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Sonoma County chosen spot of all the earth as far as nature is concerned, according to the famed plant wizard Luther Burbank Diverse County, with 1,010,000 acres of land on 1574 miles of scenic roadways, Cinema County is rightfully famed for its agriculture, viticulture, industry and recreation, as

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well as for the amazingly successful ethnic and economic mixture of its more than 340,000 residents on for the forward looking philosophy of its local governing bodies. Now we invite you to take a closer look at Sanoma County in the eighties with your host, Rich McGlinchy. Good

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evening. Cut me, lifting up my cup of coffee. Welcome to another edition of Sonoma County in the eighties, and I think it's a very special edition because we're gonna be talking to to judicial figures. If you will talk to Judge Gail going up of the snow

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McConnell Municipal Court and Judge William or Bill Bendinelli, Superior Court judge and Judgment nearly also was municipal court judge. What time? First of all, it's really very nice to have both of you here. I know you've got very busy schedules, how you very Well, thank you

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for your acute engine. You for three. I have a job. I don't always like to see people at work. Anyway, uh uh, we're going to talk. Ladies and gentlemen, about the two courts Municipal Court, which is scales area right now, and spirit cart, which is bills.

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We're going to ask the same question, basically of each of them. And we hope that you will gain a little bit better understanding about the courts, what they do, which court handles what because so often in our job is public information officer for the county. We've

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been asked by people, What about the courts? Or we say you have to go to court. Which court? They say, I don't know. It's out of the center. Or now some of the courts are not out of the center. But people do not seem to have

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a clear distinction of me, this boat court and Superior court. And we hope that his result of our program this evening you will have a little better understanding of that. It's nice to have you both here and we'll start with you. Bill. What is the basic

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responsibility of a judge of the Superior Court. Well, I think the first thing is what it would be a discussion of what it's the jurisdiction of the superior excellent, and the Superior Court is the court of general jurisdiction of trial jurisdiction in California. Basically, we handle

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all criminal felony matters and a criminal felony. Simply stated, is a crime for which the penalty could be state prison rather than just local county jail time or fines. So were the ultimate handler of all felony matters on the criminal side. On the civil side, we

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handle all civil actions cases for actions for damages, whether they be automobile injuries. Breaches of contractors center as long as the amount you're seeking is in excess of $25,000 the spirit could also handles all domestic relations matters. The dissolution of marriage, adoptions, custody, Superior Court handles,

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uh, of the juvenile court matters. Uh, any juvenile is always handled through the Spirit court, whether it before in effect, crime's or delinquency activities or dependency activities, which is often neglected or otherwise. So, basically, it's a court of general jurisdiction at a higher level, in civil

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and criminal responsibility and at a general level in domestic relations and juvenile court activities. One other activities unique test is the probate court activities, the will and after death actions and those types of matters. So our jurisdiction and our responsibilities run Teoh anything that affects people

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every day, but in a major way, a ZAY said earlier. I, I don't always like seeing friends and people at work When people come to Superior Court is normally a serious matter that can't be taken lightly and is important both financially and personally. Gail, How about

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taking that same same question of same subject and describing for the audience what you do in municipal court? What, that what your response before? Well, often other judges describe. This record is the people's court. Our jurisdiction is roll. Misdemeanor offenses were the trial court and any

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civil action under $25,000. But we also the court that administers the traffic court and small claims. So most people, their only contact with the legal system, is through my court. The other major responsibility is worthy arraigning court. The court were in even fell only matters. When

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I first come into the system, we devised some of the charges against the We set bail. We have AH, daily calorie call in custom calendar. Reviewing the jail population, distributing hundreds of cases through the system per day. Our commissioner hears over 5000 cases on that criminal

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counter a month. A missile court judge hears about 500 other matters per week. Christmas. Those numbers are atrocious. That substantial difference between the courts I in November and December and early January tried for 2.5 months. A single case is that where, as you compare that to

