Rotary log: June 21, 2012 (State of the Courts)

Today's Rotary program was a hot one, in more ways than one. Seems the power went out locally and the Portsmouth Country Club was running on its generators, which did not include the air-conditioners. Meanwhile, the dew point was through the roof and the air temperature was somewhere around 97°. Cooler heads prevailed and we made it through our meeting, with the air-conditioners kicking on just as the Rotarians departed.

There were a number of the guests, but no visiting Rotarians. One of the guests was apparently so ashamed of the Rotarian they came with that they chose not to identify that Rotarian on the guest card. Probably a guest of Dan Hoefle’s. I felt the same way when he would bring me to Rotary meetings in 1990.

There were a number of announcements today. John Ratigan is on seven-day notice… We have cleaned up our scholarship program to avoid the recipients getting the same amount of the scholarship deducted by their schools for support… The Christmas Tree Committee is meeting today… wait, what???

Our president made a plea for better attendance ironically, at a meeting where the offenders were not in attendance. They cannot, however, avoid the Log Editor! You know who you are. Let’s make an effort people!

Bob Davis (who encouraged people to have better attendance because he enjoys meeting with other Rotarians and assumes they all want to meet with him) made an announcement about the annual Thunder Chicken Road Race which always happens the first Thursday of August. This year, that is August 2, 2012. Volunteers are needed! Your Editor’s entire family ran the road race last year. Please volunteer and you can throw cups of water at my kids as they run by.

Some rascal suggested to our president that he fine all lawyers who were sucking up to the Chief Justice of the New Hampshire Supreme Court by sitting at her table as she was awaiting her opportunity to speak to the club. Thank you John Lyons and Bob Field for your contributions!

New Hampshire's Supreme Court Chief Justice Linda Dalianis was introduced as our program speaker today by our own Bob Field. Linda Stewart Dalianis was sworn in as the 35th Chief Justice of the New Hampshire Supreme Court on December 15, 2010 by Gov. John Lynch. She was the first woman to hold a seat on the New Hampshire Supreme Court, and she is the first woman to be Chief Justice. Prior to her appointment to the Supreme Court by Gov. Jeanne Shaheen in the year 2000, Justice Dalianis had served for almost 20 years on the Superior Court bench, both as an associate justice and as Chief Justice. Bob has known the chief sense she was an intern in his office and has great respect and admiration for her legal and intellectual abilities. Now that she is Chief Justice, she must add administrative and budgetary knowledge to her resume.

The Chief Justice and visited our club today to update us on the state of the Courts in New Hampshire. Most of the update relates to budgetary concerns as a result of the tightening of belts by the Legislature. The in tightening the Judiciary’s belt, however, the Court has realized the benefits of economy and technological advances.

The Chief Justice knew that her business and related budgetary and technological knowledge, and that of other judges and justices, was limited. As a result, she appointed the Supreme Court Innovation Commission and then stepped back to allow the Commission to do its work. The Commission recommended a number of changes to the way the courts do business in and the following is a summary of some of those changes that are being implemented:

-The court now conducts video arraignments to avoid the expense of bringing prisioners to and from court

-It is in the works to allow the public and attorneys to view and file documents electronically to save on staff time, paperwork, and other related expenses.

-To save the expenses and delay to staff in each individual court answering questions about files, a “call center" was created to handle the and 9000 phone calls per month so that the staff in the courthouses themselves can work on files.

-Supervisory personnel have been restructured with an elimination of 78 jobs statewide and a net  reduction in supervisory personnel from 51 to 18.

-Staff and judges have been cross-trained to increase usefulness and efficiency. This Peterborough native is getting the job done the New Hampshire Way. She is getting advice from experts in areas that she has no knowledge, she has held retreats at absolutely no cost to the taxpayers, and she has a plan to move forward with creative innovations at a time of budget shortfalls. Bob Field was right in 1974 when he said “this woman is bright. We need her.”

The raffle pot was not won..again! The next weeks raffle will be about $1200.