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CJA's WEBPAGE for LETTER #1--
"
NYS's Commission on Judicial Compensation --
Inoperative & Inaccessible to the Public"

 

CJA's LETTER #1 --
May 23, 2011 letter to NY Governor Andrew Cuomo, Temporary Senate President Dean Skelos, Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver & Chief Judge Jonathan Lippman
 
--
"RE:  (1) NYS's Commission on Judicial Compensation -- Inoperative & Inaccessible to the Public; (2) Evidence Disentitling NYS's Judiciary to Increased Compensation, Presented and Proffered by the Public at the NYS Senate Judiciary Committee's June 8, 2009 and September 24, 2009 Public Hearings -- as to which There Has Been No Investigation, No Findings, and No Committee Report"  

-- May 23, 2011 transmittal letter to indicated recipients

click here for
video & transcripts of  2009 NYS Senate Judiciary Committee Hearings
on NYS Commission on Judicial Conduct & court-controlled attorney disciplinary system

 

& CJA's Subsequent Correspondence with the Commission
June 23, 2011 - September 2, 2011

#2:    CJA's June 23, 2011 letter to Governor Cuomo's Appointees to the Judicial Compensation Commission -- "RE:  (1) Bringing Public Accessibility, Input, and Accountability to the Judicial Compensation Commission -- Facilitated by the Open Meetings Law & Executive Order #3; and  (2) Chairman Thompson's Disqualifying Conflict of Interest, Requiring his Resignation" -- June 23, 2011 transmittal letter to indicated recipients

           Click here for
CJA's draft statement & substantiating documentary evidence prepared for the Senate Judiciary Committee's (aborted) December 16, 2009 hearing

Committee on Open Government -- Open Meetings Law

Executive Order #3 "Promotion of Public Access to Government Decisionmaking"

 

#3:    CJA's June 28, 2011 e-mail to NY Judicial Compensation Commission -- "Subject: Is NY's Judicial Compensation Commission Violating the Open Meetings Law & its Video Broadcast Obligations under Executive Order #3"

 

#4:   CJA's June 30, 2011 letter to NY Judicial Compensation Commission -- "RE:  Is NY's Judicial Compensation Commission Violating the Open Meetings Law & its Video Broadcast Obligations under Executive Order #3" -- June 30, 2011 transmittal letter to indicated recipients

    obtained in 2013:  CD-video of Commission on Judicial Compensation's July 11, 2011 meeting
 

#5:   CJA's July 12, 2011 e-mail to NY Judicial Compensation Commission -- "Subject: Request to Testify at the July 20, 2011 Public Hearing & Other Requests on Behalf of the Public"
           Open Meeting Webcast page for July -- downloaded July 11, 2011 at 12:41 pm  

#6:  CJA's July 13, 2011 e-mail to NY Judicial Compensation Commission -- "Subject: FOIL Obligations of the Judicial Compensation Commission"
 

#7:  cc to Commissioners CJA's July 19, 2011 letter to NYS Attorney General Eric T. Schneiderman -- "RE: (1) Vindicating the Public's Rights against Judicial Fraud: The Court of Appeals' February 23, 2010 Decision Underlying BOTH the Creation of the Commission on Judicial Compensation & the Perpetuation of the Judicial Compensation Lawsuits; (2) FOIL & Project Sunlight Requests: Posting of the Record of the Judicial Compensation Lawsuits on the Attorney General's Website -- &/or Providing the Record to the Center for Judicial Accountability for Posting on its Website"

 

          July 26, 2011 letter from AG's Public Access Officer -- "RE:  Freedom of Information Law (FOIL) Request #110450"

          August 24, 2011 letter from AG's Public Access Officer -- "RE:  Freedom of Information Law (FOIL) Request #110450"

 

          September 26, 2011 response from AG's Public Access Officer 

click here for: 
THE JUDICIAL COMPENSATION LAWSUITS
& THE COURT OF APPEALS FEBRUARY 23, 2010 DECISION --
BOTH FRAUDULENT

 

Chairman Thompson's July 19, 2011 acknowledgment of CJA's July 12, 2011 FOIL request

 

Chairman Thompson's August 16, 2011 response to CJA's July 12, 2011 FOIL request   


click here for video of the Commission's July 20, 2011 hearing & related info
 

#8:  CJA's July 21, 2011 letter to the Commission -- "RE: The Present Uselessness of the Commission's website"      
               click here for:
  Judicial Compensation Commission's website

