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HomeMy WebLinkAboutMinutes 01-31-2008 COURT FACILITIES SPACE NEEDS COMMITTEE Minutes of Meeting January 31, 2008 Convened: Adjourned: 2:07 p.m.2:50 p.m. CALL TO ORDER Commissioner Craft called the meeting to order at 2:07 p.m. in Conference Room # 3, 2300 Virginia Avenue, Fort Pierce, Florida. ROLL CALL Roll call was taken. Members Present: Commissioner Chris Craft Councilwoman Michelle Berger, Port St. Lucie Chief Judge Roby Edwin Fry, Clerk of the Courts Tom Genung, Court Administrator Mark Godwin, SLC Criminal Justice Coordinator Roger Shinn, SLC Central Services Director Members Absent: Mayor Bob Benton, Fort Pierce Diamond Litty, Public Defender Bruce Colton, State Attorney Sheriff Ken Mascara Others Present: Jim Reeder, Palm Beach Post APPROVAL OF THE MINUTES: The minutes from the October 25, 2007 meeting were unanimously approved. OLD BUSINESS: Mr. Godwin thanked Roger Shinn and his staff for moving the office furniture donated by Tom Genung and the Fire Department for our soon-to-be Drug Lab. Mr. Shinn stated Mr. Godwin mentioned update on the District Courts. We started Phase I of the renovation of the old courthouse. The contractors have started that work and that work needs to be completed in order to go to Phase IA, which is the renovation of the Courthouse Annex, which is our goal to add 3 courtrooms to that facility. Court Facilities Space Needs Committee January 31, 2008 Page 2 We have looked at the Juvenile Court Facilities. We have looked at doing something at the Logistic Center. We came up with a full drawing for that and I think we satisfied every ones needs there as far as the clerks, judges, the court security and so forth but I just got a price back and we are probably looking into the neighborhood of $2,000,000 to do that. Commissioner Craft responded for a temporary fix? Mr. Shinn said the one reason that we felt that may be a viable solution, it would be temporary but it would be space that could be well used in the future. Commissioner Craft asked just not for courts? Mr. Shinn responded not just for courts, so that’s why we pursued that. We had allocated th $800,000 a year ago to renovate 7 street to add some additional courtrooms. That didn’t seem to be working out to well so we started looking at other avenues and we settled at the Logistic Center. Although I am looking back again now, just to have some alternative. Funding is not available and if we cannot come up with the funding, if necessary to do this, then we may be able to fall back on the fall back plan. th I am looking back at 7 street. There is a possibility if we were to level the back end, just take the building completely down back where we were planning on putting the courts we could possible put portables or modulars back there. Commissioner Craft asked would they be in the way for future extension at that point? Mr. Shinn said that is something we discussed at earlier meetings and I know that the town and the city would like to see that whole block leveled. They got some plans for that. Looking to do something in the next 5 to 10 years because what we were really looking at, at the time, was to try to find something that would get us through the next 5 years. Chief Judge Roby asked what happened to SLW? We could revamp that facility. Mr. Shinn said we had looked at that and I think any opposition we may have had there was a problem, with the Public Defender and State Attorney Offices. It is just a matter of us all getting together. Commissioner Craft said well that’s the purpose of this committee. Mr. Fry said well then we have the issue of relocating the Traffic Court area. Chief Judge Roby said it will be dealing with the Property Appraisers and the Supervisor of Elections. Court Facilities Space Needs Committee January 31, 2008 Page 3 Chief Judge Roby asked if we relocate we would have a significant amount of space available to work with. If there was a place to relocate folks that are currently in the courthouse which was at all times contemplated to be eventually nothing but a courthouse but the courts and the clerks have to be in constitutional officers satellite office long term doing what we need to do. We did it in Martin County. We moved everybody out except the Clerk of Court and the Courts because it’s a courthouse. It’s not a constitutional officer’s complex. Commissioner Craft suggested maybe next month we could plan a couple extra hours on this and actually do a physical tour. We get one of the community transit busses and we all just bump around from place to place and take a look at what facilities we have and what maybe we are looking at in the future. Right now I think we’re all kind of seeing things a little differently and thinking about things a little differently so if we can do that we can actually talk about it as we go. Mark will coordinate it. We may have to do it on a separate day from the PSCC. Councilwoman Berger said on that note the city has just done some improvements to SLW Boulevard that infrastructure wise allowed for added traffic onto the boulevard at the same time (inaudible) coming on line so if there was any concerns about the courthouse