Judge Portley agreed it would be beneficial to look at the numbers. Gladys Alten asked Judge Portley to address certification and the fact that there are no standards that the court follows. Judge Portley said the agencies want one person to certify for consistency and suggested that if the certification process was spread out among sixteen judicial officers, there could be sixteen different determinations. Jane Brown questioned why the expectation would be that there would be sixteen different determinations and asked what the qualifications are for those who certify. Judge Portley stated that all of the judicial officers are lawyers and are all given mandatory dependency training by the Administrative Office of the Court.
Rotational training is on going to address issues, to talk about cases, etc.
He reiterated that if sixteen people are involved, they will all look at it differently, because everyone is coming to it with their own perspective. Senator Petersen suggested that a subcommittee be appointed to address the Pilot Project Plan, which is due by November 15. He noted that the Bill of Rights also needs to be addressed and a subcommittee should be appointed. He offered a third area for subcommittee work is to look into why Pima County is able to process adoptions in 60 days and Maricopa is not. In response to Senator Petersen, Ms. Guenther explained that the Administrative Adoptive Homes Certification Pilot Project was suggested to allow families to be certified through an administrative process rather than through a court process.