Wednesday, May 15, 2013
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Committee Recommends Carter as Top Court Executive
By KENNETH OFGANG, Staff Writer
The Los Angeles Superior Court Executive Committee has unanimously recommended that the Riverside Superior Court’s top executive be appointed to the same position here.
“I am pleased to report that last Friday, May 10, the Executive Committee unanimously voted to nominate Sherri R. Carter to be our next Executive Officer/Clerk,” Presiding Judge David Wesley wrote in an email to judges yesterday. “The Executive Committee voted in favor of this nomination after hearing a detailed report from the Executive Officer Selection Committee that I appointed to conduct a search and to review candidate qualifications. “
The nomination must be voted on by the court’s judges. Wesley said ballots will be sent out today and are due back by May 30, with results to be announced the following day.
Carter served for over 10 years as court executive and clerk of court for the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California prior to being named executive officer of the Riverside Superior Court in 2008. If a majority of judges vote in favor, she will succeed John Clarke, who retired after 18 years in the position and served as advisor to the search committee.
Attached to Wesley’s email was a memorandum from former Presiding Judge Lee Edmon, who chaired the search committee, detailing the committee’s work, along with the nominee’s resume.
Edmon said the committee identified 35 applicants as meeting the minimum qualifications for the post, and selected five for in-person interviews. None of the five were identified, but Edmon said they included “a CEO from one of the largest trial courts in California”—which describes Carter—as well as “an Executive Officer for one of the nation’s largest civil rights agencies, a Director of Legal Services form the military for more than 30,000 US forces, a CEO from one of the largest federal trial courts and a District Court Administrator for one of the largest metropolitan courts in the country.”
Carter began her career as a deputy court clerk in Provo, Utah in 1977. She held executive positions in the Utah trial courts between 1978 and 1983, before joining the federal district court in Los Angeles as director of office operations and eventually chief deputy clerk.
She left the court between 1989 and 1992 to pursue a college education, graduating from UC Riverside with a degree in business administration, ranking fifth in her class. She was named court executive and clerk in 1996 and held that position until 2008 when she took the position in Riverside.
She has served on numerous state and national committees and task forces in the judicial system, including the Technology Planning Task Force formed by Chief Justice Tani Cantil-Sakauye earlier this year. She was also involved in court management reviews in the Philippines and the Marshall Islands.
Clarke retired at the end of March. William Mitchell has been serving in an interim capacity.
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