Court Conducts Hearing to Determine Final Order

On July 26, 1996, the Carlin Plaintiffs, the Defendant Board, the Groundswell Intervenors and the proposed Nixon Intervenors, with their respective counsel and supporters, appeared before the Court. All had filed memoranda and numerous declarations in support of their positions; and State Senator Kopp and State Assemblyman Steve Baldwin had filed briefs as Amici Curiae and Interested Persons in support of Groundswell.

The Court launched immediately into the determination I had dreaded; that is, to determine the final order along the lines submitted by the other parties and not mine:

THE COURT: ... I do believe there's a format that is probably as easy to follow as any, is the proposed orders that have been drawn. I think there's a difference of opinion as to whether we should just snip it off and let it fall, or whether we should allow it to have some guidance as it goes out.

I frankly think that it's necessary to have a closing order as a format for the future....

I think some of the more management type of orders that were criticized from time to time by parties, particularly the Intervenors, that was in the past order, have been eliminated into more general guidance. And I applaud that effort. And I do realize