Wildfires, Protests, and COVID: How Have Courts Coped with Compounding Crises? Part Two

Part two of a conversation with our panel of court administrators whose courts have endured multiple concurrent crises.  They had to deal with questions of allowing protestors into the courthouse because it is a public building while worrying about vandalism.  They struggled to maintain a semblance of an operation with courthouses that were closed for months at a time.  They had to keep air circulation open to eliminate the Coronavirus yet close the vents to prevent breathing in wildfire smoke.  We have so much to learn from their solutions they crafted.

Co-Host Alyce Roberts is recently retired as the Special Projects Coordinator for the Alaska Court System.  As a member of the court’s senior staff, she was the AOC’s primary liaison with the clerks of court.  In this capacity, she was responsible for developing the annual statewide clerks of court conference program, facilitating the sessions and serving as a presenter. Alyce regularly worked with court colleagues and justice partners to propose revisions to court rules and develop statewide clerical procedures.  She served on the Alaska Supreme Court’s Civil Rules Advisory Committee.  She has worked for the Alaska Court System since 1989, holding a number of positions including clerk of court in Anchorage (the state’s largest general jurisdiction court). She has served on the National Association for Court Management’s (NACM) Board of Directors, chairs NACM’s Communication Committee, and she is a Fellow of the Institute for Court Management (2010). 

Barbara Marcille is the Trial Court Administrator for the Circuit Court in the Portland, Oregon metropolitan area, and manages approximately 330 employees across five court facilities with 58 courtrooms.  She has served in a variety of roles for the courts in Oregon, New Mexico, and North Carolina, and holds a degree in Business from Florida State University.  Prior to working with the court system she was Client Services Manager for a high-tech advertising agency in the Silicon Valley, and has combined that communications background with her commitment to public service to help the court improve access to justice.  For the last six years she has collaborated on the design and construction of a new 17-story courthouse on the Portland waterfront, and successfully completed the opening of that new courthouse in the midst of the 2020 pandemic. 

Bob Fleshman currently serves as the Court Executive Officer for the Napa County Superior Court and has been in this role since November 2018. He has thirty years of public administration experience, which includes two decades in judicial administration in the California trial court system and Judicial Council of California. In addition to nearly two decades with the California judiciary, Bob spent a decade in public service at the national level in disaster recovery as well as uniformed military service.

Beth Baldwin has served as the Court Administrator for the Seattle Municipal Court since November, 2015. Before moving to Seattle, Beth worked for 15 years as the Court Administrator of the Fifth Judicial District of Iowa, a 16 county area including Polk County/Des Moines. Beth holds her law degree from the University of Minnesota, her MPA from the Ohio State University and her undergraduate degree from Northwestern University. She lives in Lake Stevens, WA with her husband Roger and their new puppy Sasha who the neighbors call Salsa as she is so lively and spicy. Beth enjoys reading, hiking, fishing, crabbing and is a board game enthusiast.

Michael Roddy is the Court Executive Officer of the Superior Court of San Diego County, has more than 39 years of court administration experience, both in the trial courts and in state court administration.

Before returning to the San Diego Superior Court in January 2006, Mr. Roddy served as the California Administrative Office of the Courts’ Regional Administrative Director for the Northern/Central Region (2001-2006), Executive Officer of the Sacramento Superior Court (1989-1994), Assistant Executive Officer (1988-1989) of the Superior Court of San Diego County, and in a variety of other administrative positions in the Superior Courts of San Diego and Los Angeles counties

Liz Rambo is the Trial Court Administrator for Lane County Circuit Court.  As the TCA for one of Oregon’s largest courts, Liz is responsible for all non-judicial court functions including budget, human resources, technology, facilities, and business efficiency.   A 31-year court employee, Liz has a history of advocacy for the mission of the Oregon Judicial Department and the service that the Oregon Judicial Branch provides to the public.  Liz has served on a variety of judicial branch leadership committees including as Chair of the Chief Justice Communications Committee, member of the Chief Justice Strategic Planning Committee, Law and Policy Workgroup, Internal Audit Committee, the Oregon eCourt Steering Committee.  For the last five years, Liz has worked closely with Lane County leadership toward building a new Lane County Courthouse and will continue to bring her years of experience to that ongoing project through design and construction. Liz graduated with high scholarship from Oregon State University with a BA in history and has an MBA from Portland State University.  She is a long-time member of the National Association of Court Management and holds a Court Manager certification from the National Center for State Courts