Top manager resigns amid probe of idle state vehicles
By Andrew McIntosh
amcintosh@sacbee.com
Wednesday, Oct. 28, 2009
A top Department of General Services manager resigned and a Department of Transportation employee was reassigned Tuesday as the Schwarzenegger administration reacted to an investigation by The Bee that found officials spent $5.5 million on new vehicles this year but left many idle and gathering dust for months.
Kathleen Webb, a Department of General Services deputy director who oversaw the state's vehicle fleet, offered to resign during a probe into the purchase of $1.2 million worth of hybrid Toyota Priuses, said Erin Shaw, a spokeswoman for the State and Consumer Services Agency, which oversees the General Services department.
"Her resignation, effective Oct. 31, was accepted," Shaw said.
Webb, who was appointed by the Schwarzenegger administration on June 12, 2008, earned $106,800 a year.
The Bee reported that the Priuses sat parked on the roof of the state garage for months, even as legislators nearby slashed state spending, cut state worker pay and eliminated key public services after tax revenue plunged and they needed to balance the budget.
In a related move, Mark DeSio, a spokesman for Caltrans, confirmed that an agency employee had been reassigned. It was part of a personnel action launched in connection with a number of truck purchases made earlier this year, including a flurry on June 30 – the last day of the state's fiscal year.
DeSio said that because of state personnel and privacy rules, he could not name the employee, give details about the reassignment or say why the employee had been disciplined.
The actions came late Tuesday, after Schwarzenegger spokesman Aaron McLear said at a morning news briefing that officials were investigating vehicle purchases that The Bee had highlighted and would act, if warranted.
"We want to make sure that taxpayers' dollars are being used effectively," McLear said.
The Bee reported Monday that General Services and Caltrans spent more than $5.5 million on new trucks and cars earlier this year but left many idle.
Thirty-seven of the 50 Prius hybrids that General Services bought in February had no committed buyers among other departments at the time. They're now being converted into plug-in electric vehicles as part of a pilot project – with more public money.
The Bee also reported that Caltrans bought dozens more trucks while it still had pickups and larger trucks parked in its yard that it had purchased in 2006, 2007 and 2008, some with extended warranties ticking away. Those vehicles are sitting idle in Caltrans yards beneath or beside Highway 50, awaiting final assembly.
Monday night, Dale E. Bonner, secretary of the state's Business, Transportation & Housing Agency, sent a letter urging Caltrans Director Randell Iwasaki and his officials to cut spending and "wisely" buy only items "critical to the health and safety of Californians."
"Given the impact of the recession on the California economy, and the continuing strain on the state's budget, it is very important that every employee in our organization share responsibility for preserving resources, spending wisely, and incurring expenses solely on things that are critical to the health and safety of Californians," Bonner wrote.
Fred Aguiar, head of the State and Consumer Services Agency, also blasted his Department of General Services for spending the $1.2 million on the Priuses and letting them sit for months.
"The fact that the Department of General Services purchased fifty Priuses and let them sit longer than necessary is completely and totally unacceptable. As soon as agency became aware that those cars were sitting unused, I immediately ordered the department to put them into circulation," Aguiar said in a statement.
Acting General Services Director Ron Diedrich, asked to comment on Aguiar's remarks, said he agreed, adding: "The taxpayers of California expect more from government, and I will work to ensure that they get it."
Wednesday, October 28, 2009
Friday, July 31, 2009
Media Prohibiting Judicial Transparency
Although a number of in print and television reports have covered the murder of toddler Cole Frazier, not a single editor or producer chose to reveal the name of the judge who signed the order resulting in the police taking Cole Frazier from his mother, Candice Dempsey, and delivering the toddler over to his father, Timothy Frazier, who had earlier agreed to supervised visitation, in a custody matter.
Timothy Frazier instead, manufactured a story and obtained an "Emergency Protective Order" to win temporary custody. Shortly after Timothy Frazier shot their son, Cole Fraizer and them himself.
As this nightmare began with a judicial order, journalism anyone?
The signing judge was Judge John David, "Jack" Seay. Judge Seay can be found on KillerJudges.com and case info at FamilyLawCourts.com
The question of Why the fourth estate is depriving voters of critical information remains unanswered.
