Committee members reviewed the judiciary long sheet on Feb. 11 and voted by consensus to shift funding priorities in the 02/2002 judiciary branch budget, while saving some staffing costs for the judiciary and attorney general budgets for separate consideration.

Senator Thomas recommended setting several line items at reduced levels from agency requests and moving funding for FTEs out of the guardianship-related bill into the judiciary's own budget. He urged the committee to ‘‘leave that at 0’’ for accrued leave payouts, saying the vacant‑FTE pool can cover those liabilities.

The state court administrator, Sally (for the record, “Sally, state court administrator”), detailed equipment and operational requests for courtrooms statewide and urged the committee to include funding to maintain remote-recording and courtroom audio/video systems. "Those things were not included. Those are things that we think are critical to continue operating as we have been," Sally said, describing camera replacements, sound‑rack updates and assisted‑listening upgrades across about 100 courtrooms.

Key budget decisions made by consensus included:
- Office of Guardianship and Conservatorship: committee agreed to include 80% of the requested amount — $1,200,000 — to staff four positions rather than five, with Senator Thomas recommending the adjustment.
- Rural attorney recruitment program: $36,000 was added to continue payments to already recruited rural attorneys, consistent with a policy bill the Senate had passed.
- Guardian ad litem program: the committee approved half of the agency request, adding $470,000 for that program.
- Courtroom audio/video systems: the committee reviewed a $1.5 million one‑time funding request to replace cameras, speaker racks and juror microphone units that support remote recording; Sally emphasized that some equipment is 15 years old and failures can stop court operations.
- Interpreters and related operating costs: $125,500 for interpreter services and $293 for increased processing fees for payments were noted and retained on the long sheet.

Committee members noted contract obligations already entered with 39 counties for clerk of court services; those contractual obligations are accounted for in the budget and must be funded.

No roll‑call votes were taken on these individual operating line items; the committee approved several changes by consensus and asked staff to update the long sheet before the next session. Members also recorded a recommendation to treat some funding as ongoing and some as one‑time, and asked staff to prepare appropriation language and carryover or transfer sections as needed.

Ending: The Judiciary long sheet will be revised to reflect the committee's consensus decisions and taken up again at the next meeting; the committee planned to move some FTE funding into the judiciary budget and asked staff to prepare the necessary bill language.