When 70 misdemeanor cases were tossed by San Francisco Superior Court officials earlier this month, San Francisco residents may have been surprised – but frontline court workers were not.

High numbers of vacancies and staffing levels out of alignment with caseloads have been causing delays that unjustly deprive defendants of their sixth amendment right to a speedy trial – one of several interconnected issues court workers flagged recently in a survey ahead of contract negotiations. Those staffing issues often lead to workers being shuffled temporarily from one department to another without proper training — which can lead to mistakes.

They rallied outside the Hall of Justice, the civil court, and the juvenile justice center last Wednesday, August 21.

“You know, right now we talk about getting more police, more sheriffs hired, but nobody ever talks about the courtroom,” Deputy Court Clerk Rodrigo Lopez told KALW News at the rally. ”We need people in the courtroom to be able to process those cases in a timely manner. And the community and people who get arrested have a judicial, a constitutional right for a speedy trial. And because our courtrooms are backlogged, their rights are being violated.”

Meanwhile, across the bay, Alameda County Superior Court workers held rallies of their own at four locations across Oakland, Hayward, and Dublin the day before on Tuesday, August 20 – in their case, fighting back against proposed furloughs.

In the face of next year’s projected budget issues, Alameda County has chosen an approach that is all too familiar: Rather than making sensible plans or waiting to see if the situation changes, they’ve preemptively decided to try to balance their budget on the backs of working people, announcing one furlough day per month for the workers.

The SEIU 1021 Superior Court of Alameda County Chapter President Kasha Clarke said, “We’ve received formal notice of furloughs, despite the fact that the state’s cuts don’t take effect until next year. It’s cruel, and it’s needless.

“We know it doesn’t need to be done in Alameda County because it’s not being done in one other county, not one of the other 57 counties in the state are imposing furloughs.

“It’s going to hurt the dedicated workers and it’s going to hurt the public. We’re already understaffed, and with fewer staff to do the work, we’ll see longer waits to file things, longer turnaround to get hearing dates, and longer response times.

“Nobody comes to the court unless they really need something, so it’s painful for us to feel like we’re letting them down when management furloughs us instead of cutting from the top. It’s disappointing to be told we are the ones keeping the wheels of justice turning, and then, in the next breath, be told we’re losing a day of work every month for ten months!”