Timothy Frazier instead, manufactured a story and obtained an "Emergency Protective Order" to win temporary custody. Shortly after Timothy Frazier shot their son, Cole Fraizer and them himself.
As this nightmare began with a judicial order, journalism anyone?
The signing judge was Judge John David, "Jack" Seay. Judge Seay can be found on KillerJudges.com and case info at FamilyLawCourts.com
The question of Why the fourth estate is depriving voters of critical information remains unanswered.
Thursday, July 30, 2009
Mississippi Judge Bobby DeLaughter Admits He Lied to FBI
Mississippi judge Bobby DeLaughter pleads guilty to lying to FBI agent
Miss. — Mississippi judge Bobby DeLaughter pleaded guilty to an obstruction of justice charge after lying to an FBI agent during an investigation into corruption.
In return for DeLaughter admitting guilt, conspiracy and mail fraud charges were dropped by prosecutors.
Previously, DeLaughter had been accused of giving an unfair advantage to former attorney Richard Richard "Dickie" Scruggs; who won millions from asbestos lawsuits.
(Scruggs, father and son, are in prison.)
Prosecutors recommended an 18-month prison sentence for Delaughter.
To make a report on other judges, see USAJudges.com or, KillerJudges.com
Miss. — Mississippi judge Bobby DeLaughter pleaded guilty to an obstruction of justice charge after lying to an FBI agent during an investigation into corruption.
In return for DeLaughter admitting guilt, conspiracy and mail fraud charges were dropped by prosecutors.
Previously, DeLaughter had been accused of giving an unfair advantage to former attorney Richard Richard "Dickie" Scruggs; who won millions from asbestos lawsuits.
(Scruggs, father and son, are in prison.)
Prosecutors recommended an 18-month prison sentence for Delaughter.
To make a report on other judges, see USAJudges.com or, KillerJudges.com
Tuesday, July 14, 2009
OHIO SUPREME COURT FAULTS DIVORCE COURT
Ohio's Significant Report
Between Ohio judges steering cases towards the favored few, Ohio's Divorce Court problems mirror California's.
Including, as noted in the report:
The difference between Ohio and California is the difference between night and day.
Where Ohio first admitted, then chooses to squarely face the problems judges cause, California judges from the top down, will not.
Although Chief Justice Ronald George "invited the public to apply" to the Elkins Task Force, tellingly, not a single member of the public was selected to serve.
The task force instead, is replete with some of the very people the public clearly does not accept as credible, including San Diego's member, Judge Lorna Alksne.
The Elkins Task Force which held promise, quickly deteriorated after those selected were first chosen, and second, began missing meetings.
Between Ohio judges steering cases towards the favored few, Ohio's Divorce Court problems mirror California's.
Including, as noted in the report:
The high-court's performance review recommended more than 90 improvements and labeled 28 of them as "critical" enough to demand immediate action. Many of the concerns dealt with problems first disclosed in a series of stories published in The Plain Dealer.
In March, the newspaper reported that Domestic Relations Judge James Celebrezze steered hundreds of thousands of dollars of work to his longtime friend Mark Dottore, who charged $225 an hour to handle assets in divorce cases.
The newspaper also found that Celebrezze and his daughter, Leslie Ann, who replaced him on the bench after he retired in December 2008, used teams of special masters to mediate divorce cases rather than doing the work themselves.
Scanned from a handout January 29, 2008. Domestic Relations Judge Leslie Ann Celebrezze
In their 91-page report, Supreme Court investigators seized on the questionable practices.
When appointing receivers, their report noted, a judge must do so impartially and on the basis of merit, while avoiding favoritism and unnecessary appointments. The fees, they added, must be "reasonable, fair and affordable."
They went on to caution that, with few exceptions, a judge has no authority to appoint special masters to perform what essentially is the judge's job."
The difference between Ohio and California is the difference between night and day.
Where Ohio first admitted, then chooses to squarely face the problems judges cause, California judges from the top down, will not.
Although Chief Justice Ronald George "invited the public to apply" to the Elkins Task Force, tellingly, not a single member of the public was selected to serve.
The task force instead, is replete with some of the very people the public clearly does not accept as credible, including San Diego's member, Judge Lorna Alksne.
