00:00:59.220 - 00:01:20.840

Sonoma County. A diverse county of over one million acres. It's famed for its agriculture, industry and recreation, boasting a booming economy and unique lifestyle for its citizens. Described by the same Luther Burbank as the chosen spot of all the Earth, Sonoma County is the place to

00:01:20.840 - 00:01:38.580

live, work and play as we move into the 21st century. Led by the forward looking philosophy of its governing bodies, Cinema Counties, 340,000 residents are, Ah, harmonious, successful blend of ethnic and economic backgrounds. We invite you to take a closer look at Sonoma County in the

00:01:38.580 - 00:02:01.630

nineties with your host, rich McGlinchy. How you doing? Everybody? Welcome to this edition of Sonoma County in the nineties, on location on a beautiful peddling McQueen, the Stern Wheeler, the old river boat that goes up and down cruises, I should say, up and down the pedal

00:02:01.630 - 00:02:15.780

in the river. It's a fascinating vehicle boat, I should call it, and with a little bit more about it from the woman sitting with me right now, talking to Dorothea Scott and Dorothy, I guess the first question I ask you, What do you do? What is

00:02:15.780 - 00:02:38.140

your position? All I'm in the dining room. Manager, Uh, part of my duties include hiring personnel, scheduling, um, seating people. I work very closely with Vina, our banquet coordinator in the office, and work with her to make sure that different parties get seated on the levels

00:02:38.140 - 00:02:56.190

that they prefer and see that they have the wine, everything. That any accommodations that are made. Uh, it's up to me to carry out for them. Well, you're the dining room manager, but you're off first, according to the Coast Guard. Yes, I considered first off your

00:02:56.190 - 00:03:14.570

former. Yeah, I think this is absolutely fascinating because it looked all around in our vision here. I have a cruise jet, but I'm looking forward to that. But what do you like most about your? Well, I like meeting all the different people that come on the

00:03:14.580 - 00:03:30.690

boat. We have a variety of from ages for young to old. Um, our lunch cruises. We have a lot of older people that come on, they come on by the bus load. It's not unusual to have 2 to 3 busloads of people from all over the

00:03:30.690 - 00:03:53.300

state. Uh, come on the boat for lunch. And, uh, they're very curious about the boat. Many of them think that, uh, it's refer reached older boat and are very surprised to find out that it's brand new her say. And, uh, many of them think that we

00:03:53.300 - 00:04:15.180

do our we have outside catering. They can't believe that we do our and food cooking right in our galley. Uh, what are the range of services that dependent McQueen has often? Well, we have Saturday and Sunday. We have a wonderful brunch cruise which last two hours.

00:04:15.840 - 00:04:34.920

Uh, we have a beautiful brunch set up, and, um, people love going down the river on beautiful days. They go outside, they see the wetlands, all the beautiful birds all over. And, um, during the week, Like I said, we have a two hour lunch cruises, and

00:04:34.930 - 00:04:56.810

in the evenings, we have dinner cruise this from 7 to 10 with dancing. We have a wonderful band. Louis Perez, who loves to interact with people, and he gets very involved with our with the crowd. One night we had a couple that said they were being

00:04:56.810 - 00:05:13.040

engaged that night. So Louis brought it to everyone's attention. And this young man got on his knees and proposed to the lady in front of the whole boat. And people love this. They love the interaction that we that they have with the band. And they just

00:05:13.040 - 00:05:38.410

have a wonderful time. Do. And we offer four choices of entrees from prime rib to chicken, two salmon and to a vegetarian plates. So we cover every range of including what anybody would like to have that exactly exactly. Uh, anything else You like that? Well, beautiful

00:05:38.410 - 00:05:57.420

boat. It's a beautiful boat. Um, we have a great staff. We have our chef, Michael. Uh, who does a great job are sushi chef Julio. They work very hard in the galley. They prepare all the food and cook it on board. Her bar manager David fixes

00:05:57.420 - 00:06:21.000

a mean drink and all of the wait staff. We have our just go overboard to pay special attention to every need that everyone has, and they all do a great job. Well, I thank you very much for taking a few minutes coming over and talking just

00:06:21.000 - 00:06:34.520

about the federal McQueen. Thank you very much. We've been talking to Dorset Scott, who is the first officer and also the new manager of the Petaluma queen. Now we're gonna pause for just a moment. We'll be back with me talking to trust a Kittner who is

