Candidate for
Superior Court Judge; County of Santa Barbara; Office 7

Arthur Garcia was born and raised in Santa Maria, California. Graduating from St. Joseph High School in 1971, he received a Bachelor of Arts degree from Loyola Marymount University in 1975 and Juris Doctorate from Loyola Law School in 1978. He was in successful private practice from 1978 until he was appointed Superior Court Commissioner in July 1996 to preside over the North county Juvenile Court. In 2003 he was appointed Judge of the Superior Court in Santa Barbara by Governor Gray Davis.

Judge Garcia is currently the Presiding Judge of the Juvenile Court with the responsibility of presiding over Delinquency cases, where minors are accused of committing crimes, and Dependency cases, where minors have been abused or neglected by their parents.

Judge Garcia's previous assignments include adult Criminal Trials (Felony and Misdemeanor), family support cases, criminal arraignments, family law contested hearings, and the domestic violence calendars. He was also the back-up judicial officer for the Proposition 36 Court, the Adult Drug Court and the Mental Health Treatment Court and helped to establish the first Juvenile Drug Courts in Lompoc and Santa Maria.

Judge Garcia has also been a member of the National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges, California Juvenile Judges Association, California Judges Association and California Association of Drug Court Professionals.

In private practice Judge Garcia was in a general practitioner with an emphasis in family law matters. In addition, he served as volunteer arbitrator and Judge Pro Tempore for the Superior Court. Judge Garcia was also active with the Northern Santa Barbara County Bar Association and served as a director, newsletter editor and member of its Judicial Evaluation Committee.

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I was born in Santa Maria at the old Sisters Hospital which is now Marian Residence on College Street, and I had a very modest childhood on the West side of town.

My mother, Anna Garcia, is the fifth of eight children born to Miguel and Soledad Alvarez. My Grandfather first came to the United States from the State of Michocan in Mexico when he was tweleve years old to work along side my great grandfather. He returned to Mexico, married my grandmother and eventually immigrated to the United States. My mother was born in Orange County area in 1917.

My father, Gilbert Garcia was born in El Paso Texas, and was the third child of nine children born to Lenore Cortez Garcia from the State of Puebla and Florentino Hernandez Garcia from the State of Chihuahua.

Soon after my parents were married, I came along, the eldest of five healthy children. We grew up in an old, small, two bedroom home on West Mill Street in Santa Maria, near the center of town. My father worked as a garbage man for the city of Santa Maria and my mother was a homemaker. She later went on to become a pre-school teacher's aid at Fairlawn School and after many years, retired. My father died shortly before he was scheduled to retire and my mom still lives on Mill Street but in a newer, tract home on the East side of town.

I found my first law book when I was about ten years old. Around the corner were the law offices of Twitchell and Rice and the old Santa Maria Times building. I would often go to the Santa Maria Times dumpster to pick out treasures such as photos, comic strips and rolls of paper (pre-recycling days, you understand). I saw a discarded book across the way in the Twitchell trashcan and being a voracious reader, I took it home. I don't remember which California Code it was, but I recall that it seemed to be very important, and that was my introduction to the law.

Low-income kids often come before me in court trying to tell me how rough they have it and assume that I just would not understand. I explain to them that I grew up in a humble, two bedroom home with two brothers and two sisters as well as my parents. However, I did have my own bedroom, it was called the "living room" and yes, I do know how hard it is, experiencing during my own childhood the pain of a close family member's acute alcoholism and the accompanying emotional and money difficulties. We never did without a meal, but we were certainly a working class family that struggled greatly at times.

I attended Fairlawn Elementary School and El Camino Jr. High School, and I still recall my eighth grade essay: a plan to go on to high school and probably join the army. College was no where mentioned.

Mom had bigger plans for me as she had a great love for education. She was greatly embarrassed that she had not attended high school and she was going to make sure that her children had that opportunity and more.

The story behind my mother not attending high school is that she was living in Santa Paula with my grandparents and enjoyed school. She graduated from the eighth grade at Santa Paula Elementary School and was looking forward to attending high school. My grandmother saw no reason for a girl to go on to high school and so refused to send my mother. The truant officer had other ideas. Facing the wrath of the truant officer my grandmother solved the problem by moving the family to Carpentaria, "successfully" keeping my mother out of school.

Move forward a few years. I'm now about to graduate from eighth grade and my mother agrees to send me to St. Joseph High School. The school had only recently opened and is surrounded by empty fields; no gymnasium, but a core of academic strength. My parents sacrificed so that I could get a good education. They really could not afford to send me to a private Catholic school but they did it anyway. I repaid them by getting straight A's which allowed me to qualify for scholarships which resulted in my graduation from Loyola Marymount University and Loyola Law School. I have never forgotten my parent's sacrifice to educate me.

