LAKEPORT, Calif. – Lake County's newest judge says he's looking forward to serving the community in his new job.
The appointment of Andrew Blum, 50, to the Lake County Superior Court bench was officially announced by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's office on Wednesday, as Lake County News has reported.
Blum's appointment to the $178,789-a-year position comes nearly a year after Judge Arthur Mann announced he would step down after 30 years on the bench. Blum said he's honored to have been chosen to succeed Mann.
After Mann made his announcement in August 2009 – with his retirement becoming effective last Nov. 1 – the process to choose another judge began.
“It's been a long process,” Blum said in a Thursday phone interview from his office in San Francisco, where he currently works as trial counsel for the Commission on Judicial Performance.
Blum and other candidates submitted lengthy applications for the job, which led to several people making calls and inquiries about him on behalf of Schwarzenegger.
The confidential process included interviews this past March with the California State Bar's Commission for Judicial Nominees Evaluation as well as the Lake County Bar Association, Blum said. Questionnaires about the candidates were sent out to community members, and those responses were then correlated.
“The application process is very thorough,” he said.
Blum said he was interviewed by the governor's judicial appointment secretary about a month ago. “She makes the final recommendation to the governor,” he said.
“She called me about 10 days ago and told me that the governor was probably going to appoint me,” said Blum, but he was cautioned at the time that he couldn't say anything until the appointment was officially announced.
Blum holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from California Lutheran University in Thousand Oaks, receiving his juris doctorate degree from the University of California, San Francisco's Hastings College of the Law.
Admitted to the California State Bar in December 1984, that same year Blum began working as a research attorney for the Santa Clara County Superior Court.
He worked there until 1985, when he accepted a position as a deputy district attorney in the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office, where he remained until 1989, according to his biography.
In 1989, he and wife, Debra, and their children arrived in Lake County, where he accepted a position with the Lake County District Attorney's Office.
From 1989 to 1991, he was a deputy district attorney in Lake County before being promoted to chief deputy district attorney in 1992, a post he would hold for five years, working under then-District Attorney Stephen Hedstrom, now also a Lake County Superior Court judge.
While serving as chief deputy district attorney, Blum also would supervise a deputy district attorney named Richard Martin, who became a good friend of Blum's.
Martin would later move to Micronesia and become attorney general, and Blum and his wife moved to Micronesia and worked for Martin, Blum said. Blum was appointed assistant attorney general, for Kosrae State, Micronesia, later also becoming attorney general, serving in Micronesia from 1997 to 2000.
Martin would return to work for the Mendocino County District Attorney's Office before being sworn in as judge in July 2005 of Lake County Superior Court's Department 2, succeeding Judge Robert Crone, who retired.
After leaving the attorney general's post in Micronesia, Blum taught high school English for a year, from 2001 to 2002.
Blum and his wife – also an attorney, who practices privately – live in Lakeport, returning to the county about three years ago, he said.
“We've always considered Lake County our home,” Blum said.
He spends time commuting to his office in San Francisco for his work with the Commission on Judicial Performance, where he has worked since 2003.
The commission handles discipline of judges accused of misconduct, he said.
Blum explained that the commission receives complaints about judges which are then investigated. Some discipline is handled privately, but some cases rise to the level of a public, noncriminal trial.
In those latter cases, it's Blum who puts on the trial and prosecutes the case, cross-examining judges before a three-person panel of “special masters,” or judges appointed by California's chief justice.
The special masters then write a report containing the findings of fact and their conclusions, which goes to the full commission, which consists of three judges, two lawyers and six citizens. Blum said he argues before the commission about what should be done in the case of particular judges.
Past cases have involved judges who fixed tickets for friends, made false statements in campaign materials, spoken publicly about pending cases or had “atrocious” demeanors, he explained.
“We've removed many judges over the years,” said Blum, adding that removal from office for a judge also results in an automatic suspension from practicing law.
An important thing Blum has learned from his work with the commission is that, “Some judges forget that they're neutral.”
While not all lawyers want to become judges, Blum said he always did. As a prosecutor he spent most of his time in court, working with judges and seeing the work they do.
“I've learned a great deal about what is expected of judges,” he said. “It's a challenging job and I like a challenge.”
Blum said the vast majority of judges are hardworking and conscientious, and he added that Lake County's judges are excellent.
He said his family was excited and happy over his appointment.
Interestingly, though, none of this three children are interested in the law. Michael, 24, just graduated from the University of California, Berkeley, while Katherine, 22, will be a senior this year at Cal Poly in San Luis Obispo, and 20-year-old Christine will be a junior at Indiana University.
Blum acknowledges that his workload will increase dramatically when he takes the bench. “Lake County courts are busy,” Blum said.
Blum's new colleagues on the Lake County Superior Court bench will include Judge David Herrick in Department 1, Martin in Department 2, Hedstrom in the south county Department 4 and Vincent Lechowick in Courtroom A, along with a host of retired judges – Crone and Richard Freeborn among them – who fill in when needed.
The superior court judges positions actually are elected, but the governor appoints when a judge retires mid-term, creating a vacancy. The Lake County Registrar of Voters Office previously reported that all of the judges are up for reelection in 2012. Terms run for six years.
The swearing-in ceremony for Blum hasn't been set yet, but he said they're aiming for three to four weeks.
In that time, he'll be wrapping up his work with the commission.
He said he's spoken to Martin, Hedstrom and Mann about the transition, and gotten a lot of good advice.
The most encouraging words came from Mann, who told him, “Andy, you're going to love this job.”
E-mail Elizabeth Larson at
How to resolve AdBlock issue? 
