The move to Palo Alto will save the county's court system money but both the county court administration, and union representatives are not sure about the cost savings.

Judges decided on June 19 to move 12 employees and Sunnyvale's misdemeanor cases from Sunnyvale to Palo Alto, but the Sunnyvale courthouse will still retain its felony cases.

This sort of change has hit Sunnyvale before. Just a few years ago Sunnyvale's traffic and small claims cases were routed to Palo Alto. "We're a county court system, so we regularly transfer cases between courts. Sunnyvale and Palo Alto, because of their proximity, trade cases back and forth to some point already," said Debra Hodges, director of planning, projects and research for the court system.

The goal is to save money without laying off anyone, Hodges said. "We are undertaking these changes in order to accomplish that," she said. The changes do not include a reduction in hours for any of the employees.

The county court system is not a for-profit organization and is funded by the state as well as through fines and bail money. The state has asked all government agencies to cut their budgets in light of upcoming statewide budget cuts.

The extent of cuts to state agencies is unknown at this time. Gov. Gray Davis and the members of the state Assembly are expected to adopt the final budget by September.

According to Hodges, the 12 employees will not receive any benefits for the move. "We're not talking about a great distance here. They will have the same job responsibilities, and if there are any problems, we will address them," Hodges said.

The changes will include the removal of two vacant management positions from Sunnyvale, and supervisors at the Palo Alto courthouse are expected to manage an extra one to three employees in addition to their current workload to make up for the loss in management positions. Hodges said those managers should expect little or no impact on their workloads.

But Phuong Tran, a representative of the Service International Union, which serves part-time employees, said that the union and court's employees haven't been involved in the cost-cutting process.

While the decision has already been made, the union does have a meeting with management to discuss some of the impacts.

"We are not in agreement with this. We think there are other options that they need to look at. They're calling it a cost-saving measure, but we don't see how the changes produce any cost savings," Tran said.

According to Judge Thomas Hansen, the amount of cost savings could be $78,000 because of the removal of the management positions and the merging of the clerk's office in Sunnyvale with the one in Palo Alto. "This will result in savings somewhere down the line, probably through attrition," Hansen said.

The changes also include funding one new sheriff's deputy position with money resulting from the closure of the Santa Clara court for three months this year.

Also, the clerk's office in Sunnyvale will be converted to a much-needed jury assembly room, Hansen said.

According to Capt. Greg Kevin of the Sunnyvale Department of Public Safety, the changes will force officers to report to Palo Alto instead of the Sunnyvale courthouse just next door to public safety headquarters for misdemeanor cases. "I don't anticipate there being a huge impact, though we will be affected," Kevin said. The department will have to absorb the costs involved in traveling to the courthouse, he said.