The Elkins Task Force which held promise, quickly deteriorated after those selected were first chosen, and second, began missing meetings.
Wednesday, April 22, 2009
The Sheriff's Sweet Ride
When it comes to gouging the public, the hits just keep coming.
The Sheriff's Sweet Rides
One of the $32,000-plus Dodge Chargers recently purchased by the Sheriff's Department for upper-level administrators sits in the agency's parking garage.
By WILL CARLESS Voice Staff Writer
Friday, April 4, 2008 | At least four upper-level administrators at the San Diego County Sheriff's Department, including Deputy Sheriff Bill Gore, currently drive top-of-the-range Dodge Chargers, cars that cost San Diego taxpayers between $32,615 and $35,459 apiece.
The Chargers are equipped with powerful V-8 "Hemi" engines and feature leather seats. They're part of a fleet of vehicles the Sheriff's Department provides for mid- and upper- level managers from the sheriff himself to the department's information technology chief information officer. The current fleet cost taxpayers almost $780,000.
At a time when many local law enforcement agencies are cutting back on costs across the board, good government advocates questioned the provision of take-home cars to administrators, who are not on patrol or working on investigations, and the purchase of expensive, non fuel-efficient vehicles.
"Why do those employees need county owned-cars, and why such expensive cars?" said Bob Stern, president of the Los Angeles-based Center for Governmental Studies, and a former attorney for the state Fair Political Practices Commission. "It comes down to the appropriate use of taxpayer money at a time of belt-tightening."
All Sheriff's Department vehicles, including those driven by office workers and lawyers, are also fitted with license plates known in law enforcement circles as "undercover plates," rather than the standard California Exempt plates, leaving them indistinguishable from non-government vehicles. That policy is defended by Gore, but California law provides for the use of unmarked plates only by officers involved with investigations. The department's policy is also at odds with other local California law enforcement agencies.
Gore said the Sheriff's Department purchased the $32,000-plus Dodge Chargers for the managers as part of a deal that included buying five Chargers for the department's patrol fleet. He said the Chargers were purchased so he and some of his managers could try out the vehicles to see if they would make good patrol cars.
Related Links
San Diego County Sheriff’s Department
After a Fatal Collision, Sheriff's Deputy Unpunished
They've since decided that the cars are not ideally suited for patrol use.
The V-8 version of the Charger retails at more than $10,000 more than the standard V-6 model. Gore said the decision to buy the more powerful, better-equipped model was up to Sheriff Bill Kolender.
"We don't get the cheapest cars we can get, that's a decision made by the sheriff. That's not the way he operates -- that's not the way he treats his senior management," Gore said.
The practice of providing take-home vehicles to mid- and upper-level administrators at the Sheriff's Department has irked managers in other county departments for decades. With the exception of the District Attorney's Office, the county only provides vehicles or a vehicle allowance to department heads.
The Sheriff's Department provides a range of different vehicles for its administrative staff, Gore said. Most employees drive Ford Five Hundreds, which cost the department about $24,500. Gore said some employees -- those who are on-call or who work in the field -- can take their cars home and drive them to and from work, but that the extent to which the cars can be used outside of strictly driving to official engagements depends on each position.
The Sheriff's Department's policy of providing vehicles to administrators and managers also goes beyond what is offered at other county departments and has been a bone of contention at the county for decades. In other county departments, take-home vehicles or car allowances are rare and are usually only offered to department heads.
Gore said the Sheriff's Department has concluded that it's more cost-effective to provide employees with cars than to pay staff mileage rates. That's something the Sheriff's Department will be re-assessing this year, he said.
But Stern scoffed at the idea that providing take-home cars is cheaper for taxpayers.
"I can't believe that's the case. This is a perk, it's a way to recruit people," Stern said. "If you're going to give them a car, give them a Prius, not a gas-guzzling $35,000 car."
A 2007 Dodge Charger gets an average of 15 miles per gallon, according to a government fuel economy website. A 2007 Prius gets 46 mpg, and a 2007 Ford Taurus, the workhorse of many law enforcement agencies, gets 20 mpg.
Officials at other sheriff's departments and police departments around the state expressed amusement and sometimes shock when told about the San Diego County Sheriff's Department's new Dodge Chargers.