00:06:34.530 - 00:07:06.590

the administrator of the municipal in Superior Court for sale McCown. First, this message just like moons And like sons with the certainty of times, just like hopes bringing still I rise, bringing the gifts that my ancestors gave. I am the hope and the dream off the

00:07:06.590 - 00:07:30.630

slaves. And so I I right. I've had the same friends since I was a little kid. But this year, some of them started playing with these other kids. But they weren't like us. There were, you know, different. And I heard my big brother saying some pretty

00:07:30.630 - 00:08:01.970

bad stuff about people like them, but they seem pretty cool. Way had a pretty good time, so Well, maybe my brother doesn't know everything. Don't be afraid. Welcome back to this edition of Sonoma County in the nineties, on location

00:08:02.280 - 00:08:18.850

on the beautiful Petaluma Queen. This is a an authentic riverboat. Fairly new was only lost in 1992. It traverse is up and down the Petaluma River. That's really a fascinating boat. If you haven't seen it. Certainly recommended you do now? We're gonna be talking to you.

00:08:18.850 - 00:08:33.030

Trust a Kantner. First time in a couple of years. She is the court administrator of both municipal and a superior Court for Sonoma County. And as I said, it's been a couple of years. What have you been doing? What of the court's been doing since you

00:08:33.030 - 00:08:50.150

were on the show? Well, the primary thing that we've been working on the last couple of years that's new and different is a consolidation of all our administrative support functions. Two years ago, 2.5 years ago, we had support functions spread across three organizations is very court

00:08:50.150 - 00:09:14.550

clerk, the court, administrative offices and municipal court clerks office. Those are all one now. Oh, what were the goals? What they dress out of the administrative consolidation of all the court that two primary goals, one was to simplify the the access for people that had to

00:09:14.550 - 00:09:27.940

use the courts. In other words, we wanted to set it up so that if people had had to come in to use the courts for criminal cases, for example, they only had to go one place or if they wanted to know about civil actions, They could

00:09:27.950 - 00:09:50.560

go to one place. If they call, call one number. The second goal was to save money. Yeah, these things roll. I'm sure they're all coming to pass. Ah, but that's asked her specifically. Have you achieved these goals? The 1st 1 we're working on. We have almost

00:09:50.560 - 00:10:06.170

consolidated all the phone functions into one. We're almost to the point where you can call one number to find out about anything to do with the courts. That will probably take totally about another year. We have consolidated all the criminal processing staff, so they're all in

00:10:06.170 - 00:10:26.710

one location. Civil have are still spread between two locations, but they're adjacent to one another and were close to having one specialized location for form sales. The second goal of saving money has We are very, very proud to say we've reduced 28 positions, which are worth

00:10:26.710 - 00:10:47.590

about a $1,000,000 a year. So we're saving the county in the state a $1,000,000 every year, considering how how many people we had two years ago I'll see your meeting the girls you set for yourself. How will the public feel or see the impact of this

00:10:47.600 - 00:11:05.450

consolidation in addition to the things I said as far as having one place to go for criminal actions. One phone call we have implement been able to implements and new programs we have a clinic for people using temporary restraining orders were going to be able to

00:11:05.450 - 00:11:24.200

move jury facility to a different location on the first floor. But primarily it will be easier for people who use the courts. I know. Would there be changes to the actual court facilities in the Hall of Justice? Yes, over the next. About a year and 1/2

00:11:24.210 - 00:11:43.030

will be doing some major remodeling. We've already started some minor changes where we move staffs, I said previously, we are planning to move the reassembly facilities down to the first floor into a more convenient location for jurors who have to come into the court. We will

00:11:43.030 - 00:12:02.450

be making some revisions to the areas where staff works to make the workflow the smoother. And we're hoping to improve the public areas that the courts that public uses. Yeah, very, very impressive. And a lot of things, Um, how will the consolidation of all of these

00:12:03.040 - 00:12:21.390

Department of three of really affect the staff? Well, they now work. One week ago, you said you've got reduced the total number By what? 28? Yes, all right now go ahead with. They now work for one, essentially one set of judges working as in tandem to

00:12:21.390 - 00:12:39.870

supervise the staff through me. So they have one boss. They all work together as in achieving our goals of operating the courts. In other words, we don't have municipal court staff that are doing one set ical Superior Court staff that are doing another circles. So we're

