Municipal Court Clerks Ignore Transfer Order, Join Walkout

As a strike by Los Angeles County court clerks entered its sixth day, a plea by the Superior Court for help seemed to backfire when employees ignored temporary transfers and joined the walkout.

The action by downtown Municipal Court clerks, who appear to be joining their striking Superior Court colleagues on the picket lines in growing numbers, adds yet another problem for the nation’s busiest court system. With talks scheduled to resume today, county officials increasingly admit that the courts are feeling the strain of the walkout.

“Even with the redeployment of our administrative and non-courtroom staff, we are still in a crucial situation,” the Superior Court’s Executive Officer John Clark wrote in a recent memo seeking help from Municipal Court administrators.

“We got through the day without any cases being dismissed,” said Superior Court Presiding Judge Robert W. Parkin in an interview. “ . . . But there is no question that the people who are [handling] files are gonna burn out pretty quickly.”

One looming crisis, court officials said, was in the area of so-called minute orders that document courtroom proceedings. Even if court cases are continuing, officials said, the accounts of what occurred are not being noted in a countywide computer system that enables authorities to track the progress of everything from judgments to the whereabouts of defendants and those recently sentenced to state prison.

To date, officials at the courts and at the county jail have insisted that the strike has not yet resulted in a serious backlog of inmates awaiting transfer to prison or any defendants being released because their right to a speedy trial was unintentionally overlooked.

But with court and county officials scrambling to keep open as many high-priority criminal courtrooms as possible, about a dozen civil court clerks were asked Wednesday to report to the downtown Criminal Courts Building.

Although union representatives and court officials differ on how many clerks arrived as scheduled, it was clear that many of the employees ignored the transfer order and joined a crowd of clerks who have picketed that courthouse and others since the strike began.

And as the walkout drags on, even some judges have supported their clerks’ pay demands by briefly joining the picketers.

“I just thought they could use the morale support,” Municipal Judge Maral Injejikian said after marching with the picketing clerks Wednesday.

“I believe the clerks need support,” said Municipal Judge Kenneth Lee Chotiner. “I believe they deserve a fair wage for all of the very complicated and important work they do. And I believe they are underpaid.”

But while agreeing that the clerks deserve an equitable pay hike after six years without a raise, court officials insist that they do not have the financial wherewithal to pay more than the county’s last offer of 12% over the next three years. The clerks’ negotiators have asked for a 16% pay package.

“Listen, I am sympathetic to the clerks. I don’t think there is a judge on this court that does not feel these people are entitled to a raise,” said Presiding Judge Parkin. “But people have to appreciate there is only so much money.”

Noting that the 600 striking clerks represent only one of several bargaining units for the 2,300-employee court system, Parkin said officials must find a way to balance the clerks’ demands against equity for the entire work force.

“We intend to treat all of our employees the same,” he said, noting that a 1% pay raise for the entire court work force would cost the county about $1 million a year.

But as their first strike in at least 25 years illustrates, the clerks insist that their years without a pay raise entitle them to more than the county has so far offered.

“We are not asking for special treatment. We are asking for equitable treatment,” said Karlene George, president of the union representing Superior Court clerks.

“Everyone around us in the courthouse has gotten substantial raises. Yet we are the backbone of the system,” George said. “We are the ones who keep it moving.”