By Linda Rapattoni
Daily Journal Staff Writer
This article appears on Page 2

SACRAMENTO - A lawmaker, upset over the lack of diversity in the governor's judicial appointments, said he will introduce a bill requiring the State Bar to disclose when Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger appoints judges who are considered to be unqualified by an official vetting committee.

Assemblyman Ted Lieu, D-Torrance, said he was upset to learn Schwarzenegger appointed a lawyer to the Superior Court in San Bernardino County who was rated "not qualified" by the Commission on Judicial Nominees Evaluation. Schwarzenegger has come under increasing pressure to appoint more minorities to the bench. Sharon Majors-Lewis, his judicial appointments secretary, has said the governor has had trouble finding qualified minority candidates for the bench.

"If he can appoint a non minority who is not qualified, he has no standing to say the reason he hasn't appointed more minorities is there's not enough qualified applicants," Lieu said.

"I believe that is an untrue statement," he said. "There are hundreds of qualified minority applicants. Given the small number of judicial vacancies, he could fill every position coming up with a qualified minority or woman."

The bar's Board of Governors decided last July to publicize the judicial nominees commission's 2005 rating of Judge Elia Pirozzi. Bar officials and commission members did not say why Pirozzi received that rating.

Pirozzi had worked as a real estate agent and although he said he had practiced real estate law, he was serving in a non-legal capacity as president of Coldwell Banker Western Properties at the time of his appointment.

Lieu's bill, AB1725, was scheduled to be amended late Tuesday to require the state bar to release the names of judges appointed by the governor who got a "not qualified" rating. He said it was a rare rating that would seldom apply to judges. If the bill passes, it would still need the governor's signature. "I hope he would sign this," Lieu said. "I think it's the right thing to do."

Since he took office, 69 percent of Schwarzenegger's judicial appointments have been white, 9 percent were Latino, 6 percent were African-American, 7 percent were Asian and 34 percent were women, according to figures supplied by his office. Schwarzenegger has stood by all of his appointments, including Pirozzi's. The governor's office declined to comment on Lieu's bill Tuesday. "The governor has not taken a position on the bill," a spokeswoman, Rachel Cameron, said.

Lieu said he introduced his bill to make the process of appointing judges more transparent to the public. The governor, like his predecessors, has relied on committees of lawyers and judges to review applicants. He has refused to release the names of the committee members, despite repeated calls to do so.

Lieu said he supports AB2095, a bill by Assemblyman Mike Davis, D-Los Angeles, which would require the governor to disclose the names of everyone vetting judicial applicants. It would also require them to undergo two hours of training annually on fairness and bias. The bill was scheduled for a hearing today before the Assembly Appropriations Committee.

Fredericka McGee, general counsel for Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez, D-Los Angeles, has been pushing for greater diversity on the bench. She said she supported Lieu's proposal and that several judges she talked to also favor it. Whether the public should be told the reasons for a poor rating should be debated because of privacy issues, she said.