LAKE COUNTY — The Lake County Superior Court will implement 13 closure days during the current fiscal year beginning in late November.
The court”s executive committee recently decided in favor of the closure days to address budget reductions. The 13 days will be unpaid furlough days for employees and will result in closures to clerk offices and courtrooms.
The closure days are Nov. 21 to 23, Dec. 27 to 30, Jan. 6, Feb. 3, March 2, April 6, May 4 and June 1. Those dates are not considered judicial holidays for the purposes of filing deadlines and other time calculations.
There will be no staff available or drop-box service in Clearlake on those days. There will be minimal staff at the Lakeport courthouse for emergency matters, which will be handled exclusively in Lakeport. A drop box for routine filings will be available in Lakeport from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Additionally, one courtroom in Lakeport will be available to hear mandatory last-day criminal matters, in-custody criminal arraignments, juvenile detention hearings and other emergency matters only. All other matters will be heard on the next available court day.
The Lake County court received a budget reduction of nearly $300,000, or 6.7 percent, for fiscal year 2011-12 and has seen a cumulative reduction of about 12 percent since 2009-10, according to Court Executive Officer Mary Smith.
“The Lake Court has been historically underfunded and accordingly does not have sufficient reserves to offset these unsustainable budget reductions,” Smith wrote in a public notice posted at the Lake County Courthouse.
The court received no comments about the closure proposal during a mandatory public comment period, which expired Sept. 12. For more information, contact 263-2374 or 994-6598.