00:12:39.870 - 00:12:57.170

all working in is a as a merged team. There's improved opportunities for them to do different things for eventually there will be improved opportunities for promotion. We've already had some staff that wanted to new to do new and different things, be able to move into a

00:12:57.170 - 00:13:18.380

new area without leaving the courts. How are the judges themselves involved in the consolidation? The I worked for the judges and my managers work for me. So the judges give it's our overall goals and they direct and set policy for how they want the administrative structure

00:13:18.380 - 00:13:39.990

run. They're also involved in their own activities of coordinating judicial functions. Budget. How about the 94 95 budget. How does that affect or impact the court? Well, the it started out looking like we were gonna fail pretty well. Governor Wilson was going to be quite generous

00:13:39.990 - 00:13:59.380

with us. But by the time the legislator Legislature finished, we found ourselves with a very reduced budget. No more money than we had last year. Even though caseloads everything had grown. The Board of Supervisors, however, has been very supportive of us. And working together with them

00:13:59.380 - 00:14:16.180

in the county administrators office, they made up some of the difference. We made some more reductions, and we were able to achieve one of our major goals, which was to feel the bacon traffic referee position and upgrade that to a commissioner. So we're actually ending up

00:14:16.190 - 00:14:37.810

with one additional additional judicial officer who will be assigned to traffic? Um, the court receives state funding, so that means the state budget has to impact your courts right now. Well, as I said, we started out with in March with one set of numbers on what

00:14:37.810 - 00:14:56.130

our budget would be. And by the time the state budget finished, we were $800,000 less. Then what? We had thought we were gonna get in March. And it effects are everything we do because we don't know until the very last minute. We don't have any idea

00:14:56.130 - 00:15:11.250

of what they're going to cut. We don't know how the trigger is going to affect us. You know, this is true of so many different departments in local government today. But that sure puts somebody like yourself behind the eight ball. Yeah, you know, not knowing what

00:15:11.250 - 00:15:27.270

you're going to have to cut next to where, Um But you did mention one more to go that David Steve funds for the restoration of a judicial officer in the budget. Now, how will that new position effect the court saying the public, We will have one

00:15:27.270 - 00:15:46.890

judicial officer who will be assigned to do adult traffic and one judicial officer who will be assigned to do to get juvenile traffic, which is something of what we have now. But whenever and we have a judge gone on vacation or someone sick, then the traffic

00:15:46.890 - 00:16:05.560

calendar gets rotated around by having one judicial officer doing it. It will make it easier for people that are coming in to use the app to come into court regarding a traffic matter. It also allows more to just judge Resource is to be to work on

00:16:05.560 - 00:16:25.250

our civil trials, which is where we have a significant backlog. Gonna pause here for a moment. Ladies and gentlemen, we're going to bring you a public service announcement after which account in the nineties, on location aboard the beautiful, creditable Queen will return first this match and

00:16:26.540 - 00:17:13.300

And if you took away star for every one million people and the strike for every five and a patch of blue for the 10 million people didn't exactly what kind of fly our way? 1212 Larry, you know this simple exercise could help you stay healthy, which

00:17:13.310 - 00:17:44.160

keeps medical costs down. But you gotta do it every day or you'll get out of shape fast. You could learn a lot from a dummy. Buckle your safety belt. Welcome back to this tradition of cinema can in the nineties, on location aboard the beautiful Petaluma Queen,

00:17:44.520 - 00:18:01.900

The river boat that goes cruises, I should say up and down the pedal in the river Beautiful boat when you must have a unit already. My guest on this program is trusted Kettner and dress. It is the administrator of both the municipal and Superior Court, a

00:18:01.910 - 00:18:18.660

recent consolidation that put her in charge of the all of the various departments. When we left, I was about ready to ask you this. What is a restraining order? In general, a restraining order is an order issued by a judge that prohibits somebody from doing something.

