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Sonoma County. The 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 did a culture, industry

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and recreation as 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

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Rich McGlinchy. Hello again, everyone. Welcome to a rather special edition of Sonoma County in the eighties. We're gonna be talking to Jean Buckley. Jean Buckley is the Superior court commissioner. Now, you probably don't know what the Superior Court Commissioner is, and I didn't know what it

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is, but we're going to know what it is before the program is over tonight. Very charming woman. Very, very talented lady. And she has been a superior court commissioner for how long? Almost two years, almost two years. Jean. It's really nice to have you this first

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time you visited with thanks, and I wasn't kidding. So you're gonna have to help me. I said then we get probably didn't know what the spirit court permission was. And it is something that is not that well known. So why don't you just tell us briefly,

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What is the Superior Court Commissioner? Okay. I think when most people hear that title Superior Court Commissioner, they have ah thought that it may be a purely administrative kind of position. There is some administration involved in it in the sense that I do have to deal

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with the budget out of the juvenile court and certain of the personnel that are the juvenile court. But it is really a judicial position. I serve the function of a judge, and I preside over matters as a judge. The general duties of the Superior Court Commissioner

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are outlined in the California Constitution, and it's a position that is used by various counties to take on some of the overload some of the work that the Superior Court judges can't handle. The Superior Court commissioner gets his or her power to hear cases by stipulation

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of the parties that appear before the commissioner. Okay. What is your general assignment? How could you describe that? Well, currently in Sonoma County, they use me. They use this appear court commissioner to preside over the juvenile court four days a week. I'm at a loss, Gillick

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assault Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday. And then on Wednesdays I'm down at the main courthouse. And on Wednesdays, I preside over civil cases that are less than one day these air non jury trial general civil cases. The majority of those cases are family law cases. And

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then I also two afternoons a week. I do settlement conferences for family law, long cost cases, trials that would last more than a day. They have mandatory settlement conferences prior to the trial. What do you do with the other six? Try to raise my three. Uh,

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why don't you back up? Just a minute? Tell us a little bit about yourself. Where were you? Where were you before? What is your background? Before you became our superior court commissioner, Well, I had a general law background. Although I came to it rather late in

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life. I was in my thirties when I started law school. I did go to law school here in Sonoma County at Empire College. I graduated from law school in 1979 and after a very brief stint in the District Attorney's Office Family Support unit, I opened up

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my own practice and I was a sole practitioner in private practice for five years, and I I had a emphasis on family law and juvenile law, which was wonderful because I had exactly those that background on those qualities they were looking for when the commissioner position

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opened up. Prior to that, I had pretty much been home with my Children. I had done some acting. I had been a social worker for a number of years with operation, had start and had a rather varied background. I had a sociology major in college, so

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most of what I've been doing has been people oriented in some way. A lot of people, for lack of better terminology or more knowledge, sometimes say that Spirit Court Commissioner here is that juvenile jabs out of the mosque, Ellicott's and you do serve in that capacity.

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But that's not the meaning. It's very a court commissioner in general. That's just assignment. Is it not true? that's correct. And different counties use missioner in different ways. Uh, what kind of cases come before the juvenile court? In other words, what what's the range of problems

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that you hear while we deal with two distinct types of cases? We deal with cases where juvenile's come before the court because they have committed law violations and those of the delinquency cases. We also deal with cases where minors are in homes that are perhaps unfit

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for them. They may be situations where the minor will have to be removed from the home. Or it's just a matter of the court and the Social Service Department working with the parents, those air the dependency kind of cases where there's been neglect or abuse in

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the home. So those are the two main different types. And then within those two, there's a very broad range of problems that we have. We have the same range. You would have an adult court on the law violation side of it, and we have a range

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from people who just don't have a place to live to Children who were really severely physically abused at home. Jeanne. How does juvenile court differ from regular court. Well, one of the major difference is probably in the way the court is run is that all the

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hearings are confidential. They are, think, one of the things a lot of people think they love to go death. Some people love to go down and sit in on the court downtown, sitting on the municipal court of the Superior Court, and they're certainly welcome to do

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that. But the juvenile court hearings are closed, and the information in the juvenile court is confidential, so the hearings are dealt with quite quite differently on that score. Yeah, those records are sort of seal this, you know what? What do you say? Financial. They are confident

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they also can be sealed. That's a slightly different term. But after the juvenile court has dismissed its jurisdiction, ah Minor can request to have the record sealed and they will be sealed and in the minor can answer job application or anything, justifiably and rightly, that they

