BAKERSFIELD, Calif. -- Superior courts were closed across the state Wednesday as part of the monthly furloughs to help save the judiciary money. But not everyone is happy with the furloughs.

The Alliance of California Judges is a group that formed in September of last year, the same month the furloughs went into effect. The group has been an outspoken critic of some of the decisions the State Judicial Council, which oversees the judiciary and its budget, has made including the monthly furloughs.

The sound of silence in superior courts across the state is a deafening sign of trouble for the group of 220 superior court, appellate and presiding judges from 38 counties.

"The number one priority needs to be to keep our courts open," said David Lampe, a Kern County Superior Court judge. "And in fact the judicial council refused to except that, they refused to vote that the number one priority is to keep the courts open and we disagree with that."

Lampe, a founding director of the Alliance, believes the council wrongly chose to continue directing money toward a $1.7 billion computer upgrade that's taken nearly a decade, as well continuing with expensive construction projects at $1,000 a square foot and giving pay raises to certain council staff, known as the Administrative Office of the Courts (AOC), during these difficult budget times.

"We wonder what good are new computers going to do, and for that matter new court rooms going to do, if the court rooms are not open," Lampe said while in his empty Department 7 courtroom on Wednesday. "It's just going to impair the ability of people in the community to get the justice they need, to get the resolution they need."

So while empty jury boxes, witness stands and galleries are the most obvious signs of the judicial branches budget issues, the Alliance believes it's much deeper than that.

"I don't see this simply as a budget problem, I don't see this simply as an issue relating to dollars and cents, there is a governance problem," said Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Tia Fisher, who works out of the Pomona branch.

The Alliance is calling for more oversight and transparency of the 21 member Judicial Council, which is headed by the state supreme court justice.

Including whistle blower protection for AOC staff, a Trial Court Bill of Rights that was requested by the legislature in 1998 and an oversight committee with an elected judge from each county to over look budget priorities.

"The local trial judges who are elected need to have a greater say in how the priorities are established," Lampe said. "So that we can all agree on what those priorities should be."

In short, Alliance members say they want to end the silence that occurs one day a month by changing priorities and keeping the courts open, as well as bring democracy back to the judiciary.

"Democracy is not a fighting word," Fisher said.

Members of the Judicial Council disagree with the Alliance, as they've said that they take input in from a significant number of judges across the state and that public comment is taken on every issue.

But the Alliance says the council needs to be more open about its budget and they believe the furloughs needs to end.