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municipal court, where there's a massive number of bodies that proceed through the through the court there, there's a substantial difference in time and for action in the to court. We'll remember your talk of the specific cases, and I'm trying to be, if overly simple are so

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be it. Make sure that our own it does understand this different. He mentioned the type of cases that you try in Superior Court, and you mentioned the felony or something for what you might be sentenced to prison and Municipal court, with its variety and many, many

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more filings. But the type of case you don't know which type of case in Superior court do you think you get the most of Is there any way to tell us that it's difficult? The most court time is probably spent on criminal matters. Most of our

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jury trials are criminal jury trials, but we probably don't have go through our courts more than 2000 criminal cases in a year. Of those very fewer tried comparatively but cases that have worked their way through municipal court felonies that get to a status a superior court

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for trial or or or resolution. They're about 2000. There's probably 20,000 civil cases a year file, but they take much less court time. Uh, domestic relations matters seldom take more than 1/2 a day to try if they even go to a trial. Of all of the

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civil injury actions or breach of contract actions. Very, very few go to trial. So most of our in court time is spent on criminal actions in general, though by number of filings, most of our activity is in civil proceedings, non criminal matters. That's what's the most

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of the What's the largest number of a, shall we say, a type of complaint. You get minutes well, 80% of what we do is criminal. Other criminal case. Those You probably imagine the highest number of filings to the area driving on influence. Let's try significantly. So

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are typical case that we go to try along would be batteries resisting arrest. But I'd say about 60% of our trials relating to alcohol related offenses. What about burglary? I thought that was the national pastime. Well, you see that in terms of crime committed, it is

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in terms of apprehending the offender, ring him to court, they only catch about 20% of the time. Unfortunately, okay. Uh huh. Bill this type over here with you again. How Maney Superior Court Judges do we have now and and what they all do. There are nine.

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Superior Court Judge is the most recent one being the ninth. We divide the activities among the judges in sort of a specialization way. I myself and the civil judge, I now try no criminal matters. In fact, here, very few criminal matters. Unless it's an emergency, I

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spend all my activity doing pretrial matters. Getting civil cases ready for trial, clearing up disputes on discovery, the obtaining of documents and obtaining pretrial information, clearing legal issues of cases, so they're ready to go to trial. So my assignment is purely civil, purely pretrial. I never

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have a jury in my courtroom now. Oh, I am working on Lee with lawyers and really only on the law. There is another department that works solely on criminal activities similar to mine does purely pretrial arraignment and motions in pretrial criminal activities. Then the other seven

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courts effectively are divided by their availability. Each has a special duty into an area one judge normally does. Probate to judges are assigned to do domestic relations activities. But within those special assignments, everyone is available to do trials. And so the trials will will be part

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of the day, and their special assignments will be part of a of a day also. And that's where ah problem occurs in relation to jurors and people who are involved with the court. Because of the various things that have to take place. The trials themselves probably

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are conducted between 9 30 or 10 o'clock and four in the afternoon. But the judges start their assignments at about 8 30 in the morning, and from 8 30 till 10. Ah, judge will be doing criminal sentencing Zehr otherwise from 4 to 5, a judge or

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four till whenever it ends, a judge will be doing settlement conferences. But the trial itself that the public sees is only 4.5 for five hours at most during the day. And I think that often causes the misconception of of judges doing better than bankers when it

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comes to the three hours of work. But it's there's a lot of public activity which the jury sees, but a lot more of non public activity, not public meaning. It doesn't have anyone except the particular people involved with it before the court. And that's how the

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load is spread and work for the number of years that I have been with the County Sonoma, I've gone over to the Hall of Justice many, many times, and and I've seen judge's cars and judges over there for many, many hours of the It certainly does

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not seem to be, Ah, what an 8 to 5 to six job it really consumes. People doesn't let me get to you on one point. How many municipal court judges are they kind of Howard? They their duties divided way have six judges, referee and a commissioner