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have never been convicted of any offence. You've been at this border last two years, and you have adjudicated in a lot of juvenile matters. Do you think juvenile should be treated different from adults e. I really do. I think juvenile's are in a certainly in a

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different position from adults and that they are under someone else's care and custody. Just a simple example. If a juvenile gets brought into the juvenile hall, an adult on the same offense, if it's a minor offense, could be released rather quickly on his or her own

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recognizance. A juvenile has to be released to someone, and we often have a situation where the juvenile is beyond the control of the parent. The parent is not willing to take the the person home, and so we end up having to keep that person within the

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system. So they are under the control of family and school and lots of different institutions that the court has to take into consideration. Also, I think there's a much bigger threats toward rehabilitation in dealing with minors because we're dealing with people that we presume are still

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forming their personalities and forming their ideas. And we hold out a lot more hope that if we're dealing with someone at 12 or 13 we can do more with that person. And at 25 or 26 do you think that Sonoma County differs from other counties and

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the way it handles juvenile cases. Well, of course, certain things are mandated in terms of the way the cases work through the system. Probably one of the differences in one of the nice things about Sonoma County that I find when I go to statewide conferences is

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that we have the luxury of having a juvenile hall in a juvenile facility that is not overcrowded. And any judicial officer can tell you that you have a lot more flexibility in your disposition of cases. If you don't have an overcrowded detention facility, it makes it

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very pleasant. It makes it very easy to do alternate kinds of sentencing to put a child in the juvenile hall for brief periods. If you feel that it's appropriate without worrying about, I can't do that because it's overcrowded or all those problems and overcrowding presents. That's

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probably the main difference that we have. Also, for a small county, we have quite a number of programs county run programs for juvenile's, that air wonderful. Yeah, but you can refer to that you utilize exactly, uh, a minute or two before we take a break. How

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many cats cases do you handle? In a typical day, I would say a typical calendar would handle anywhere from 25 to 50 and it just depends on the particular day. And what part of the day is that? The morning we used to do reviews in which

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the minor does not need to be present. Those office situations where miners in a placement and it's not going to come to court, he or she is going to remain in that placement. Or it may be a situation where the the jurisdiction is being dismissed. And

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then we do trials in the morning, and we will double or triple set our trials. Some will fold at the last minute, but if the trials go forward, we do those in the morning. Then we do our regular heavy calendar in the afternoon. In the afternoon

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calendar, 10. Hold from 20 to 45 cases, 25 to 50. Even a lot of great for case does it. Well, it's prepared. Teoh se a criminal count in the municipal court. Uh, it's heaven wear that on a recent program, we had Judge Bendinelli and Judge Quinn

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up, and we were really shocked at the number of filings that we just recorded dealing with. I think it will pause right here and bring them. You have an answer Public service announcement, after which Dean Buckley are superior Court Commissioner and I will return. We'll talk

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more about her very interesting job and what it entails when you live a helping hand, you give yourself way. Becoming something so much more than words could ever say A brother to your neighbor and to those in need. Friend, Won't you give today the find a

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way Bring happiness again, way are still the way the gift is in giving and then living what we say. This is John Denver asking you to make your united way pledge now and give for a better tomorrow for all of us. And thanks Because thanks to

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you, it works for all of us. United way. Welcome back, ladies and gentlemen, to this addition of Sonoma County in the eighties, we're talking about an unusual subject called Superior Court Commissioner Job. We're talking to the woman who holds it seemed Buckley, and we're finding out

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that this is a very, very interesting position and she has a wide variety of tasks. She explained that she's four days, one place and half of the one devices, another half day somewhere else. And it's, he says, that is not compared to the municipal court in

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its 5000 filings or month or something. It's luxury, but it is a very, very interesting position. It is one that is not too well known, and we're real place that you could be here and talk to us about Thank you. All right, Uh, what can you

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know that you are your court doing cases involving abused Children? Those are probably the most difficult cases that come before the court. I think they're much more difficult to handle than situations where a minor has violated the law, because on the one hand you were trying

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to keep a family intact, if you possibly can. Children develop close relationships to parents, even abusing parents, and you try to work with the parents so that the child can either remain home or if the child has to be removed from the home. You work with

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the parents to make it possible for the child to go back home. The law gives the court an 18 month period in which to work with those parents to allow that child to return. And if the child has not been returned within that period of time,