"I think that's a ridiculous car for law enforcement officers," said Ugo "Butch" Arnoldi, a senior lieutenant at the Santa Barbara County Sheriff's Department. "I don't think that would be the best vehicle for an administrator, let me put it that way."
Arnoldi, who has been a law enforcement officer for 35 years, said there are other vehicles, like the Ford Crown Victoria, which are far more fuel-efficient and much better value for law enforcement use.
All the sheriff's vehicles also feature the undercover plates. Because government agencies do not pay registration fees on their vehicles, they are normally required to fit those vehicles with licenses that read "California Exempt."
The exempt plates are a signal to taxpayers that the vehicle is paid for out of tax dollars, said David Kline, a spokesman for the California Taxpayers' Association. The plates allow the public to ensure the vehicles are being used in a suitable way, he said, that government employees aren't speeding at 100 miles per hour or using their vehicles to travel to Disneyland on the weekend.
"It's a more efficient and cheaper way than painting every car with a government insignia of letting people know how their tax dollars are being spent," Kline said.
A section of the California Vehicle Code makes an exception for law enforcement vehicles "assigned to persons responsible for investigating actual or suspected violations of the law." For those vehicles, the DMV will provide license plates that look just like normal plates, so law enforcement officers retain their anonymity out in the field. Those are the plates that the San Diego Sheriff's Department puts on all its vehicles.
Gore said each vehicle the Sheriff's Department buys is passed around the department from detectives to administrators, to lawyers to undercover cops. He said because the department doesn't know who might be driving the vehicles at any given time, it has a policy of providing all the cars with the undercover plates. That's standard at most California law enforcement agencies, he said.
But that's not the case at the San Diego Police Department, the Los Angeles Police Department, the San Francisco Police Department or the Santa Barbara Sheriff's Department, among others. Officials at all these agencies said the undercover plates are only issued to police officers who need to operate incognito, including undercover officers or wardens at county jails who do not want their identity to be known by inmates who might see them park their car.
"It's standard operating procedure, when a car comes in for a chief, a captain or a lieutenant, unless they're in an undercover assignment, they don't get undercover plates," said John Alley, deputy director of the San Diego Police Department's Fleet Services Division.
Stern said there are other reasons why the Sheriff's Department doesn't want its vehicles to have California Exempt license plates that distinguish them as taxpayer-bought vehicles.
"If they're taking the car up to Yosemite, people aren't looking at the car saying 'Hey, why's that car in Yosemite?' " Stern said.
Please contact Will Carless directly with your thoughts, ideas, personal stories or tips. Or send a letter to the editor.
The Sheriff's Sweet Rides
One of the $32,000-plus Dodge Chargers recently purchased by the Sheriff's Department for upper-level administrators sits in the agency's parking garage.
By WILL CARLESS Voice Staff Writer
Friday, April 4, 2008 | At least four upper-level administrators at the San Diego County Sheriff's Department, including Deputy Sheriff Bill Gore, currently drive top-of-the-range Dodge Chargers, cars that cost San Diego taxpayers between $32,615 and $35,459 apiece.
The Chargers are equipped with powerful V-8 "Hemi" engines and feature leather seats. They're part of a fleet of vehicles the Sheriff's Department provides for mid- and upper- level managers from the sheriff himself to the department's information technology chief information officer. The current fleet cost taxpayers almost $780,000.
At a time when many local law enforcement agencies are cutting back on costs across the board, good government advocates questioned the provision of take-home cars to administrators, who are not on patrol or working on investigations, and the purchase of expensive, non fuel-efficient vehicles.
"Why do those employees need county owned-cars, and why such expensive cars?" said Bob Stern, president of the Los Angeles-based Center for Governmental Studies, and a former attorney for the state Fair Political Practices Commission. "It comes down to the appropriate use of taxpayer money at a time of belt-tightening."
All Sheriff's Department vehicles, including those driven by office workers and lawyers, are also fitted with license plates known in law enforcement circles as "undercover plates," rather than the standard California Exempt plates, leaving them indistinguishable from non-government vehicles. That policy is defended by Gore, but California law provides for the use of unmarked plates only by officers involved with investigations. The department's policy is also at odds with other local California law enforcement agencies.