expanding and bringing added traffic (inaudible) there was an intersection improvement right out front both on Country Club Drive and on California which both lead to the courthouse. One thing I found out about just a few minutes ago the corner commercial piece, Cameo and PSL Boulevard, was supposed to be Wal-Mart. Wal-Mart backed out as of today officially. Which means that is going to be for sale, about 23 acres. It runs parallel with the turnpike. Commissioner Craft that’s in the CRA? Councilwoman Berger said no it’s not CRA. Within PSL it’s centrally located and as far as with the County you can get to it from the turnpike and I95. Commissioner Craft said next step is we have to have someone come in and give us an idea. I know that we had a space needs study done before but I don’t know how long term. It’s been a while since I looked at it. I don’t remember how long term that was how far out it looked and what recommendations it made as far as space to add. We probably need a consultant come on board to make some recommendations on what space and how to combine it all but we have a more immediate need that were waiting to do the field trip for. Councilwoman Berger said we just had a discussion at the TPO yesterday about consultants and consultant fees and it is just my opinion sometimes we spend so much money on consultant fees just to cover ourselves. For a year here we listened to Chief Judge Roby tell us some of the issues and we have had Ed as well so we’ve come together with people who actually live it every day and I just don’t know what the consultants going to tell us that’s any different than the people living it every day. Court Facilities Space Needs Committee January 31, 2008 Page 4 Commissioner Craft said the point is we don’t have the information sitting in front of us today. We’ve been meeting now for 6 to 7 months and we don’t have the information. st Councilwoman Berger said it’s almost a year. The 1 day we came together here our vision has always been that this area was going to expand. It just sounds to me like the same conversation. I hate to bring it to that. Commissioner Craft said that’s the problem, no one here has the experience in the kind of expansions we are talking about doing. We are talking beyond the courthouse we’re talking about a complex that’s beyond the scope of the people sitting around this table. So if we are going to look into that we need to make sure that we get a professional who can coordinate that. Right now we are spinning our wheels and running in circles. Mr. Shinn said if we want to do what you are suggesting then we would be looking long term trying to put up a permanent structure that would take care of our needs. Chief Judge Roby said SLW to me has been an area we looked at because we could actually put the utilities out there. It’s a courthouse meant for a court facilities. The logistic problem was with the constitutional officers that were out there. I wanted to see money go into bricks and mortar than I wanted to see it go into portables. Commissioner Craft said I just need to be clear and Michelle don’t take this the wrong way. I am not going to support moving a drastic amount of court facilities out of Fort Pierce. If we are talking about an expansion then that’s one thing I will absolutely support moving and expanding our court facilities in PSL because they obviously have a need down there but there is logistic on the side of that, I heard from Diamond and Bruce they need their team together. They don’t want to have them separated. Chief Judge Roby said I’m talking about moving the Family Courts until we get the downtown th facility with 3 more courtrooms and get the people out of 7 street. We can focus on leveling that and then focusing on making a very serious complex. Commissioner Craft said lets get the date scheduled for the field trip. Get one of the community transit buses scheduled. th Mr. Fry said it will probably take 3 hours to hit the main locations, downtown, 7 street and SLW. st Roger what is the time line for the completion of the 1 phase? Mr. Shinn – December 2008 Mr. Fry asked how about the completion of the following phase? Mr. Shinn – December 2009 Court Facilities Space Needs Committee January 31, 2008 Page 5 nd Mr. Fry said when the public is all the way out to 2 street going down to the Public Defenders office waiting to come into the building if there would be any possible way to provide any covering over the sidewalk. I know we are restrained in terms of trying to be able to provide another security station to try to clear the people through there. When you got rain out there and the weather is poor and the people out there are caught in the rain there really is no place for them to go to get out of the rain/weather. The jurors are not the issue it is the people that are coming to court, that are ordered to come to court. The jurors on Monday morning are in there by 7:30. It’s the people that are ordered to court to settle their case. That’s where we are getting the big crowds. We have the one security clearing point and I’m well aware of the cost of adding another security point and the issue of trying to figure out how to do that. I was just hoping