The Schwarzenegger administration has filed another brief in its legal slugfest with CCPOA over the validity of the governor's appeal of a recent court decision on "self-directed" furloughs.
Click here for our last post about the 1st District Court of Appeal case. To sum up, the governor appealed a December Superior Court decision that "self-directed" furloughs of correctional officers are illegal -- which would normally freeze the status quo (in this case, keep self-directed correctional officer furloughs in place) while the case goes to appeal.
CCPOA's attorneys contend that the appeal isn't valid because Judge Frank Roesch didn't issue a judgment, which lays out the logic behind the ruling. No valid appeal, no frozen status quo. No frozen status quo, no self-directed furloughs for correctional officers starting in January.
A pertinent point from the governor's latest brief: Roesch had instructed CCPOA attorneys to draft a writ of mandate (the order to stop the self-directed furloughs) and the judgment for his review. It's a common practice.
Click the following link to find out what the governor's lawyers say CCPOA attorneys did instead.
Instead, according to the governor's brief,
... on December 29, 2009, CCPOA's counsel submitted its proposed writ to the trial court along with (the governor's) counsel's December 28, 2009 letter and a letter of his own in which he challenged the trial court's direction in its December 17, 2009 order to prepare a form of judgment. ...
In response to this letter (and unaware that the trial court already had executed CCPOA's proposed writ the day before), (the governor's) counsel sent a letter to the trial court on December 30, 2009 ... In his letter, (the governor's) counsel informed the court, among other things, that he had requested CCPOA's counsel on more than one occasion to comply with the court's Order and prepare a form of judgment, but that CCPOA's counsel had, to date, failed to do so.
Click here to download an unsigned-but-accurate copy of the administration's opposition brief.
IMAGE: www.yolocourts.ca.gov
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