Tapia warns courthouse backlog could stretch to 2186

California is billions of dollars behind in building and maintaining its courthouses. So far behind, in fact, the presiding judge of the Los Angeles County Superior Court warned on Thursday that "under the current scheme" the court will not be able to replace all its present courthouses until 2186.

"It will take 160 years by the time we replace our newest courthouse, the Long Beach Courthouse, which is now 13 years old," Judge Sergio C. Tapia II told the state Senate subcommittee that oversees judicial branch funding. "I think this is a perfect example of the problem with the model that we currently have."

Tapia went on to describe the growing unmet needs of the state's largest court. Mendocino County Superior Court Judge Ann C. Moorman described similar needs in her rural county, which has 1% of the population spread over nearly the same land area. Lawmakers representing two of the fastest-growing counties in the state, Riverside and San Bernardino, then spoke about widening needs where they live.

The nonpartisan Legislative Analyst's Office provided projections finding $21 billion is needed to build planned new courthouses in coming years. This is on top of over $5 billion in deferred maintenance identified by the judicial branch.

Deputy Legislative Analyst Drew Soderborg kicked off the hearing by saying his agency did not see any specific problems with any of the dozens of proposed court construction and renovation projects that have been put forward. But he warned that all of them are now competing for resources with every other item in the state's general funds.

That is because the judicial branch's two main construction funds have been in a yearslong shortfall because of declining revenues from fines and fees. Beginning around 2019, lawmakers responded by covering specific projects in the general fund on a case-by-case basis. In fact, Soderborg said longstanding gripes that former Gov. Jerry Brown had raided the courts to balance the budget during the financial crisis have now been effectively put to bed.

"This effectively backfilled the $1.4 billion that had been transferred out of the construction funds," Soderborg said.

Justice Brad Hill, chair of the Court Facilities Advisory Committee, raised disturbing scenarios of courthouses collapsing on hundreds of court staff and litigants in an earthquake. He added that these dangers are well known, pointing to a 2017 Los Angeles Times story that found that more than 100 courthouses in the state are "seismically unsafe."

"That was eight years ago," Hill said. "Judge Tapia is facing that reality every day."

Hill said one major court in the state had stopped allowing school tours over fear of "what would happen if a quake hit while those children were in the courthouse." The Daily Journal was unable to verify these claims by press deadline.

Sen. Kelly Seyarto, R-Murrieta, typically plays the role of budget hawk. But not on Thursday.

"I appreciate your thanks for the crumbs we give you," he told the court representatives before him.

Seyarto's district is in Riverside County. He pointed to the Judicial Council's 2022 Judicial Needs Assessment report, which found that 52 of the 98 additional judgeships needed in the state are in Riverside and neighboring San Bernardino.

"While I'm concerned about the underfunding of courthouses throughout the state, I'm most concerned about those in the Inland Empire and other rural areas of the state," said Sen. Rosilicie Ochoa Bogh, R-Redlands.

She added, "Every county in California except San Francisco has rural populations that have different needs than their urban counterparts. The underfunding of courthouses in rural areas has led to significant challenges for the justice system."

Several lawmakers suggested ways to address the issue, with more than one citing better remote access to allow people to skip in-person appearances. Seyarto homed in on a comment by Tapia that the branch was having a challenging time bidding for land against housing developers, particularly in outlying areas like Santa Clarita. He suggested that lawmakers could approve CEQA exemptions for new courthouses as they have for housing.

Tapia's comments also prompted a philosophical tone from the committee's chair, Sen. Laura Richardson, D-Los Angeles. In an exchange with Soderborg, she admitted it is lawmakers' fault that the funding situation has gone unaddressed, but he must "give us the real numbers."

"If it's going to take us 160 years to get there; you won't be here and neither will we," Richardson said.