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way up referee full time in traffic. Excuse me, Commissioner. Which years? Criminal calendar, which is the counter I alluded to earlier that distributes case throughout the system. We have incredible service in terms of lawyers sitting as judges pro TEM that here all small claims matter matters

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without any compensation. Right now we? Last night, in fact, we passed local rules that seven arbitration program, which again will be lawyers, sitting US arbitrators without compensation. Then there's six judges. We have branch courts. At this time. We have three wrench courts the Snow McCourt's, the

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Petaluma Court and the Civil Court, which now is located out of the main complex and the fourth floor, the Crocker Building downtown Santa Rosa. I'm assigned to the Civil Court downtown, which in some ways it's similar to what Bill described in terms of ruling on questions

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of law. But with missile court, the civil case would permits us also to be a trial court. Right now, I'm hearing a drunk driving case because it has criminal priority over the civil lawyers were waiting behind my jury trial. We have a separate player pulling our

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hearing department in the felonies that bill loaded to in my court. We have a hearing that determines whether or not there's probable cause to believe that the person committed the crime. These hearings run from maybe two hours on a burglary case. Today's on a capital case,

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a death penalty case. And we have a separate department, which was just came in existence last year, which is already over congested. We're looking for more court time to hear these felony matters, but Judge Tansil, our newest judge, is assigned to that department last night is

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on the bench to eight o'clock trying to hear those felonies. Um, like that that's the most valuable department to disappear, according the municipal court, that screens all of the criminal proceedings at that level before they proceed into the Superior Court, where they may be available or

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necessary to try. And that's a major screening function of the municipal court that that flows through to the Superior Court. Also, we have lots more questions to ask what would have to pause for a moment? Lady and gentlemen, we're gonna pause so the station will bring

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you a very special public service announcement after which judge by Bill Bendinelli, Gail growing up and I will return. We'll talk more about Spirit Court, Municipal Court, and we want you to know the difference When many of us think of the term, Westerns were inclined to

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think of the Westerners of perhaps 100 years ago. Well, today I ask you to give a thought to some of the young Westerners of tomorrow and the youngsters living at Hannah Boys Center in Sonoma, California this residential treatment center for boys in California's beautiful Valley of

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the Moon. As for a while, then home to many hundreds of lads whose needs could not be met in their own communities, they were troubled disadvantage boys very much in need of the special help offered to Hannah Center. There, an individualized programs developed reach boy in

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the belief that he can learn to manage, reduce or resolve those problems. As these young boys approached manhood in a complex and rapidly changing world, and a center helps them to grow not only physically but morally and emotionally, they will be most grateful when you lend

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your support. The cause of Hannah Boy Center, Sonoma, California Welcome back, ladies and gentlemen, to a special edition of Sonoma County in the eighties. We are talking to two of our Sonoma County judges were talking to William Bill Bendinelli, Judges Superior Court and Gail going up

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the judge of the municipal court and you both served, incidentally, is presiding judges, too, haven't you? Yeah, I know. I see you with those Harry times and somehow rather your different. Also, I was lucky enough to be given Bill C when he was elevated. Oh, so

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he's sort of like a tutor, and all we were home at midnight on January usually haven't done that yet. One of the funniest things Gail has said in talks to the public and I've heard her say that twice is that she was appointed just before. I

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guess we're just before midnight was gassed after are just before midnight New Year's Eve and someone I don't know how the question came about, but she says, I was probably the only one that was home. Woman in 12 years. Anxious not to. It'll give it a

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splendid judge. What was She was the only lawyer available who was shorter than me with longer hair on. After I was appointed in Superior Court, the governor felt obligated. Teoh follow the traditional ways, right? All right, listen, you two we hear about and, boy, did we

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hear about this Logjam courts. And we've heard, for instance, prerecorded two years to bring a lawsuit to trial. Now, logjams in the court, Gail said 5000 filing that that means that the real headache for sweetness court We'll talk about that in a minute. But what about