 

#9:  CJA's August 1, 2011 letter to Kathryn S. Wylde & Other Members of the Commission on Judicial Compensation -- "RE: Ensuring that the Commission on Judicial Compensation's Recommendations and Report are Based on Evidence:  The Absence of Evidence that Judicial Compensation has Deterred Qualified Private Sector Lawyers from Becoming Judges"

 

#10:   cc to Commissioners CJA's August 5, 2011 letter to William Glaberson/New York Times -- "RE:  Setting the Record Straight:  Ensuring that the Public & New York’s Judicial Compensation Commission are Not Misled by New York Times’ Reporting & Editorializing about “Judicial Attrition” and the Purportedly Insufficient Pay of New York State Judges
         Enclosures:
         (1)  CJA’s July 6, 2011 FOIL request, with e-mail receipt 
         (2)  OCA’s July 22, 2011 response
         (3)  CJA’s June 13, 2011 e-mail, with attached June 10, 2011 FOIL request
         (4)
  ABAJournal.Com: “What America’s Lawyers Earn”— NYS’s 62 Counties

 

#11:  CJA's August 8, 2011 letter to the Commission -- "RE: Threshold Issues Barring Commission Consideration of Pay Raises for Judges: (1) Chairman Thompson’s Disqualification for Interest, as to which there has been No Determination; (2) Systemic Corruption in New York’s Judiciary, Embracing the Commission on Judicial Conduct, as to which there has been No Determination; & (3) The Fraud & Lack of Evidence Put Forward by Advocates of Judicial Pay Raises.
         Enclosures:
            (1) 
Transcription of Elena Sassower's July 20, 2011 testimony before the Commission
            (2) 
"NOT ACCOUNTABLE TO THE PUBLIC", Report of NYS Comptroller Regan, 1989  --
                   with his press release,
"COMMISSION ON JUDICIAL CONDUCT NEEDS OVERSIGHT"  (December 7, 1989)
           
(3)
Transcription of Elena Sassower's questions at the December 11, 2002 forum on the
             
Commission on Judicial Conduct, co-sponsored by NYS Bar Association & Fund for Modern Courts

 

Chairman Thompson's August 16, 2011 letter pertaining to CJA's July 13, 2011 FOIL request

 

#12:  CJA's August 17, 2011 letter to the Commission -- "RE: Protecting the People of this State from Fraud: The Commission on Judicial Compensation's Duty to Identify the Case Presented by Opponents of ANY Judicial Pay Raises & to Make Findings with Respect Thereto, in Discharge of its Statutory Responsibilities
             Enclosure:  CJA's August 16, 2011 letter to NYC Corporation Counsel Michael Cardozo & Chairman of the Mayor's Advisory Committee on the Judiciary Zachary Carter -- "
RE: Ensuring that the Commission on Judicial Compensation's Recommendations and Report are Based on Evidence:  The Absence of Evidence that Judicial Compensation has Deterred Qualified Public Sector or Private Sector Lawyers from Becoming Judges"     

 

#13:   cc to Commission CJA's August 17, 2011 letter to Advocates of Judicial Pay Raises -- "RE: Protecting the People of this State from Fraud: The Commission on Judicial Compensation's Duty to Identify the Case Presented by Opponents of ANY Judicial Pay Raises & to Make Findings with Respect Thereto, in Discharge of its Statutory Responsibilities"

  E-Mail sent (8/17/11) -- with cc to Commission --

TO:      New York City Corporation Counsel Michael Cardozo
                       Mayor’s Advisory Committee Chairman Zachary Carter
                       Bar Leaders Testifying at the July 20, 2011 Hearing:
                               Roger Juan Maldonado, Chair/Council on Judicial Administration, NYC Bar Association
                               Vincent E. Doyle, III, President, NYS Bar Association
                               Stewart Aaron, President, NY Co. Lawyers’ Association
                               Leslie Kelmachter, President, NYS Trial Lawyers Association
                               Lance D. Clarke, Past President, Nassau County Bar Association
                               Maureen Maney, President-Elect, Women’s Bar Association of NYS
                               Victor Kovner, Chairman, Fund for Modern Courts
                       Brennan Center for Justice:
                               Michael Waldman, Executive Director
                               J. Adam Skaggs, Senior Counsel/Democracy Program 

   -- request for their assistance in forwarding "to other judicial pay raise advocates so that they, like yourselves, may have the opportunity to defend the indefensible."   

