Community Voices with Don Gage: State closing family court in South County reduces services here

Published in the January 6 – 19, 2016 issue of Morgan Hill Life

By Don Gage

Don Gage

Part of Santa Clara County’s plan years ago was to expand court services available to the South Valley communities of Morgan Hill, San Martin and Gilroy to eliminate long drives or bus rides to the courthouses in San Jose.

In addition to courts, the county established satellite offices for the District Attorney, Public Defender, Probation Office in the Public Justice Center adjacent to the courthouse in Morgan Hill’s downtown district. Morgan Hill wanted to ensure that the courthouse would be part of its downtown revitalization efforts.

In 2003, the city of Morgan Hill purchased the property along Butterfield Boulevard and leased it to Santa Clara County for $1 a year. In addition, the city contributed $3.7 million toward construction of the courthouse.

A total of $7 million was pledged toward the efforts. The county and state of California contributed the balance of the construction funding.

During the construction the state passed “realignment” that consolidated Municipal and Superior Courts under the state’s jurisdiction. The Morgan Hill courthouse opened in 2009.

Despite the goal of locating courts accessible to South County residents, the state has cut back on the types of cases heard in South County. Traffic cases were assigned to a court in Santa Clara — an even more difficult drive or transit ride for residents of Gilroy, Morgan Hill and San Martin.

Since Gilroy and Morgan Hill police officers often have to testify in traffic cases, the transfer to Santa Clara imposes real costs on the taxpayers of Gilroy. Now the state is closing the Family Court in South County, forcing all cases to be heard in San Jose. This continues the trend of reducing services to the residents of South County and imposing additional costs on local government.

These additional costs affect the quality of life for more than 100,000 of our local citizens.

The additional costs to Morgan Hill and Gilroy mean the money needed for necessary programs is not available.

Don Gage is the former mayor of Gilroy. He also served on the Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors and the Santa Clara Valley Water District board of directors. He wrote this guest column for Morgan Hill Life.