, thought, um, but uh, there just wasn't the staff,

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I suppose, right? There wasn't, and, and the, the caseload was constant and uh, you kind of felt you're on a treadmill many times. You don't have the luxury of deliberation and, and, uh, two for two lengthier period in any case. No. Yeah, you'd finish one and

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the next morning you start start a new one. Yeah, that sounds like a real challenge. Um, in your years as a judge. Uh, did you have certain issues or certain principles that struck you as being of, of greater importance than maybe the public would realize a

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judge faces or confronts? I think indispensable qualities for any judge would be patience and temperament. Again, we were very fortunate, I think, in, in terms of our personnel, uh, we got along well together and there wasn't any back biting or ego trips. Uh, but my philosophy

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was that people came to court. It took a long time to get there. Uh, the delays were maddening to the litigants. Uh, and, uh, I felt very deeply that people needed to be when they left court, it would have to be, uh, with the feeling that

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they had been given a full opportunity to be heard and get their point of view expressed. So that, that took some discipline in terms of uh, trying to regulate the flow of traffic. But I think it was very important. Yeah, that sounds, that sounds wonderful. But

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again, the tension of trying to afford people that at the same time knowing that you have cases lined up was a bit of a difficult balancing. Yeah, it was a challenge. Yeah. Yeah. Well that's, that's, that's very interesting. Um, I would like to ask people in

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Sonoma County government positions just from the standpoint of their sense of, of Sonoma County's functioning of government. What features they noticed that they would think we're uniquely Sonoma County to, to their observation in other words, as a judge. Um, do you think there were certain unique

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qualities of the way it occurred here? Well, it was a period of transition going from what was essentially an agricultural uh economy to uh, the big time, so to speak. Uh, so in that sense, uh, all departments of county government were faced with kind of a

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similar problem. Um, yeah, I don't know in terms of uh, any unique characteristics uh that that come to mind. Um Yeah, that's an interesting thing because other other people I've talked to with like you long experience in County government have mentioned almost uniformly the perceived shift

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between agricultural and a more urban sort of setting and, and that has to be really, really significant and quite, you know, sense revolutionary because the whole nature of the cases you heard, if nothing else changed quite a bit too. I bet it did, litigation became more

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complex. Uh, the composition of, of the bar uh, changed dramatically. It expanded when I first came to santa rosa. There were less than 100 lawyers in the county and I served down the, the board of governors of the Bar association uh after I retired and uh,

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I was in charge of membership. And uh, at that point we had over 1300 lawyers, uh, not all of whom were actively practicing, but, and I have no idea what the county is now. Yeah, I wonder, I wonder the population has grown so dramatically. It has

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given that in the time frame in which you served as a judge, a lot of sort of, there are a lot of counties in California may have been to differing extents face the, the shift to some extent from agriculture to more urban. Do you think Sonoma

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County did anything unique in its adaptation or do you have any thoughts on that? Did it handle it easily? Pretty much well. It was a never ending struggle to try to keep up with the uh backlog of, of litigation. And uh, but again that I don't

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think was unique certainly to our county. Uh, Sonoma County uh, was growing more rapidly than places like Mendocino and Lake and humboldt County. Uh, so it was the change was more pronounced I think here, but again, it didn't compare with the urban metropolitan areas that, you

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know, were much more congested. I was struck by something you said because again, it resonated with what I've been told by other people, which was the really remarkably cooperative and, and and self sustaining nature of the other judges that there was no back biting that there

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was a very supportive atmosphere to my observation. I've, I've heard another number of people say similar things about a sort of uh, collegiality in Sonoma County government. That was unusually positive. Some people have mentioned. Does that seem accurate? Yeah, I think so. Uh, our relationship with

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uh, people on the board of supervisors for instance was always cordial and uh, we were conscious of each other's problems, I think. Uh, so it was uh, kind of hometown atmosphere that prevailed. It's good to hear that there is an overall positive sense of things. That's,

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that's excellent. Um, with reference to your work in the judicial area in this county and observing trends and happenings in the county currently, what would you say you think the chief challenges are facing Sonoma County in terms of the judiciary? Well, challenges that. Yes, judiciary specifically.

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But if anything else occurs to you say that the jump in population or well, finances always entered the picture and mm surveys, you know, are conducted periodically. And uh, you hate to think that, uh, you're unique in, in that sense, but uh, everyone likes to have

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more personnel available. Uh and budgetary constraints are very serious in that area, I'm sure it is and I don't know what the the answer is if there is one. Right? Yeah. Well especially at the current economy being what it is, it's a little problematical. Yeah, it

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truly is, but that's something that's being faced so widely. Well, thanks. Um if we could, let's talk a bit about your time with the library. Um and as as we mentioned, as you mentioned earlier, you were you were a library commissioner from 1989 and you continue

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to be at the present. Could you please describe your work over that time period and your different roles in the library commission? Well, the most obvious one I guess is that I've now served under five library directors. Uh and that's been a challenge uh in in

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terms of the style that each had. Uh and uh the approach is that varied so much Between one and the other. Um The people I don't think generally are fully aware of the fact that the library is so much dependent upon property taxes and the assessed