Gore said the Sheriff's Department purchased the $32,000-plus Dodge Chargers for the managers as part of a deal that included buying five Chargers for the department's patrol fleet. He said the Chargers were purchased so he and some of his managers could try out the vehicles to see if they would make good patrol cars.
Related Links
San Diego County Sheriff’s Department
After a Fatal Collision, Sheriff's Deputy Unpunished
They've since decided that the cars are not ideally suited for patrol use.
The V-8 version of the Charger retails at more than $10,000 more than the standard V-6 model. Gore said the decision to buy the more powerful, better-equipped model was up to Sheriff Bill Kolender.
"We don't get the cheapest cars we can get, that's a decision made by the sheriff. That's not the way he operates -- that's not the way he treats his senior management," Gore said.
The practice of providing take-home vehicles to mid- and upper-level administrators at the Sheriff's Department has irked managers in other county departments for decades. With the exception of the District Attorney's Office, the county only provides vehicles or a vehicle allowance to department heads.
The Sheriff's Department provides a range of different vehicles for its administrative staff, Gore said. Most employees drive Ford Five Hundreds, which cost the department about $24,500. Gore said some employees -- those who are on-call or who work in the field -- can take their cars home and drive them to and from work, but that the extent to which the cars can be used outside of strictly driving to official engagements depends on each position.
The Sheriff's Department's policy of providing vehicles to administrators and managers also goes beyond what is offered at other county departments and has been a bone of contention at the county for decades. In other county departments, take-home vehicles or car allowances are rare and are usually only offered to department heads.
Gore said the Sheriff's Department has concluded that it's more cost-effective to provide employees with cars than to pay staff mileage rates. That's something the Sheriff's Department will be re-assessing this year, he said.
But Stern scoffed at the idea that providing take-home cars is cheaper for taxpayers.
"I can't believe that's the case. This is a perk, it's a way to recruit people," Stern said. "If you're going to give them a car, give them a Prius, not a gas-guzzling $35,000 car."
A 2007 Dodge Charger gets an average of 15 miles per gallon, according to a government fuel economy website. A 2007 Prius gets 46 mpg, and a 2007 Ford Taurus, the workhorse of many law enforcement agencies, gets 20 mpg.
Officials at other sheriff's departments and police departments around the state expressed amusement and sometimes shock when told about the San Diego County Sheriff's Department's new Dodge Chargers.
"I think that's a ridiculous car for law enforcement officers," said Ugo "Butch" Arnoldi, a senior lieutenant at the Santa Barbara County Sheriff's Department. "I don't think that would be the best vehicle for an administrator, let me put it that way."
Arnoldi, who has been a law enforcement officer for 35 years, said there are other vehicles, like the Ford Crown Victoria, which are far more fuel-efficient and much better value for law enforcement use.
All the sheriff's vehicles also feature the undercover plates. Because government agencies do not pay registration fees on their vehicles, they are normally required to fit those vehicles with licenses that read "California Exempt."
The exempt plates are a signal to taxpayers that the vehicle is paid for out of tax dollars, said David Kline, a spokesman for the California Taxpayers' Association. The plates allow the public to ensure the vehicles are being used in a suitable way, he said, that government employees aren't speeding at 100 miles per hour or using their vehicles to travel to Disneyland on the weekend.
"It's a more efficient and cheaper way than painting every car with a government insignia of letting people know how their tax dollars are being spent," Kline said.
A section of the California Vehicle Code makes an exception for law enforcement vehicles "assigned to persons responsible for investigating actual or suspected violations of the law." For those vehicles, the DMV will provide license plates that look just like normal plates, so law enforcement officers retain their anonymity out in the field. Those are the plates that the San Diego Sheriff's Department puts on all its vehicles.
Gore said each vehicle the Sheriff's Department buys is passed around the department from detectives to administrators, to lawyers to undercover cops. He said because the department doesn't know who might be driving the vehicles at any given time, it has a policy of providing all the cars with the undercover plates. That's standard at most California law enforcement agencies, he said.