  E-Mail sent (8/19/11) -- with cc to Commission --

             TO:    New York State Chief Administrative Judge Ann Pfau
                      Former New York State Chief Judge Judith S. Kaye

                      Coalition of New York State Judicial Associations  –
                                  Organizers: Family Court Judges W. Dennis Duggan & Daniel Turbow
                        Association of Supreme Court Justices of the State of New York
                        New York City Supreme Court Justices Association
                        Designated Supreme Court Justices Association
                        New York State Court of Claims Judges (Parts, B, D & E) Association
                        New York State Surrogates Association
                        New York State Family Court Judges Association
                        New York City Family Court Judges Association
                        New York City Criminal Court Judges Association
                        New York City Civil Court Judges Association
                        New York State City Court Judges Association
                        New York City Housing Court Judges Association
                        New York State District Court Judges Association
                        Joseph L. Forstadt, Esq., Counsel/
                                 Associations of Supreme Court Justices of the City and State of New York
                        Former Appellate Division, Second Department Justice Robert Spolzino
             

   -- request that they forward "to ALL the judges and former judges who testified at the Commission’s July 20th hearing and/or submitted written statements to the Commission – indeed, to ALL New York State’s 1,200-plus judges and such former state judges who have retired and/or resigned since 1999 so that they, like yourselves, may have the opportunity to defend the indefensible."

     E-Mail sent (8/19/11) -- with cc to Commission --
               TO:   Denis M. Hughes, President/NYS AFL-CIO -- "RE:  Request for a Meeting & Reconsideration by the New York State AFL-CIO of its Support for Judicial Pay Raises"

       August 22, 2011 letter -- "RE: Request for a Meeting & Withdrawal of Support for Judicial Pay  Raises"
                TO:  League of Women Voters of the State of NY
                            Betsey B. Swan President
                       Citizens Union of the City of NY
                            Peter J.W. Sherwin, Chair/Board of Directors
                            Dick Dadey, Executive Director 

#14:  cc to Commissioners:   CJA's August 23, 2011 letter to Chief Administrative Judge Ann Pfau -- "RE: Ensuring that the Commission on Judicial Compensation is Not Led into Constitutional Error: Clarification of the Office of Court Administration’s “Memorandum discussing constitutional considerations in establishing judicial pay levels” – and the Substantiating Evidence
                      Enclosures:  (1) “Memorandum discussing constitutional considerations in establishing judicial pay levels”
                          
                                         (2)
CJA's June 14, 2011 letter to Chief Administrative Judge Ann Pfau
                                         
Attachments:

                                                 (1)
December 7, 2007 and September 23, 2008 Administrative Orders 
                                                 (2) "Introduction” & "Questions Presented" from appellant’s three appeal briefs
                                                             #1;   #2;   #3 & #4;
                                                 (3) March 16, 2011 letter to App. Div Justices (Peter) Skelos, Eng, Hall, and Lott;
                                                 (4)
May 23, 2011 letter to Appointing Authorities: Cuomo, (Dean) Skelos, Silver, Lippman

                     
             click here
--
Test Case - NY (Landlord/Tenant)

                   August 25, 2011 acknowledgment letter from OCA counsel John W. McConnell
 

#15:  cc to Commissioners:   CJA's August 26, 2011 letter to Chief Administrative Judge Ann Pfau -- "RE:  PART 2:  Ensuring that the Commission on Judicial Compensation is Not Led into Constitutional Error: Clarification of the Office of Court Administration’s “Memorandum discussing constitutional considerations in establishing judicial pay levels” – and the Substantiating Evidence
                    Enclosure: 
  “What America’s Lawyers Earn”—NYS’s 62 Counties

 

#16:  cc to Commissioners:   CJA's September 2, 2011 letter to Administrative Staff for the Commission on Judicial Compensation -- "RE: Not Accessible to the Public: (1) The Videos of the Commission on Judicial Compensation’s Hearing & Meetings; (2) the Commission’s “Final Report”; and (3) “All of the comments and submissions” Received by the Commission, Including CJA’s August 17, 2011 Letter Entitled “Protecting the People of this State From Fraud…”

 

 

     

 

 

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