00:18:19.140 - 00:18:39.730

We typically hear about restraining orders in connection with domestic violence cases. If someone has been the victim of domestic violence or thinks they will be a victim of domestic violence and has evidence that they might be, they can ask the judge to prohibit the person who

00:18:39.730 - 00:19:02.840

they think might be violent to them from being in their home or around them, depending on the situation. Stay away by law. Yes. Um, how are the court? You haven't a new restraining order. A t R O Clinic. Are the courts involved in this recently opening

00:19:02.960 - 00:19:20.740

opened Chiaro Clinic? Okay, that co Its courts work together with the District Attorney's Office, the Commission on the Status of Women and the Domestic Violence Task Force, which is established by Board of Supervisors A couple of years ago, to organize volunteers and work also with the

00:19:20.780 - 00:19:42.920

Y W C H trained volunteers to assist people who are requesting domestic violence. Restraining orders. Uh, how will this clinic actually help the public when a person comes in to get a restraining the papers for restraining order? Often the forms are quite intimidating to people that

00:19:42.920 - 00:19:59.380

are not for familiar with the court. And the volunteers in this clinic actually walk through the forms with people and tell them how to fill them out. Now that's a big help. Yes, that's a big step forward. Will it grow the program grow beyond its two

00:19:59.380 - 00:20:16.230

days a week? I think that it isn't currently It's Monday and Friday from 1 to 3 p.m. At this point, we're just trying to make sure that what we do on those two days is well organized and provides good service. We would hope to expand it

00:20:16.230 - 00:20:31.180

in the future, but we don't know when we can do that at this point. Well, it's in your budget, your consolidation. We lost 28 people, all those hundreds of thousands of dollars. I don't know, um when did that programme actually go into affair? It went into

00:20:31.180 - 00:20:50.980

effect August. I'm not sure of the exact David of meaning of August of this year. If you're OK now. Another thing. I understand the public can now obtain traffic traffic kick information. Sort of be a an automated telephone system. Uh, I think we ought to know

00:20:50.980 - 00:21:09.480

about this. Tell us about well this summer we implemented or upgrading our phone system to allow people to call. They call in number. And if they know their citation number, which is on the ticket, you can retrieve information about the bail amount walking court, various pieces

00:21:09.480 - 00:21:24.230

of information regarding traffic tickets. You can also make payments by crackers. Now then, if I had a ticket or something like that and I wanted to use this system, I could call that number and give the number of my ticket. Now, would they tell me the

00:21:24.230 - 00:21:38.400

amount of the fine? Yes, not end. The days were to be paid. No, that's that's on the Yes. That's a big help. Yes, that changed a lot of people from coming in. Yes, it saves into from coming in, and it also saves them from half me

00:21:38.400 - 00:21:54.850

to talk to our staff. It's faster for them. All right? Yeah. So that's it. They don't have to come in. It's faster for them. They can get all the information over the over the phone. Great. Um, what changes will the public see in the next year?

00:21:55.340 - 00:22:10.420

Maybe, Or maybe you're two years as a result of your administration of all, I mean consolidation. Of all the biggest changes will be the remodeling. The hope were really looking forward to being able to improve our facilities. For jurors, the jurors now have to go up

00:22:10.420 - 00:22:25.460

on the second floor in the room isn't very big or very attractive. Once the remodeling is completed, will move the jurors down to the first floor in newer facilities, and I think that's probably the biggest change they will see. The second big change for the public

00:22:25.470 - 00:22:37.320

will be if you coming to the courthouse to buy forms, and that's all you need is legal forms. You'll be able to go to one place for any kind of form, just a window that says forms. And I think that will make it a lot easier

00:22:37.530 - 00:22:53.230

for people that just need access. Farmers were about 34 minutes left a couple other questions. Now I know the county has unified its permit process for for the folks at the other building homes or, in other words, used to go to the planning and go to

00:22:53.230 - 00:23:06.420

the building inspection and go to public. And now they put them all over in one. Now that you've done a bit of the same thing that happened, right, we we've in the past. You if you, for example, if you had to get information about a criminal

00:23:06.420 - 00:23:21.000

case, you might have to go to municipal court or Superior court. They were all in the same building, but you might. You wouldn't know which door to go to. Now you'll be able to you right now. You can just go toe one door for criminal cases.