But that's not the case at the San Diego Police Department, the Los Angeles Police Department, the San Francisco Police Department or the Santa Barbara Sheriff's Department, among others. Officials at all these agencies said the undercover plates are only issued to police officers who need to operate incognito, including undercover officers or wardens at county jails who do not want their identity to be known by inmates who might see them park their car.
"It's standard operating procedure, when a car comes in for a chief, a captain or a lieutenant, unless they're in an undercover assignment, they don't get undercover plates," said John Alley, deputy director of the San Diego Police Department's Fleet Services Division.
Stern said there are other reasons why the Sheriff's Department doesn't want its vehicles to have California Exempt license plates that distinguish them as taxpayer-bought vehicles.
"If they're taking the car up to Yosemite, people aren't looking at the car saying 'Hey, why's that car in Yosemite?' " Stern said.
Please contact Will Carless directly with your thoughts, ideas, personal stories or tips. Or send a letter to the editor.
Thursday, February 12, 2009
Dear AP: Thank you for finally finishing the story.
TO: AP Wire Services:
Heads up! Journalism 101: Basic reporting in criminal court sentencing means identifying the sentencing judge.
However, missing from AP's earlier wire report featuring former city councilman Mario Beltran pleading guilty to a variety campaign law violations, (four misdemeanor counts of failing to file campaign disclosure forms and failing to deposit cash contributions); was the name of the sentencing judge.
This interested us as the judge dismissed several felony charges against the now former councilman, sentencing Beltran to (drum roll) probation.
We thought readers/voters might appreciate the given name of Judge Wrist Slap and complained.
The LA based AP reporter we spoke with refused to identify himself, (English accent) but continued to make excuses as to why the judge wasn't identified.
We obtained for readers, (voters) the name of Judge Wrist Slap and will share it with you now. Judge George G. Lomeli.
Happily for readers/voters, eventually editors decided to make a full report and later edited the story to include this information. After we did. Better late than never.
But frankly, reporting as shoddy as this is the reason for this blog.
Heads up! Journalism 101: Basic reporting in criminal court sentencing means identifying the sentencing judge.
However, missing from AP's earlier wire report featuring former city councilman Mario Beltran pleading guilty to a variety campaign law violations, (four misdemeanor counts of failing to file campaign disclosure forms and failing to deposit cash contributions); was the name of the sentencing judge.
This interested us as the judge dismissed several felony charges against the now former councilman, sentencing Beltran to (drum roll) probation.
We thought readers/voters might appreciate the given name of Judge Wrist Slap and complained.
The LA based AP reporter we spoke with refused to identify himself, (English accent) but continued to make excuses as to why the judge wasn't identified.
We obtained for readers, (voters) the name of Judge Wrist Slap and will share it with you now. Judge George G. Lomeli.
Happily for readers/voters, eventually editors decided to make a full report and later edited the story to include this information. After we did. Better late than never.
But frankly, reporting as shoddy as this is the reason for this blog.
Dear Reporters at Citizens Voice: They're not judges anymore.
Throughout the day reporters at Citizens Voice
repeatedly referred to the the "Judges" pleading guilty to various crimes. They're not judges anymore.
repeatedly referred to the the "Judges" pleading guilty to various crimes. They're not judges anymore.
Saturday, February 7, 2009
Bad reporting from Joel Rubin of the LA Times.
Bad reporting. Why wasn't Rubin's article balanced? It's not as if the police don't go to great lengths to protect crooked cops.
It's not as if Rubin couldn't have done a little background on this. Instead, readers were not treated to LAPD's history of protecting bad cops. Bad reporting.
Friday, January 2, 2009
Palm Beach Judge Jorge "Pay back" Labarga.
While appreciating Judge Payback's honesty, we are sorry this agenda won him a promotion.
Judge gets appellate spot despite payback talk
BY DAN CHRISTENSEN AND TODD WRIGHT
dchristensen@MiamiHerald.com
Gov. Charlie Crist promoted Palm Beach Judge Jorge Labarga to a seat on a South Florida appellate court last week despite Labarga's comments from the bench last year that judges will get even with lawyers who cross them, even if it takes years.
''When you pick a fight with a judge, ultimately, you are gonna lose. Not today, but five years from now, 10 years from now, six years from now. That judge is going to remember you, always, always,'' Labarga said.
