Riverside Superior Court Executive Officer Jason Galkin is settling in to his three months at the job, and claiming he loves it.
As the new CEO, Galkin is placed in charge of the administrative side of the court, handling most personnel and the court’s underfunded budget. The position comes with a lot of challenges. Riverside Superior Court needs 23 more judges to meet its current caseload.
Riverside County’s population increased 63% in the past 23 years, resulting in higher caseloads that weren’t matched by increased funding. The court has 92% of the funding that the Judicial Council says is needed to conduct its current work (and Galkin said the court really needs more than that estimate).
Galkin said that these structural issues would cause much more harm to the court’s operations if it weren’t for the high quality of staff at the court—staff he said have been warm and welcoming since even before he arrived.
When he first considered applying to the position of court executive officer, he asked people what they thought of Riverside Superior Court’s work culture. He heard only glowing reviews, he said.
During a visit to a work meeting before he accepted the position, he was pleased with the credit judges were giving to staff.
“I really appreciate the amount of respect that judges have for staff contributions and the willingness of staff and commitment to try to work with our judges. That is a very positive culture to come into,” Galkin said.
During his interview for the position, the interviewing judges made it clear that they wanted the court to be a good fit for the new CEO in the same way that they wanted the CEO to be a good fit for the court, Galkin said.
As Galkin continued meeting new people, he was welcomed into the court, he said. Galkin said the existing staff excels at all levels, and that the court could be in a much worse shape without their expertise.
“It’s a testament to their capabilities, given some of the things that I’ve identified, with data and, frankly, finances that the court has been able to accomplish and lead as much as it has, in spite of those challenges,” Galkin said.
Now that he’s settled in, and having met the department heads, he’s set his priorities: changing over the criminal and traffic case management system, gathering and analyzing data to inform the court and the state, and making sure the court is financially stable.
Galkin said these priorities weren’t his ideas. They were being discussed by court staff before his arrival.
The court’s current case management system for criminal and traffic cases, provided by Journal Technologies, is a legacy system developed more than two decades ago. It was not designed with any data-gathering capabilities, which makes it impossible to collect any aggregate data on the lengths or continuances of criminal cases, Galkin said.
The court will move to eCourt, a newer website from the same company. ECourt is already used for Riverside’s other case types, and is the second most used case management system in California. Galkins expects the transition to finish by the spring of next year.
Galkin said he plans to use that collected data to make statistically-proven decisions on where to allocate resources instead of relying on anecdotes to make policies. He also said the precision allowed by data would give him a stronger argument when requesting more state funding.
Lawyer, educator and family man
Unlike most staff, Galkin is also a lawyer.
He joined the California State Bar in 2010, after receiving his Juris Doctor from Southwestern School of Law (he wanted to be an entertainment lawyer.)
Galkin grew up in Rhode Island, and received his bachelor’s degree in communication from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. He also received a graduate certification in judicial administration from California State University, Sacramento.
He’s on the Judicial Council’s Legal Services Trust Fund Commission, which administers grant programs to nonprofit civil legal aid organizations.
Sacramento State University hired him to virtually teach a judicial administration class that he might continue, if they decide to bring it back.
Galkin worked at Orange Superior Court as a contract and procurement analyst, before working as CEO at Colusa Superior Court from 2016 to 2018, and then as CEO at Nevada Superior Court, by Lake Tahoe, from 2019 until his appointment to Riverside.
He moved back to Southern California partly to have his son be raised around his family and friends.
He said he wanted to administer a larger court than Nevada Superior Court, because he started in such a large court as Orange County’s.
He manages to read books, work out and spend time with his wife, Amy, and 4-year-old son, despite his schedule. He attributes his success to Amy, who has traveled with him throughout the state.
“I am, I’ll say, extremely grateful. I have an extremely supportive wife who has seen fit to uproot and follow me through all of my professional trajectory. That’s made all of it possible,” he said.