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then we enter a permanent plan for that child Doing that. 18 months. The Social Services Department offers all kinds of services to the parents from counseling, parenting, education, getting them involved in drug abuse counselling, if that's what they need, helping them find stable residents jobs, whatever

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the original problem was, we try to deal with. So if at all possible, the child can be put back into that home. Quick, abrupt change. What is Juvenile Hall and who gets sick? Juvenile haulers are main detention facility out at Los Gillick ous, and most miners

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will come there when their first picked up by the police officers and a probation officer is contacted. Parents are contacted, and sometimes they can be released to apparent after just a brief stay in the juvenile hall. If they cannot be released, then a petition has to

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be filed within two days to judicial days of them being in the juvenile hall, and they will come back before the court, and I will determine at that point whether they could be released depending upon the nature of the crime, depending upon whether they already are

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under our jurisdiction, and often depending upon whether the parents are able or willing to take them back, they will stay in the juvenile hall pending the further proceedings in getting the matter resolved. It also is a short term detention in terms of a disposition, we will

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usually not keep a minor in the juvenile hall more than 30 to 45 days. Ah, 60 or 90 day commitment to the juvenile hall is a fairly long commitment. It is. There's another agency that I found very fascinating. Good me. What is the youth camp who

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gets sent there? The youth camp is a more long term commitment. It deals with males, male juvenile's generally 16 late 15 year old 16 and maybe young 17 year olds. And they're in the program, generally speaking a minimum of approximately a year and can be in

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the program longer. It is possible to get through it within six or seven months, but not too many. Not too many Do Bittles do that because by the time they get to camp, they've already been tried at home. They may have been tried in a placement.

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They're not staying in the placements or they're not really using what the placement has to offer to their best advantage. And the camp is a program that the county runs. That gives that those juvenile's an opportunity to work on some skills. They could work off the

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restitution payments that get intensive counseling. The camp works with the families. They go on furloughs home so that their eased back into the community. And these are minors that have, ah, relatively significant criminal background, Um, but or not at that point, going to the youth authority

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cannot be at home because they don't seem to be able to function at home. And it's another way of trying to rehabilitate the youth camp. A so far as I can determine and I have followed this over the years has been very successful. It's, uh, it's

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sometimes almost the court of last resort for some of the kids that you know, we're reverse it of us and we're really difficult. But their their record, as I read recently that about 75% of their youngsters that go through their steps as they call it out

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there, do not get back into the criminal justice system. And if that figures anywhere of 70% I think it was a figure out. But that's that's that's fantastic. If 710 youngsters who have had real difficulty become almost hard core could go out there and restructure and

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redirect their lives, that's a very good That's a good program. What other kinds of programs are available to the court to help juveniles that are in trouble? Well again, we also do have placements and a juvenile constrain a placement for many years. If that's really necessary,

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their placements within Sonoma County these it would be like group homes. There are some small foster homes, but not terribly many that will take a delinquent youth. So most of them are group homes there, some within this county there number in other counties that we use.

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We also have a commitment program that this county runs for younger male offenders. These would be boys, believe it or not 12 13 and 14 and also for older girls. So it also takes girls who are 16 and 17 and we also have what's called a

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juvenile correction program that we run at the juvenile Hall, and that program is mainly for its for boys 17 and close to 18. It's a six month program, these air for boys who are going to be ultimately emancipated. They work on getting there GS, getting them

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jobs and getting them set up in apartments, because when they're out of that program, they are no longer miners. And there's no one that's going to be responsible for them but themselves. So we try to get them in a position where they can make it out

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there. And that really is for older boys, the last resort before the youth authority. The's Air kids with significant criminal backgrounds. Jeanne. And you know what we've been saying to her, the different programs and the different referrals and that sort of thing. Do you think the

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juvenile justice system is working well, I think it's working as well as it can. I think I think we work very well here in Sonoma County. I think we have very dedicated staff. We have wonderful programs, we are growing county, but so far we don't have

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a lot of the kinds of criminal activity that some larger counties are seeing. We all cross our fingers that that's not going to come, I think when people, um criticized the juvenile system or criticized how we handle juvenile's, a lot of them are thinking about 16

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17 year olds who are committing very significant substantial crimes, and that's true in some large metropolitan areas. But the court does have the option under the law, with 16 and 17 year old offenders to treat them as adults. If their background, their situation and the severity

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of the fence, the offense calls for it. So I think we're able to weed out those juvenile's that really should be dealt with as adults, and we can deal with them as adults and leave a system that's more caring and more rehabilitative and more family oriented