Parental sacrifice is not uncommon. Very often I'll have two Spanish speaking parents before me in court, there because their child has done broken the law. The dialogue usually goes like this:

Judge Garcia: I see that the minor's parents are here. Thank you for coming. You look embarrassed, is something wrong? Parent: It is embarrassing Mr. Judge. Judge Garcia: You're using an interpreter so I assume that you were not born here? Parent: No, we come from Mexico. Judge Garcia: I'm curious, why did you leave your family and friends and the community you know to come here? Parent: For a better life, Mr. Judge. There is more opportunity here. We came to raise a family that will have opportunities. Judge Garcia: (To minor) And this is how you repay your parents? Do you understand the sacrifice your parents made? They left their family, their friends, everything that they held close to come to a foreign land so that you could have a better life. You are blessed to have parents who are here with you today. It's sad that very often I have kids before me with no one. You owe your parents an apology for your actions.

Around this point there are usually tears in the eyes.

Anyway, thanks to my parents sacrifice, I went to school and I stayed out of trouble, receiving two degrees and passing the bar on my first try in 1978. (A big thing if you're a lawyer because you don't want to have to take that grueling test again.)

After graduation from law school in 1978, I was offered a fellowship with Migrant Services in Washington DC, but I knew I wanted to return to Santa Barbara County, so my wife and I came home to Santa Maria to raise a family.

We were living on the far Westside of town and I had been waiting for the bar results, which finally came. We had only one car and since my wife was working, she took the car the day I had made arrangements to be sworn in as an attorney by Judge Trapp during a court recess. I was walking from home to the courthouse when who came up, but my father, driving his garbage truck. (Keep in mind, this was in the days before sanitation engineers, automatic loaders, special trashcans and hefty bags. The crew would drive the huge, loud truck, empty cans of un-bagged trash into the back and drive on to the next house.) My dad asked where I was going and when I explained he asked if I wanted a ride since it was a long walk. So there I was, facing a choice between a long walk in not so comfortable shoes and my new, polyester JC Penny suit, or hitching a ride in a beat-up, stinky, garbage truck. Gratefully, I chose the truck and I am forever glad that I did. Whenever I forget my humble beginnings, I remember that day and I'm immediately back to reality. (As an aside, Jim Jennings, the Deputy Public Defender in that day's trial, told me that he was sure he got a favorable verdict in the case because the jurors were able to see a nice, young Latino kid being sworn in as an attorney in front of them which humanized his Latino defendant. Jim Jennings went on to become Judge Jennings and was the Assistant Presiding Judge when I was appointed Superior Court Commissioner in 1996. He was the person who administered the oath of office my first day on the bench.)

I was in private practice over seventeen years in all with Trudy Chern and Dick Brenneman. I am indebted to Dick and Trudy for not only giving me a start in my legal career but for years of good times. Trudy was an inspiration. She and her husband Dan had a furniture store in Santa Maria. She loved to tell the story of how she sold my parents their bedroom set, and therefore I was conceived on a Chern Bed. Trudy returned to law school later in life and was an absolute dynamo. She was an excellent appellate attorney and had a real joy of life about her. She and Dan were renaissance people who never had children of their own but delighted in the children of Trudy's partners and their friends.

In law school, I was in a Juvenile clinical program for two years. First as a student and then as a student director, supervising other students. As certified law students, we were allowed to have cases under the direction of a licensed attorney. I enjoyed working with people. We were a neighborhood law clinic and had all sorts of people pop in. The actual law portion was in dependency and delinquency court. It was great training for what I now do.

In private practice, I was in a general law firm but eventually had an emphasis in family law. I enjoyed the practice of family law because even though the cases may be complex and the issues very emotional, there was real satisfaction in helping people through the process. It was wonderful to see abused women come out of their shell and become assertive. It was good to know that you could be a calming influence in troubled times and that while people may be angry about the process and emotional over the dissolution of marriage or custody issues, they could be directed to focus on what was really important.

In 1996 I was appointed Superior Court Commissioner to sit in Juvenile Court. People wondered if I had lost my sense of direction. I was leaving a successful law practice to become a Juvenile Commissioner. Truth is, when the position had first been created in 1990 I had applied and came in second. Craig Smith, a fine court research attorney, had been selected over me. Some people were angry, feeling that I should have been selected. While I was disappointed, I certainly did not hold it against Craig. He did a fine job as Commissioner and I appeared before him several times. Eventually, he decided to move on and the position was again available. I applied and there were even more qualified applicants the second go round but I was ultimately selected.

I took on a heavy case load that was being held in a small courtroom no bigger than a small living room. Files were in the hallways, there was no waiting room to speak of and conditions were less than ideal. Thanks to a great staff, starting with my Clerk Carmela Crow, it worked. We handled the ever increasing juvenile Dependency and Delinquency caseload. I also assisted with family law trials on occasion and at one point was also calling the District Attorney family support calendar.

We started making plans to finally have a new juvenile court facility built. There had been plans floating around for years, and we kept pushing forward. Happily, we just celebrated the one year anniversary in the new facility.

