455 Golden Gate Avenue, San Francisco, CA 94102

July 30, l999

During its July meeting, the Task Force on Trial Court Employees decided to revise its recommendation on the Advisory Vote and the Public Entity Poll as described in the Interim Report published in May, l999. As a result of this decision by the Task Force, the Advisory Vote and the Public Entity Poll will not be taken by the Task Force and will not be conducted in l999.

The Lockyer-Isenberg Trial Court Funding Act of l997 required the Task Force to "prepare a method for submitting the issue of employment status to an Advisory Vote of trial court employees in each county." The statute did not specify who would take the vote or when the vote would be taken. The Task Force chose as an objective to conduct the Advisory Vote of employees to help them in crafting the final recommendations to the Legislature. Although not specified by the statute, the Task Force also decided to poll the preferences of the courts and the counties to assist in forming the final recommendations.

The Task Force must finalize all components of a personnel structure under each status option (county, court, state or other) prior to asking the trial court employees and public entities to vote on their preferences. Because of the volume and complexity of issues that must be resolved prior to the final report, it has become increasingly clear that the Task Force cannot finalize decisions on these issues in time to complete the Advisory Vote and the Public Entity Poll prior to the release of the final report in December, l999.

Since the statute did not charge the Task Force with actually conducting the Advisory Vote, the Task Force concluded that its paramount objective must be to produce its final report and recommendations by the end of l999. After extensive discussions and careful consideration of all the options available, the Task Force voted without dissent not to take the Advisory Vote. As required by the statute, the Task Force will prepare a method for conducting an Advisory Vote to be included in the recommendations in the final report. The Task Force further voted not to take a poll of the courts and the counties, but rather to recommend to the Legislature a method for conducting a poll of the trial courts and the counties in the final report.