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for the rest of the of the youth, because again we are dealing with kids anywhere from 11 to 17 you have three Children of your own. Yes, I think it's one of the things that keeps me saying in this work because I have adolescent boys, so

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I know what everyone's going through. My oldest ISS 16 he'll be 17 in May The next one is 14 and my youngest is almost 10. So they keep me busy, keep you in touch with Absolutely. What is a short cause? Calendar? Time for a few more

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questions. What's the short cars calendar, which are cases? Okay, as I mentioned a little bit earlier, my Wednesday Simon is what is called sure cause calendar, right? Okay. And those are any civil cases non jury cases in which the hearing would take less than one day.

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It's really five hours than they get on short causes, and I do small claims appeals. If there's been a small claims hearing in the municipal court, and, uh, the defendant is not happy with the outcome, he's entitled to appeal it to the Superior Court. And that's

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on the short cost calendar. I get domestic matters. Divorce matters. I get Brits. I get someone lawful detainers that for some reason or dealt with in the Superior Court, I get sometimes things off the law in Motion Calendar, where they need time for testimony and the

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law in motion Calendar doesn't really have a set up to take testimony that will go on the short cost calendar. Probation matters that need testimony. It's a real potpourri in. It's kind of wonderful because it gives me abroad spectrum and it makes my assignment with a

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lot of variety, and I really enjoy it. What is the purpose of a settlement conference? And are they successful? Well, the the civil cases and I do ah Onley family law settlement conferences, although other civil cases, personal injury and those kinds of cases also have settlement

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conferences but minor all family law and they are any divorce that looks like it's going to take three or four days or two or three weeks. It's mandated that the parties and the attorneys meet with me within a week or 10 days of the trial and

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try to resolve it, and I think it works very well. I have found vast majority of the cases that I that I have a settlement conference with do in fact resolve. If they don't completely resolve at the settlement conference, there may be a few issues left

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that get resolved the day of the trial, or there may be a few issues left that allow the matter to be taken off of the master calendar and put on the short cause calendar because it could be heard in a couple of hours. Now, rather than

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a couple of weeks. You have a diverse job. Yes, I dio, um, what relative run advice about the legal system. I guess you'd say, Would you give somebody that's contemplating a divorce? I guess my main piece of advice would be to stay as far away from

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it as you possibly can. There are certain swarms, of course, that have to be filled out there certain processes that you have to go through just to get the divorce moving along. But I really think by and large people are much more able to work the

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things out themselves, and they do a better job of that than the court does. They know about their problems. They know about their situations. If they're able to sit down and I find this its settlement conference, if they're actually able to sit down and to discuss

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how they want this divorce to proceed, they're much more able to work out something that they feel comfortable with. And in Sonoma County, we are in the forefront in terms of mediation services and attorneys who do that kind of thing and try to keep people out

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of court if they possibly can stay out of the system. Exactly. I I think it's obvious, but I'll ask anyway. You enjoy your job, and if you enjoy your job, would you encourage somebody to enter the legal profession? I absolutely love my job. Now. I, um

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I love working with the kids. I love the family orientation that that everything that I do really takes even my Wednesday calendar and my settlement conferences. I'm very people oriented and that part of it, I really do enjoy. I always encourage people who think they want

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to be in law to to do it, to see what it's like. I think a legal education is a very good education to have. Even if you do not end up practicing law, most people will have some dealings with the law in one way or the

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other, whether they're signing contracts, to borrow money or rent an apartment or pre marital contracts or whatever. So I think the education itself is a good one to have, and we always need good lawyers and I think people can find a niche if they really have

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an interest. So I do encourage people. Yes. Will you come back? Absolutely any time. My pleasure. Thank you very much. Enjoys delighted. And I think our audience enjoyed doing something about the Superior Court Commissioner. And what you do, and what you do is quite fascinating because

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I wasn't aware of ladies and gentlemen even talking to Jean Buckley, who is our superior court commissioner. This is a I love the position, but I think since about 1982 to 5 years, yes. Okay. A position that's been in existence for about five years. And Gene

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tells us that she has been in this capacity for about two of those five years, and she'd done a splendid job and, as you can see, and I heard her say, she loves what she's doing, and she does it very well. My name is rich mythology.

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The program is the dome account in the eighties. I'll be back with your next week. We'll talk to another member of the county government, family or unimportant related agency that serve you and me. Until then, good luck. Good health. And good night to you all