00:23:21.510 - 00:23:37.540

We will. Civil cases. We have a lot more staff involved in civil cases, so it's not possible have just one door. But we're consolidating the access to civil cases as much as we can, and hopefully you'll be able to go to one door for either municipal

00:23:37.550 - 00:23:57.350

or superior court civil cases with probably within the next year. You know, you're also the jury commissioner. You didn't tell us that you didn't add that. What? What? What does the jury commissioner? What do you do in that capacity? Well, I personally don't do a lot,

00:23:57.350 - 00:24:12.870

but my staff has a I have a wonderful staff of deputy tree commissioners that manage all of the jury programs. They make sure that we have jurors for the courts. They answer questions. They orient jurors. They tell them what to do. They send out notices, all

00:24:12.870 - 00:24:27.050

the things that have to happen to get jurors in the courtroom for trials. Don't you also have, ah, line that jurors can call in to see if if they're going to be on jury? Yeah, something like that. How does that work? What did they do? Well,

00:24:27.050 - 00:24:41.930

they're told to call in certain at certain times of the day, and they'll, their number will be depending on what their number is. Will depend on whether they have to come into the courthouse or whether they're just on call or whether they're completely finished. All right,

00:24:42.140 - 00:24:59.530

let's let's go back into 21 thing I didn't talk about the beginning I meant to. You have been with the county as an experience court administrator for several years now. What was your background before that? I worked for the district attorney's office managing a family support

00:24:59.530 - 00:25:21.040

division in Santa Clara County. Did you? Yes. And then from that you came up and I wanted this consolidation take place. Actually, officially it We moved everybody into place in January in 94. In May of this year, I became the municipal court clerk. And on January

00:25:21.040 - 00:25:42.570

3rd of 1995 I will become the Superior Court Court so that that completes you. That will complete it formally. All right, Do you often? I'm not. You're looking at the fair question. How many courts do we have? We have nine or 10 superiors in Sonoma County.

00:25:43.070 - 00:26:06.590

We have nine department, nine superior court departments and a juvenile court. So we have Can we have six? I think six municipal courts to commissioner. So we really have eight courtrooms that can be functioning. So this consolidation puts you, uh, working for about 17? Yeah. Okay.

00:26:06.760 - 00:26:24.090

What changes do you expect to see in the Hall of Justice? Easier this year? One of the big changes that we're looking at right now is the consolidation of all revenue collections. That would mean that if someone has been fined, if they owe money to public

00:26:24.090 - 00:26:40.630

defender, if they have fees that they have to pay that, would that would all be done by in one location by one group of people. So that would be a big change for people coming in to do that. We haven't finished the evaluation about those, so

00:26:40.630 - 00:27:00.330

we're not 100% sure we're gonna do it. Recommend it to the judges. Yet you see counties growing Don't Don't. We have to have someone judges for our population or something way should have more at least one more judge. But I don't look to that happening anytime

00:27:00.330 - 00:27:17.400

soon. Given the budget situation in Sacramento that's totally controlled by the state. So if they're if they're really having a fouled up. But here we suffer. Yes, we've asked for one judge, but I'm not holding my breath. Okay with For which court for the Superior Court.

00:27:18.300 - 00:27:36.350

We got about a moment there. Any final thoughts you have? I think this consolidation of I could have this. I think this consolidation is a great idea. I think they're putting everything under you. The one person eyes bound to make it operate a lot more smoothly

00:27:36.350 - 00:27:53.430

than it did with the least Leonard or divert divided departments were. We're finding that we put all of our talents together, and it's a It's a very big improvement, although it's been a difficult transition. Where do you headquarter? We're in the Hall of Justice 600 Administration

00:27:53.430 - 00:28:11.180

driving Santa Rosa. And if someone wanted to reach you as a result of something today, personally, how would they reach you? They could call 5 to 711605 to 7116 So now can I give the number fraud? I made a traffic traffic line. If you want information

00:28:11.180 - 00:28:30.610

about traffic tickets, you can call 5 to 7 to 30072300 for information about traffic. Thank you for taking the time. Yeah, just staying right here with me. Ladies and gentlemen. What? We're trying to get her back on our program for some time because one of the

00:28:30.610 - 00:28:44.770

most important thing to have happened in local government is unification or the consolidation, if you will, of our court system that has been accomplished as being accomplished. Trusted? Ketner has been placed in charge of the whole thing, so she couldn't have lots of headaches in the

00:28:44.770 - 00:29:03.430

future. But she doesn't marvelous job, and I think that we'll all be better off for it. The program history Omagh County in the nineties on location on the beautiful pedal queen. That's the whole stern will riverboat that goes up and down a liver. Beautiful place to

00:29:03.440 - 00:29:24.090

be. So come riverboat come joined. One of the cruises might have a principal. Plenty. The programs in home account in the nineties. I'll see you next week with another member of county government family along Good luck, a good health to each and everyone, Uh