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Bar News - September 5, 2003 Lawmakers', Justices' Accord Averts Court Layoffs By: Dan Wise More Flexibility for Court Budget LATE LAST MONTH, legislative leaders and two justices of the Supreme Court worked out an agreement that will provide greater flexibility in budgetary matters and will allow the judicial branch to rescind 28 layoffs, restore most jury sessions, and keep the Manchester site of the probate court open. These measures would become official if the Legislature and governor approve a permanent biennial budget. The Legislature was expected to vote on the budget on Sept. 4. The accord, announced Aug. 25 by legislative and court leaders, does not provide more money but allows court administrators the flexibility to move funds from various accounts to avoid layoffs and reinstate services. The provision insulating the district courts from all but $500,000 of the $5.4 million in cuts remains. Among the steps to be taken (once final budget approval by the Legislature and governor is secured) are:
The accord offers a dim glint of hope at a dark hour for the beleaguered court system. Even if the accord becomes permanent, however, some limitations in services will continue as the courts struggle with extremely tight funding. (See the accompanying list of superior court clerks’ office hours in effect as of August 22. In most cases, limitations on hours were in place before the rescinded layoffs were announced. Some adjustments in hours may occur as a result of the new budget agreement.) How Agreement Was Reached On Aug. 20 and again on Aug. 25, Justices Joseph P. Nadeau and James E. Duggan, representing the Supreme Court, met with leaders from the Senate and House to press their case for flexibility in transferring funds so that the judicial branch could avoid as many layoffs as possible. Previously, the Joint Legislative Fiscal Committee had, without discussion, tabled requests from the judicial branch to reconsider the provision in the continuing resolution that required the courts to make necessary funding cuts "proportional" in all but several areas (district courts and courthouse improvements were off-limits). Court officials said the "proportionality" requirement would compound the impact on the Supreme, superior and probate courts, requiring deep cuts in personnel. The closed-door meetings led to a relaxation of tensions and assurances by the legislative leaders that some flexibility would be granted in order to spare some of the front-line personnel layoffs. The justices met with Senate President Thomas R. Eaton, Speaker of the House Gene G. Chandler, Senate Majority Leader Robert E. Clegg, Deputy Senate Minority Leader Lou D’Allesandro, Deputy Speaker Michael D. Whalley and Representative Robert L. Wheeler. "We have had open and frank discussions, and we are pleased to be moving ahead," Senator Eaton said in an interview with Bar News. "I am very pleased that we were able to avert the court layoffs and that the court system is going to be able to hold more jury trials." Eaton said the face-to-face meetings enabled the representatives from two branches of government to develop credibility with each other, which made the agreement on flexibility possible. The Senate president also said that the court system had furnished the Legislature with more financial and management information, including submission of a number of incomplete fiscal notes that the Legislature had requested in the last session. Justice Nadeau, speaking to Bar News after the meeting, explained: "As a result of meeting, the [legislative leaders] became aware of the difficult situation the courts were put in as a result of the continuing resolution. Our hope is that [on Sept. 4] the legislative leadership will remove the restrictions that have significantly impaired our ability to manage our budget." Lessening Tensions Between Branches Nadeau said he hoped that the talks and the agreement will lessen tensions between the branches over finances. "We hope to use this event as an opportunity to open channels of communications earlier...and to communicate directly with leadership and develop mutual feelings of trust. We know that we need to do a better job of explaining how we manage our budget, and we believe that the legislators now understand that the judicial branch has to be able to make its own decisions about its budget." Both Eaton and Nadeau said they hope to establish a periodic schedule of meetings. In a statement to court personnel following the first meeting, Chief Justice David Brock said: "We are grateful, and relieved, that the combined efforts of the court and legislative leaders to examine these issues have brought us close to a resolution. We, in the judicial branch, share common ground with the legislative branch of government. In our separate roles, we strive to secure fair and equal access to justice for our citizens as the New Hampshire Constitution guarantees. Today, through the hard work of the two branches, we continue our efforts to meet that goal." Court officials, including Superior Court Chief Justice Walter Murphy and Probate Court Administrative Judge John Maher, said they would wait until the budget is approved by lawmakers and until "the dust settles" before they could comment on changes to clerk’s office hours and other service issues, including the specifics on what cuts they will be making in place of the rescinded layoffs and to recoup the expenses of the restored jury sessions. But despite the good news over the accord, there is no additional money coming in for the court system and the impact on court operations remains severe. Because of understaffing due to unfilled positions or the loss of probationary personnel, more than half of the superior courts, including several of the busiest, have reduced the hours when court personnel are available to the public at the counter or by telephone. Impact of Budget Crunch Uneven The impact of the current financial situation has been uneven. Hillsborough Superior Court - South is among the hardest hit: According to Clerk Marshall Buttrick, only 14 of the 28.5 staff positions in his court are filled, due to a combination of eliminations of positions, layoffs of probationary employees, and an employee’s untimely family leave. Another loser at "attrition roulette" has been the Cheshire County Superior Court, where the staff of 10 is down to seven plus the clerk. In Strafford, the reprieve has only spared one of the four people slated for layoff (three had been probationary employees not covered by the agreement), leaving that court with only nine of its regular 13 positions. However, in several other courts populated by staff with greater seniority and blessed by little recent turnover, there have been no losses of personnel. For example, Belknap, Coos and Grafton counties remain fully staffed, and they remain open to the public for the entire workday. However, the woes of the decimated Cheshire court may have been fortuitous to the system as a whole, as the plight of the court system apparently hit "home" with Senate President Thomas Eaton from Keene. Cheshire County Superior Court Clerk Barbara Hogan, who has closed the clerk’s office to the public and stopped answering phone calls at 12:30 each day, said that in the mornings she and her staff are constantly interrupted by a steady stream of questions, requests and phone calls that makes it impossible for her and the staff to process the paperwork necessary for the court to function. Her task, like the other superior courts where understaffing is serious, is to constantly juggle tasks and priorities to ensure that constitutional rights aren’t jeopardized by delays, statutory deadlines are met, and other emergencies are addressed. "There are lots of angry people who don’t understand why we can’t handle their requests as we used to do," Hogan said. "Some people are well aware of what is going on, and there are others who aren’t aware and lecture us on how we could do the tasks that they want us to do. Some people don’t understand why we aren’t on the Internet and they don’t appreciate that everything we do has to be entered into a DOS-based computer system." Hogan said after the court’s announcement of layoffs earlier this summer, Eaton became aware of the difficulties her office was facing and called her to ask about it. "Senate President Eaton has been very proactive in getting involved to help resolve this problem. I have talked to him on the phone several times, explaining how things were affecting us. I think he recognizes that this has become a constituent service issue," Hogan said. Strafford County Superior Court Clerk Julie Howard praised the response of the Bar and the public to the court’s plight. "Attorneys have been enormously supportive and helpful. We even had several calling up and offering to help out with some of our clerical work. We haven’t figured out how we can use it – with conflicts and confidentiality issues – but we are looking into it," she said. The public, too, has been understanding, according to Howard. "People have not been particularly nasty. Most people seem to understand what we are facing." She said, however, that all of the scrambling and the mounds of work piling up sometimes discourage her. She hopes the agreement becomes permanent so that new uncertainty is not introduced. "Right now we just want the reprieve to be permanent so we can manage our work with what we have got."
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