ROBERT REEVES - Conciliation Counselor

“In reply to your letter concerning a proposed means of cross-communication among conciliation courts, I am delighted with the idea! Your letter was shared with Stewart Smith, Chief Probation Officer, and the Hon- orable John P. Knauf, Judge of the Superior Court, both of whom expressed interest and approval.

Please feel free to quote my approval of the bulletin a s well as the proposed title, ‘ California Conciliation Courts Bulletin. ’

At this point of our embryonic develop- ment w e are interested in how other concilia- tion courts are set up. For example: how are the other courts staffed; are they attached to another department or are they operating inde- pendently and how is it working out; what type of statistics are kept; what method of screen- ing is used; is Superior Court Rule No. 6 in effect in the respective courts; we are consid- ering the preparabion of an Annual Report - do others make such a report; what is a definition of reconciliation in each county? These are a few of the items we are presently concerned with which probably fall under common problems.’ ”

Biographical - BOB REEVES

“For the past year I have been the Conciliation Counselor for San Bernardino County. Professional counseling experience

for the previous five years has included fam- ily counseling in a recognized family service agency in Illinois and Intake Worker for the Foster Home Placement Unit of the Child Welfare Services Division of San Bernardino County.

A native of Illinois, I graduated from the University of Illinois with a major in Psychology. I did graduate work at the School of Social Work, University of Illinois. I reside in San Bemardino with my wife and two chi Id ren . ”

Com mu ni t y

The San Bernardino Conciliation Court serves a geographical area of 20,157 square miles. The general economic status of the population appears to range from the upper- upper” to the “lower-iower” classes mode up of Protestant, Catholic, Mormon, and Jewish religions. The community appears to be both rural and urban in the process of urbanization.

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A small sample from the first six months of operation suggests we are serving a “middle income,” Protestant, Anglo group, ( an 80% majority group) and a 20% minority group consisting of Spanish, Negro and mixed, in that order.

The county population in 1960 was 503,591 and is expected to reach 753,500 in 1970. This increase may be geared to a manu- facturing boom and space programs in which both military and private industry are concerned.

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During the past ten years, the number of divorce filings each year has averaged 2,014 in S m Bernardino County. Almost half of these have become final decrees.

During our first year of operation there were 230 couples referred to us, an average of 22 per month.. Fifty-eight per cent filed petitions, an average of 13 per month. We are pleased to report that approximately 52% of those who filed a petition reconciled, affect- ing 191 children.

We have not been operating under Superior Court Rule No. 6. There is a notice- able increasing trend of referrals from at- torneys as compared to the beginning when the majority of referrals came from the Court Commissioner.

We are considering expanding our pro- gram during this budget year from a one man operation to include another counselor and necessary clerical staff.

In closing, I would like to express our sincere appreciation to the Honorable Roger A. Pfaff, Presiding Judge of the Superioe Court of Los Angeles County, and to Meyer Elkin, Supervising Conciliation Counselor of the Los Angeles Conciliation Court and members of his staff for their generous assistance in helping u s start a conciliation court. We hope to share with you our Annual Report when it is completed.

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