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valuation uh both from the county level and from the state of California because ah a pretty good chunk of the operating money comes from the state. Uh and that's always tied in with whatever the budget uh turns out to be and that that's that's a real

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challenge. Um Sonoma County is thank you different from, as I think you're well aware uh from the manner of operation of other library systems in the in the state. Um we have a cluster of uh libraries ah and David SAB say who was the original uh

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librarian was a visionary I think in terms of his foresight and his uh knowledge and ability. Uh but he kind of pioneered the whole concept of a county library system. And uh that's had its challenging features because each community tends to look upon Its library. Uh

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and I think one practical problem, it has been the need to try to visualize the library system as a county system and they're interdependent uh and and none of them is sufficient separate entity. Um So that's a constant problem. Yeah, it really is, it's uh partly

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the geography maybe of Sonoma County being such a large county and the population being distributed over such distances. Yeah. And as you as you know, uh we had a facilities master plan developed here in recent years, and Sebastopol is a good example. Uh the geographical territory

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that it's responsible for goes all the way out to the coast, places like Stewart's point in bodega bay and uh it just to cite cited as an example uh is just crying out for expansion and more personnel, but so that's that's been a problem. Right, right.

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But the technology has been such a marvelous uh development that uh and uh I think the future is going to be very rich for libraries, but in our particular county would be great to have a physical presence in the west. Yeah, that would be that would

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be really great. Um in your years on the library commission, you you have, have you had different sorts of roles while on the commission or have you been pretty consistently? Uh Not really, we haven't, we have a couple of committees but uh not we haven't been

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compartmentalized in the sense that you might expect. Uh Again, we've been blessed I think with the fact that are the composition of our commission has been very um congenial and cooperative in terms of looking out for each other's interests. Um the the composition of the commission

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is kind of interesting as you're aware, I'm sure, but each of the super super viso real districts are represented and then uh it's an historical accident I guess that the cities of santa rosa and Petaluma uh each have an appointment. So uh there's been quite a

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turnover in the last couple of years in particular with retirements and people. Commissioners whose um residents has changed. So it's been a stimulating experience and fortunately there there's new blood that comes along and and uh that's important I think mhm. Before we started our interview, you

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and I were chatting a little bit about the unique joint powers arrangement of the Sonoma County library system, Do you have any sort of thoughts on that subject? Well, it was again, a SAB se innovation. Uh, and it was kind of, I think almost revolutionary concept

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at the time, but uh, David SAB se had had foresight and vision and uh worked hard in terms of educating literally the, the senators and representatives and and developed a well deserved reputation for his thinking. So I think it's worked quite well. Uh it it it's

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strained at times by the fact that communities like Windsor uh sprang into existence and uh have been kind of unwitting members of, of a a county system, but it's worked well. Uh and I think uh realistically with with, with the municipal budgets strained as they always

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have been and always will be, ah, it's been a vehicle that uh, has served the county uh, in a and uh, I think a suitable manner and uh, so right. I think it's uh, it's been a plus situation all the way around. I, someone once told

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me that they thought amongst California county library system, Sonoma County was fortunate in that, I don't know if this was accurate, so maybe you could correct me, but that possibly the Sonoma County library system was proportionally less dependent on state funds and more reliant on their

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own local funds for operation. And that, that was a good thing for the library system. To your observation. I've never, never heard that idea expressed, uh, we've, we've been through tough economic times at least once before in, oh, I think the early 90s, uh, we, we're

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faced with the possibility of having to reduce our, our personnel or uh, shut down or okay, adjust the hours of operation. But we fought our way through that and we're, I think by and large, we've, we've been able to avoid layoffs or uh, cutting down hours

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of operation, which many, many libraries in California were unable to do. Right. So we've been fortunate in that sense. Right, right. That's, that's really true. Well, in closing, talking about the library, I wonder would you make some prognostications as to what you think the major challenges

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aside from, well, we can talk about budgetary ones, but about maybe the nature of what libraries should become or how they can better serve well the uh, it's an area of, of what you must might almost call competition between technology and the traditional services that the

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library offers in terms of written material. Ah again, I, I think Sonoma County has been fortunate in having uh, a degree of foresight in uh, looking ahead and noting the, the trends toward uh technological advancement. Um, so we've, I think adapted reasonably well to uh, that

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that challenge. Uh, we, we've been passionate, I think about trying to preserve a proper balance uh, and particularly to safeguard uh, the uh, the book end of the situation. Uh, but uh, technology is expensive and it's uh, constantly changing and improving. Uh, so it's a challenge

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to try to keep on top of that and maintain some some degree of equality with with the uh, the collection. Mm hmm. I think they're doing, I agree with you. They're doing a fine job. Well, judge Murphy. I would, I think I want to point out

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the remarkable uh, volunteer spirit in the, in the county library system. Ah, organizations like the friends of the library which exist in each community, the library advisory boards. Uh, these are people who receive no compensation for the work they do. And they're they're enthusiastic supporters of

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the library system. So that was a very good remark. I totally agree. Um, in my own professional career, were the recipients of their generosity that they have been so good to us. And it's really remarkably public spirited of them. It is. Well, judge Murphy. I'd like

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to thank you for all that you've done for both the judiciary here and for the library and continued success. And thank you very much for talking with us. Thank you