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this so called logjam? Does it take that long to get a civil matter to trial now, Bill, It takes that long, but it often is necessary. And I think that's what a lot of members of public don't understand. We can get a case to trial, probably

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within a year of the time that that that the lawyers or the parties ask us to get it to trial, usually usually less. But within a year, the case will be tried. The problem is, especially in major litigation. Nobody is ready to go to trial until

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a good amount of time has passed. By the time you discover the documents and the information is necessary to prove your case, that takes time. A simple automobile accident and none are simple, but use it as an example. By the time you get experts to look

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at the scene and make reports and evaluations of how the accident occurred. By the time the doctors have done their evaluations, often by the time that the the person who's injured stabilizes, you don't want to go to trial in a in a personal injury action when

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the person who suffered injury hasn't stabilized to a point where you can predict what the what the injury or damage is there going to be so a lot of the time is is internal within the case rather than within the system. There's no question, though, that

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it takes a long time to get matters to trial. And it's just a matter of numbers. There are nine judges in the Superior Court, uh, among whom this entire load is spread, were not overworked to the point that they can't be reached. But it's It happens

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that things must fall into a groove and then moved by rotation up to it's time for trial. If the problem is that someone who says I need a trial next Thursday isn't going to get it, someone who says Give us a trial as soon as you

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can is going to get a trial within 5 to 6 months. Did you say something about 2000 civil? There's about 2000 criminal cases in your file civil. If that's the case, there are more than that. There. Probably 20,000 civil cases filed, but they again, they don't

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all go to trial. How about we do not have incredible civil backlog? As, for instance, in Napa County Recently, there admitted Case tried in two years a civil case because criminal cases have priority both in terms of civil and criminal cases. A trial can be scheduled

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within two months of the attorneys announcing they're ready. The problem is in the volume of cases in municipal court. That's the logjam. For instance, you have a Selma Conference calendar, which originally was set for half a day. With the 140 cases, you have arraignment calendar, where

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you can come in, plead guilty and I can sentence you on a drunk driving and I a lot 45 seconds for that. And we have. There's no flexibility in the system when you're processing hundreds of cases. There's days where a judge has over 220 cases just

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between 8 30 noon. So the problem is you have attorneys with Destry attorneys and the defenders have several 100 clients to deal with in a given week and just the flat year had the flexibility to stop and maybe spend an hour on one of those cases

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when you have another 150 left. So I think the logjam or the congestion that we complain about is entirely different. It's the inability to be able to look at each individual cases we'd like to, and just the processing of such volume. And you folks, you work

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short handed last year for a while, too. Yes, Uh, judge, after the June election, Bad. Well, we're gonna ask you about the arbitration program, which I know is you've been the forerunner over here. So what are you talking about? I am the arbitrate arbitration administrator of

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the administrative judge of this peer accord arbitration program. That is an attempt to avoid what we've just been talking about. This logjam every case that come through the court asking for a trial where when the parties say we want to go to trial now comes over

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my desk. I review the file and and look and see what the people are asking for, what the case is about. If I feel the value of this case is in the neighborhood of $25,000 or less, and it's basically a civil, a simple action, I refer

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it to arbitration, which is a panel of private lawyers who have volunteered to hear cases and make decisions on the cases, like a trial judge but without a jury and a more simple, informal process where evidence is produced but not in the formal courtroom atmosphere. And

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the lawyer who is usually a specialist in the area in which the case involved makes a decision. Now the parties have the option to accept or reject that decision. But it most often resolved the case because excuse me, both sides have an independent lawyer telling them

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the values and merits of their case, and it's a It's a process that occurs within 60 days, usually of the request, and usually disposes of a civil case without the necessity of trial. So it's an alternative to going through a formal court proceeding, but it's a

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way that justice is done, I think the most amazing thing of what Gayle was just saying as to the numbers justice is still being done in this system. How, I don't know. And I think to a lot of people because they are run through the system

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or left waiting in the system. Don't think it's occurring. But justice is being done and I'm probably says, amazed, as amazed as anyone that it is. But it still can be done to Bill, and we could probably throw a few little thoughts out quickly because we're

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doctor, about four minutes. But there has been a change in the attitude of the of the administration in California. I mean, there's been more sentencing there, determination, apparently on the part of the people, to some degree that they want people sentenced for all kinds of crimes.

