Impact Statement Public Law 91-358, District of Columbia Court Reform and Criminal Procedures The Executive Office has authorized positions for only five (5) professional employees (the Executive Officer, a Deputy Executive Officer, two Management Analysts and a Court Planner). The two Management Analyst positions would have to remain vacant if the Mayor's proposed level of funding were adopted. This would deny the organization the management analysis staff which is required to do research necessary for the extensive administrative improvement job required. In essence, there could be no innovative programs, for staff would be solely engaged in daily operations. ($74,000) Also, in order to accommodate the additional shortfall of $49,800, it would be necessary to reduce the Court Reporter staff by approximately three positions. At the present time, there are only 39 Court Reporters servicing a court of 44 active judges plus six active senior judges. We would then be asking 36 Court Reporters to cover the same judicial staff. National Reports suggest that there should be 1.1 Court Reporters for every judge in order to provide for emergency factors (such as sickness), vacations and freeing a reporter to prepare overnight copy (i.e., where Court Reporter is required to immediately transcribe the previous day's trial). If the Court were to attempt to operate with 36 Court Reporters, it would be working at a ratio of .72 reporters per judge as compared to the recommended level of 1.1. The Court already is operating at a level of approximately .78 and the preparation of transcripts now suffers from that poor ratio. Further reductions can only lead to the closing of courtrooms. Fund General SCHEDULE 1 OPERATING Finally, it is necessary that the 1% Court System base reduction ($47, 200) which was taken from the Criminal Justice Act program in fiscal year 1980 be restored to provide funding to liquidate obligations incurred under the "District of Columbia Criminal Justice Act" Public Law 93-412. |