I left Juvenile Court to go downtown when Proposition 36 passed. Prior to that, I was on the steering committee for the first juvenile drug courts in Santa Maria and Lompoc. Downtown, I was doing criminal arraignments, domestic violence reviews and helping with Proposition 36, Adult Drug Court and the mental Health Treatment Court. The sad part is, I saw some of the same kids who had been before me in Juvenile Court, later on as adult defendants in Adult Court. I also saw them either with their own delinquent children in Delinquency Court or because of their own neglect and/or abuse of these children in Dependency Court. Indeed, there is a cycle of violence. The parents abuse each other and/or the kids, the children see that, model behavior on what they live with and the cycle goes on to the next generation.

As a result of this experience, I was proactive in Domestic Violence reviews speaking of the cycle and trying to break it. If violence can be stopped now, generations of children to come will not be subjected to the violence and everyone will be better off. I made it a point to drop in on the group sessions to let the people see that the courts treated this seriously and we were concerned about having good programs. I enjoyed doing what I was doing.

One of the reasons I applied to become a judge because I wanted to have a chance to return to juvenile court. The Chief Justice of the California Supreme Court, Ronald George, has stated that judicial duties should be performed by Judges, not subordinate Judicial Officers (Like Commissioners or Referees) That is not to put down Commissioner or Referees. They do a heck of a job and in many counties are Judges for all purposes but name, prestige and pay. Eventually, all Subordinate Judicial Officers will probably be converted to Judgeships because they are, in fact, doing Judge work now.

The application process itself is grueling. There's a 25 plus page application which must be completed. If the application is accepted and the Governor wants to consider appointing a person, the next step is to go to the Commission on Judicial Nominees Evaluation (JNE Commission). The JNE Commission is run by the State Bar and it's function is to solicit comments from lawyers and Judges about the person being considered. This Judicial Background Security Check is to ensure that the person is qualified and has the proper judicial temperament. Some people don't even bother to apply, knowing that they can't take the scrutiny of the background investigation. Once that's done, the process still requires a personal interview by the Governor's Judicial Appointment Secretary and ultimate decision by the Governor.

In August 2003 I am proud to say I was appointed a Superior Court Judge by Governor Gray Davis.

I assumed a trial courtroom and enjoyed trying jury trials as well as managing the large criminal caseload. When an opportunity arose with Judge Beck's retirement to return to Juvenile Court, I volunteered to return. I finished the final supervision and entry into the new Juvenile Court Facility, one of the finest courtrooms in the county. This project which I helped start long before was carried forward by Sue Gionfriddo, the Chief Probation Officer, and Judge Barbara Beck, the Presiding Juvenile Court Judge and finally completed and occupied by me. (Judge Beck has come back to sit on assignment to fill in for vacation time and has gotten an opportunity to enjoy the courtroom as well.)

I'm asked how I can tolerate the juvenile assignment because there is a perception it is depressing, factually, there is a heavy workload, and the work is not prestigious because of the confidentiality issues of children. There are no high profile cases, but it is a place of hope.

We handle two types of cases: kids accused of crimes which are called delinquency cases and cases where kids are abused or neglected by their parents, called dependency cases.

In delinquency cases we have the best opportunity we are ever going to have to change a troubled youth's life. The purpose is rehabilitation. Kids are not short adults. They are developing adults. If you can properly direct their development in a positive direction rather than a negative one, they will not go on to commit adult offense resulting in time in county jail or state prison. Instead, they will be productive, contributing members of our community. The numbers are great, and because of many factors, are increasing. Do we save them all? No. Are some changed? Yes. Is it worth it? Without a doubt. It is a place of hope, we hope that by their contact with us their lives will change.

In dependency cases we have abused or neglected kids that come from some tragic circumstances. It can be very depressing to even read the case background yet, I remind people that our courtroom is a place of hope. We hope that children are able to reunify with their parents because things have changed and a whole, unified family walks out of our courtroom and the case is dismissed. If that doesn't happen, we hope that there is a special family out there that wants to adopt the child, and the child goes on to have a good, productive life with that family. There is great joy if parents or a parent is able to reunify with their child or great joy if the child is adopted.

I have wonderful people to work with in Juvenile Court. I have a great staff, good attorneys, probation officers and child welfare workers as well as others. Not the least of which are the CASA's, Court Appointed Special Advocates, who are appointed to just be with a child through the process. They agree to stay with the child and just visit, report how things are going and be an anchor the kids can rely on. The attorneys may come and go and the social workers may change but the CASA advocate remains. So should the judge. Certainly not forever, but the guidelines call for us to make a minimum three year commitment if we are going to juvenile court to get to know the kids and families.

I have three wonderful children of my own. Miguel who works as a dispatcher for the Oxnard Police Department, Nicole who is in her third year at San Diego State University studying Psychology and Elena who is in the seventh grade.

I'm fairly recently remarried and living back on the Westside of Santa Maria.