Appointments of Probate Referees

* I am extremely proud of the quality and diversity of the people I have appointed as probate referees (“Gray Davis’ Political Pals Get Lucrative Posts,” Oct. 17).

Each year, referees evaluate thousands of estates in California with virtually no complaints. In short, the system works extremely well for California.

After a two-year, nonpartisan review in 1988 the California Law Revision Commission declared the probate referee system “efficient and useful” while concluding it provides “ordinarily high-quality service at modest cost.” This system has also been strongly and repeatedly praised by members of the State Bar Assn. and the judiciary.

Letters of praise for the system have been recently received by Judge Arnold H. Gold, head of Los Angeles County’s Superior Court Probate Department, his Riverside County counterpart Judge William H. Sullivan, as well as Judge Isabella Horton Grant, president probate judge in San Francisco, and Judge John J. Golden of the Lake County Superior Court.

Moreover, we have broader representation within the referee system today than at any time in history. For example, when I inherited the probate referee system in 1987 there were just 30 women referees. Today there are 53. There are also more Asian-American, Latino, and African-American referees than ever before.

It is worth mentioning that these appointees are officers of the court, not state employees. Therefore, they do not earn a single penny of taxpayer money; their salaries come from commissions based on the value of the estates they appraise.

As controller I will continue to build upon the many recognized improvements I’ve already implemented, including increased training and education, stronger ethics guidelines, and regular audits to ensure high performance.

GRAY DAVIS

State Controller

Sacramento

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Regarding the article on Davis’ patronage: I think there is another point here.

A physician, police chief and Jerry West’s wife certainly do not need the money. And what qualifications they have to evaluate estates is beyond me.

Why doesn’t Davis hire 40 full-time people at $60,000 per year to do the job of the 165 part-timers at $60,000 per year? Why doesn’t he hire out-of-work accountants? This way we get more qualified people, take people and families off the unemployed roll and save more than $7 million per year.

KEN CONROY

Encino