Gray

determine whether a magistrate has jurisdiction to transfer a preliminary *375 hearing on felony charges to another judicial district in the same county. Judicial precedent, constitutional authority and judicial economy compel our conclusion that a magistrate does have such inherent power.

I

A complaint was filed in the Central Orange County Judicial District, charging Vickie Gray with welfare fraud (Welf. & Inst. Code, § 11483) and related offenses (Pen. Code, §§ 96, 118). The district attorney maintains a single organizational unit in the Central Judicial District to enforce child support obligations and public aid statutes (Welf. & Inst. Code, § 11475.1) 1 and prefers to prosecute all welfare fraud cases in that judicial district.

Gray appeared before a magistrate in the Central Judicial District and moved to have the action transferred for preliminary hearing to the North Judicial District, where the charged offenses were committed. Over the prosecution’s objection, the magistrate granted the motion on the following grounds: “. . . It is a matter of the Court’s discretion. I can’t see any reason why the Court should be doing the entire county’s business on Welfare…