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Our jails are filling up fast and we can do I. But what I'm saying, in essence, is there nine judges that there six here, this point a hell of a lot of judicial work to be done, and we're county. That's growing to about 344,000 people. Now

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we're expected to be something in neighborhood of 4 34 40 in the year 2000 which is only 13 years down the line. Um, it was a little bit ridiculous and unreasonable of me or anyone out there to start throwing brickbats to court for not speeding it

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up anymore when we're all demanding on one side of the fence that everybody be punished for everything they do and on the other hand, screaming at the court for the judges for not doing it faster because we also insist that justice be done Now. How do

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you call he's All these things get a little squarely, doesn't it? Well, I think Bill would agree that the vast majority of cases if you look at the file on why it's been delayed, it's because the attorneys it's not because the courts occasionally there's a case

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has priority and you're trailing behind. But if you look at the bulk of the delays, its attorney an attorney induced and probably need, it takes time to prepare cases. And that's I think, what the public doesn't realize and that time is, used it as no court

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has one case. No lawyer has one case either, and so it's there's. There's a massive amount of blending to make the system work, but it does Injury. There is to know I had the pleasure several, many years ago. Just volunteering to with a civil lawyer really

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track down. It was necessary to bring the case to court in civil court here, and I decided then that I did not wish Attorney are sauce and watch birds. I mean, you talk about an investigator he had to do everything. We've only got 20 minutes is

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one thing that's very important. When we were just joking, if you will. And we weren't really joking a few moments ago, I said, What's the primary problem we're having in the court? Okay, one of them is going off a lot of cases and don't have that

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many judges. But secondarily, it's What What's that five letter word you said? It is the biggest problem we're facing today. A five letter word. Money. Yeah, How does that How does that enter into it all? Bill well enters into it that we lose some flexibility. We

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could save time and spend more time in court if we didn't have to spend so much time researching a lot of money that would get us a more advanced modern computerized research system. Staffing itself just the non judicial personnel to handle such a massive number of

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files is tremendous, and money for that is important. I feel first off, Superior Court, very lucky and sort of adding on positions of municipal court has been in a standstill for quite a while. And according to our projections, we should have a love of judges case.

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So the Judicial Council makes recommendations. So to manage a court here, the number of cases they thinks appropriate There should be 11 judges in our municipal court. We have six. Um, so initially, we need those additional positions. We need the clerical assistants, the clerk's office. Our

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court brings in significant revenues, but we can only do so with the assistance of ah, good computer system, excellent assistance and clerical staff down in the clerk's office. And there hasn't been funds available to augment those various programs. We hardly touched the surface. We'll have to

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make this the miniseries. As you said earlier, Bill, thank you so much for being here taking time book of your very busy schedule. Gail. Pleasure, ladies, and gentlemen, we have had a lot of fun talking to two favorite people. We've been talking to Judge William Bendinelli

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Spirit Court judgment targeting Judge Gail growing up municipal court judge. We were talking about the municipal court and the superior court differences, the problems they face, the job they're doing. And we think it's an excellent job and the problems that they have to face today, one

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of which, in gales cases, certainly not enough. Mr Bogart judges for the 5000 firings. They seem to get every so often, but my name is Richman. TV program is Sonoma County in the eighties. I'll be back with you next week. We'll talk to other members of

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the county government, family or a related agency that's important to you and to me. Until then, good luck, good health and good night to you all.