California lawmakers are asking state court officials today to justify the more than $40 million they spend annually in maintenance costs for courthouses around the state, including charges such as $150 to change lightbulbs and $8,000 to remove gum, reports the San Francisco Chronicle. Legislators on the Assembly Committee on Accountability and Administrative Review said they want to make sure that the Administrative Office of the Courts – the state agency created in 2002 to manage and maintain the 450 facilities used by trial courts around the state – is using public resources as efficiently as possible.
Documents provided by the committee detail what appear to be high costs for routine maintenance projects. For example, $9,474 was spent to patch and paint walls in a suite in Wiley W. Manuel Courthouse in Alameda County; and $8,021 was shelled out to remove gum from an entryway at Gordon Schaber Superior Court in Sacramento. “We want to see the math – where they are spending and on what,” said committee chairman Hector De La Torrse, Los Angeles County Democrat.