``And, you know, when you do -- there is an old saying that if you go after a judge, you better kill him. Because, like I said, it's true.''
Labarga, who was also among five finalists recommended this month for appointment to the Florida Supreme Court, made his remarks while presiding over an otherwise routine criminal hearing in Palm Beach Circuit Court on May 23, 2007.
Fort Lauderdale attorney Gary Kollin, whom Labarga was talking about, sent a transcript of the hearing and letter critical of Labarga to the governor's office on Dec. 2. The governor's office released them to The Miami Herald. The Herald also obtained a recording of the hearing.
A Crist spokesman said Thursday that the governor was briefed about the transcript by his general counsel, ``but they just didn't feel it was like to the level to affect the governor's decision.''
But Anthony Alfieri, founder and director of the University of Miami law school's Center for Ethics and Public Service, called Labarga's statements in open court ``injudicious and unwise.
''They damage the credibility of individual judges and tarnish the integrity of the courts as a public institution,'' said Alfieri.
Labarga said Sunday that he remembered the 2007 case, but did not recall making the specific statements.
''I go through 50, 60 cases a day,'' he said. ``If it's on the transcript, I said it. Judges are human. I had a bad day.''
Labarga said the average person could read the statements and question his ability to be fair and impartial, but he said his record shows that is not the case.
''I've been a judge 13 years, and there is no evidence that I hold a grudge,'' Labarga said. ``I have a really good record. To pick one negative incident out of my whole career is not an accurate portrayal of my overall job performance.''
Gov. Crist named Labarga, a Cuban American, to the Fourth District Court of Appeal in West Palm Beach on Dec. 10. Labarga has been a Palm Beach circuit judge since 1996.
Labarga, 55, of Wellington, is out of the running for the Supreme Court seat. The governor asked a nominating group for a new name last week after he picked Labarga for the appeal court, a spokesman said.
2000 RECOUNT
Labarga, an activist with the Cuban American Republican Club before he became a judge, is best known for his role in the 2000 presidential recount.
In one case, Labarga ruled the county's canvassing board could not arbitrarily toss out all votes with ''dimpled chads,'' and could decide whether each dimple constituted a vote. In another, he rejected a plea for a revote by voters who said the county's unique butterfly ballot was so confusing that the election was unfair.
The court's recording system was running in May 2007 when Kollin appeared before Labarga on behalf of a client accused of selling counterfeit merchandise.
Labarga announced at the outset that he was stepping down from the case because his former law partner, David Roth, represented a co-defendant.
But when a prosecutor's concern about meeting the law's speedy trial requirements prompted Labarga to start issuing instructions to a clerk, Kollin objected. And Labarga got annoyed.
''Your Honor, I -- since you recused yourself, I would object to you making any directions to the clerk because you can't make any more rulings on it,'' Kollin said.
''I know that,'' Labarga responded. ``I appreciate you coming here and educating me. I'm just a little country guy. I just got here off the boat a few months ago. I understand those things.''
''I don't appreciate the sarcasm,'' Kollin replied.
Kollin left the courtroom, and didn't come back.
But about an hour and a half later, Labarga started talking about him again, saying Kollin wanted to ``pick a fight.
''But you know, five years from now, he may have an attorney's fees hearing in front of me, he may have this in front of me then. And you are always going to remember those guys,'' Labarga said. ``He's very combative. I have to be honest with you. I kind of wish I would have kept that case 'cause he would have been fun.''
Kollin called those remarks ''especially heinous'' in his letter to the governor. And he accused Labarga of bias, and said he violated judicial canons that say judges must avoid the appearance of impropriety, and perform their duties impartially.
PERSONAL BIAS
Alfieri called the transcript ''ambiguous,'' however, and said it isn't clear from it whether Kollin was the victim of a personal bias.
Broward County Bar President Christopher Neilson said working with a judge who seems to be holding a grudge against an attorney would make it ''extremely'' difficult to practice law.
''Everyone has a right to a fair shot, and if a judge is talking about payback that would be a difficult situation to practice in,'' Neilson said. ``Judges wield a tremendous amount of power and discretion in their courtroom when it comes to granting motions. It's sad to hear about any type of payback from a judge.''
Palm Beach Post staff writer Bill Dipaolo contributed to this report.
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