Alaska\u2019s court system will operate on half days every Friday starting July 1, Supreme Court Justice Craig Stowers told the Alaska Legislature on Wednesday.<\/p>\n
In the annual State of the Judiciary address given by the chief justice to the Legislature, Stowers touted the cost-cutting measures the court system has already undertaken and unveiled his plans for the next fiscal year. <\/p>\n
Under Article 4, Section 16 of the Alaska Constitution, the chief justice is the administrative head of the Alaska court system, overseeing its $112.7 million budget and about 800 employees.<\/p>\n
There are fewer of those employees than there once were. Since July 1, the court system has enacted what Stowers called a \u201chiring freeze,\u201d refusing to fill vacancies left open by retirement. Thirty-five positions have been cut through this process of attrition so far, and the court system expects another 17 more by June 30.<\/p>\n
The court system\u2019s administrative employees and judges have taken voluntary days off without pay. \u201cIt\u2019s astonishing to all of us, and the court system is very proud of all these people,\u201d Stowers said, a remark that garnered applause from the legislators assembled in the chambers of the House of Representatives.<\/p>\n
Despite a cut of $3.4 million this fiscal year, Stowers said he expects another $3.8 million to be sliced from the court system budget in the next fiscal year, which begins July 1.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat might not sound like a lot in the grand scheme of things,\u201d Stowers said, referring to the state\u2019s $3.7 billion annual deficit, but it\u2019s a substantial fraction of the court system\u2019s budget.<\/p>\n
In addition to working half-days on Fridays, the court system will reduce its operations in other ways. Electronic documents are replacing paper ones, saving hundreds of thousands of dollars. Videoconferenced court appearances are replacing the need to fly litigants to remote courtrooms.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is a new budget reality for all of us, and we all are going to have to do what it takes to meet the budget targets that you give us,\u201d Stowers told legislators.<\/p>\n
He said that some lawmakers have urged him to close some of the state\u2019s smaller courthouses, which are located in rural areas.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t want to do that,\u201d Stowers said. \u201cThe court system doesn\u2019t want to do that. In many of these communities, the court system is the face of the state of Alaska.\u201d<\/p>\n
While a rural town or village might have a courthouse, it may not have a police force or other government agency.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt would be a terrible travesty\u201d if that went away, he said. \u201cFor today and next year, these more draconian strategies are not necessary.\u201d<\/p>\n
At times quoting Winston Churchill and Frank Herbert\u2019s science-fiction novel \u201cDune,\u201d Stowers said lawmakers \u201care our leaders today, and we Alaskans need your leadership … as never before in our history.\u201d<\/p>\n
He urged lawmakers to act rationally, with \u201cwisdom and good faith and courage,\u201d and to avoid fear.<\/p>\n
\u201cFear is the mind-killer,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
After the address, Rep. Cathy Mu\u00f1oz, R-Juneau, said she thinks the court system\u2019s cost-cutting efforts set an example for other state departments to follow.<\/p>\n
\u201cI like the strategy the court system has utilized,\u201d she said. \u201cI appreciate the all-hands-on-deck approach.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mu\u00f1oz is chairwoman of the House subcommittee in charge of the judiciary\u2019s budget and has been working on the court system budget for months. She said Stowers\u2019 address didn\u2019t present information that\u2019s new to her, but it was interesting that it focused on budget issues.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn the past, the addresses have focused more on policy and criminal justice and reform efforts,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Rep. Sam Kito III, D-Juneau, thought Stowers \u201cdid a great job\u201d in his address.<\/p>\n
He appreciates that the court system is offering budget cuts, but is concerned about the pressures forcing a \u201ccritical organization\u201d to cut.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe could very well end up with court cases taking a lot longer to process,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Sen. Dennis Egan, D-Juneau, said he\u2019s worried about the same thing, but \u201cI appreciated him talking about the fiscal crisis the court system has.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI think some of his message is we all have to step up to the plate and make difficult decisions, no matter how unpopular they are,\u201d Egan said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Alaska\u2019s court system will operate on half days every Friday starting July 1, Supreme Court Justice Craig Stowers told the Alaska Legislature on Wednesday. In the annual State of the Judiciary address given by the chief justice to the Legislature, Stowers touted the cost-cutting measures the court system has already undertaken and unveiled his plans […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":426,"featured_media":23835,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_stopmodifiedupdate":false,"_modified_date":"","wds_primary_category":4,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[230],"yst_prominent_words":[],"class_list":["post-23834","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-state-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23834","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/426"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23834"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23834\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/23835"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23834"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23834"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23834"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=23834"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}