Judicial Council approves 36-hour workweek

by Nick Delgado

Guam - It's a place that upholds Guam law and ensures justice is served, but a major cut to its fiscal year budget is leaving the Judiciary of Guam making drastic changes to keep operations afloat. The total amount cut from the Judiciary of Guam's budget for the current fiscal year is significant, according to Chief Justice F. Philip Carbullido. 

"When the Legislature passed the Fiscal Year 2013 budget that resulted in a cut of $1.7 million," Carbullido said. Senator Adolpho Palacios added, "During the debate there was a remark made by the chair of the taxation committee, Senator Ben Pangelinan that we will pass this and the chairman agreed there may be shortcoming but we know it will not impede government services at least in the first three to six months."

The chair of the Judiciary Committee and lame duck senator says the Legislature anticipated the problem during budget talks. The Judiciary's budget shortfall was compared to the court's expenses from last fiscal year. Over the past several weeks the chief justice tasked his staff to come up with solutions to prevent impacts from affecting court staff. "There's a plan that really has three elements and the first part is we went internally throughout operation to see where we can cut," Carbullido said.

The first element is implementing a hiring freeze resulting in $619,000 worth of savings. The second element deals with collections. The chief justice added, "Through an increase of traffic fines and fees, which will go into effect on January 1, and the additional amount we estimate to collect through the end of the fiscal year will result in approximately $300,000 of additional revenue, but that still left us with a shortfall of $815,352."

The remedy is outlined in the Judiciary's Deficit Reduction Plan, which would cut four hours out of every workweek, essentially resulting in a 10 percent across-the-board salary cut for all court employees. "All the employees from the chief justice to our other employees we will institute a shorter workweek in matter of 36-hour workweek," said Carbullido.

The Council unanimously approved the proposal. "That's the most we can do on our end and we need assistance from the other branches of government," said Carbullido. He added without the additional cash infusion from the Legislature or the Executive Branch, the Judiciary would be forced to implement the shorter work week by May 21.

"There is really nothing much that we can do, every agency is requesting an putting other I needs and shortcomings," he said.

The committee chair says the Judiciary will have to convince the members of the 32nd Guam Legislature for the appropriation. Adelup is currently discussing the issue with its fiscal policy team.