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Embattled courts administrator to step down

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The top administrator for California’s courts said Tuesday he will step down, a month after two state lawmakers called for him to be fired for mishandling a computer modernization project.

William C. Vickrey announced that he is retiring as the administrative director of the California courts effective Sept. 9. His announcement comes a few months after the replacement of the project manager on the troubled computer modernization, which skyrocketed in cost from $260 million to $1.9 billion.

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Vickrey’s leadership had also been challenged by a group of about 350 judges who had sought more say in how the courts are operated.

The retirement has been in the works since last August and is not related to the recent criticism, according to State Supreme Court Chief Justice Tani Cantil-Sakauye. Last month, she rebuffed calls for Vickrey’s firing from Democratic Assembly members Ricardo Lara of Bell Gardens and Bonnie Lowenthal of Long Beach. ‘He will be sorely missed and difficult to replace,’ Cantil-Sakauye said in a statement.

But Lowenthal said Vickrey’s departure will give ‘the chief justice a chance to set a whole new level of responsiveness and accountability.”

[Updated at 4:30 p.m.: The chief justice later announced that she will appoint an independent committee of judges and retired judges to conduct a “top to bottom” review of Vickrey’s Administrative Office of the Courts, and said she also may seek an expansion of the state judicial council, which sets court policy.

Administrative ‘staff have performed admirably in a difficult and rapidly changing environment in recent years,’ she said. ‘However, I feel it is necessary to assess and review all aspects of the [office] to help reset priorities and goals that focus on core services of the courts.’]

-- Patrick McGreevy in Sacramento

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