Judicial Performance Report Due Wednesday From Lansing

DETROIT (WWJ) - A highly anticipated judicial performance report from the Michigan Supreme Court is expected to be released later Wednesday morning in Lansing.

In it will be the high courts recommendations for eliminating or adding judgeships to the state's trial courts and Michigan Court of Appeals.

The issue of judicial autonomy, says Wayne County Executive Robert Ficano, remains a sensitive one.

"Do you have too many judges on the bench for our population? Then what you need (is) a population drop, I think that is the first thing.  What we want the court to do is start looking at is I.T. there is no reason why they should have a duplicate I.T. department  and have computers that are independent of the county because they have to merge with the county," said Ficano.

"One of the real problems that we've had in Wayne county that has driven probably about $80 million dollars of our deficit has been the court overspending. I realize that they are an independent branch of government but the problem is it's like someone else has who has your credit card, you ask them to stop spending but they continue to do it," said Ficano.

Ficano says roughly $80 million of the county's current $100 million dollar budget deficit can be attributed to overspending by the court system ... which remains independent from the County.