that maybe we could come up with some solution to at least cover the walkway so that when we have the rain storms at least they got something over their heads. Commissioner Craft said we can look at that. Mr. Shinn said we were talking about SLW. If we were to make improvements or look at putting portables or building, is there a separate agency out there, some sort of a board, that has to review those plans before it goes to zoning. Councilwoman Berger said I think they will review it for signage and they like to bless it but I don’t think that you go through the same process as you do going through site plan review. Mr. Shinn said we were talking about modulars and went to the City of PSL. They told me I had to run it through – I can’t remember their name. Councilwoman Berger said it’s the Community Development District out in SLW. When you are talking about temporary structures, that is probably against code, you will probably have to get a variance. If your talking about Family Court, I don’t think your going to see any push backs and I know the conversations I heard at this table has always been Family Court but I know there has been perceptions sometimes out there that it might be something other than that. Chief Judge Roby said we’re not set up for criminal. Councilwoman Berger said the discussion has always been Family Court and I think that’s always been very well received. Mr. Fry – Family and Juvenile Councilwoman Berger said, I hear what your saying but you don’t want to take any thing out of Fort Pierce but I also hear that your saying we got to work with the city on that for parking or for whatever the case may be. For coverage there is a lot of things that could be expedited in just splitting some of it up and certainly a lot of taxpayer dollars that are going to be paying for this are coming from PSL. Court Facilities Space Needs Committee January 31, 2008 Page 6 Commissioner Craft said the point that I am trying to make Councilwoman Berger – I know what you are saying. I just want to make sure I know that some of the information I seen when it comes to Family Court most of the people that are attending Family Court or Traffic Court those light or not the heavy crime ones are coming from PSL and so what a convenient thing for our citizens not to have to drive all the way to Fort Pierce. Commissioner Craft – That is what I’ve been saying from the beginning when we make the expansion we need to expand the court system in PSL but we also have to take into consideration the logistics that exist within the whole system involves Ed’s Office, Diamonds Office, and Bruce’s Office for different things and I want to make sure that we are trying to keep those things close together. That is the only reason I made that statement. I apologize to Chief Judge that I misunderstood where he was headed. Councilwoman Berger – I’m just trying to expedite it. Commissioner Craft – I think the bus ride is going to help out immensely. I think that is going to give us all the perspective that we need to have and a better understanding. Mr. Shinn said one other thing just for your information. The SLW was designed. That was Phase I nd it was completed. It was originally designed for a 2 Phase which is a 20,000 sq. ft. building. So if we’re looking at maybe families staying down there, which would work very well for the courts. If we built another building and have the constitutional officers fill it to need space if that building was built they could maybe occupy one floor of that building. Ed could expand into it and the rest of the current building could become all courtroom space. Commissioner Craft asked do we know an approximate cost on that? Mr. Shinn said we got the cost for that a while back. It was about $6,000,000 at that time. Commissioner Craft – It’s about 3 times the cost of the temporary solution. Mr. Shinn said we got that cost when we were at the peak. Things are probably grand slam. Commissioner Craft said lets take a look and see what we can do and put this on the agenda for next month. nd Chief Judge Roby said the 2 building would be a constitutional officer complex and office space, and actually take the courthouse and make it a courthouse. Commissioner Craft asked do we already have the plans or design? Mr. Shinn – No, we have a site plan. We never did get into the actual drawing of the floor plan or building. Court Facilities Space Needs Committee January 31, 2008 Page 7 Commissioner Craft – Mark you will email everyone. Mr. Godwin – I will ask everybody some good dates for next month. Chief Judge Roby asked do you think we could get a preliminary idea on how much it would cost now to build a 20,000 sq. ft. building. Not a court facility but an office building out there. Commissioner Craft asked we have constitutional office space over Walton? Mr. Shinn – Yes – We have the Supervisor of Elections, Property Appraiser, Tax Collector and the Public Defender has some office space there. Commissioner Craft said we have basically the same thing replicated in SLW. Mr. Shinn – Yes Commissioner Craft – Anything else? That was all under Old Business? Councilwoman Berger said I think we could combine the two. NEW BUSINESS: Mr. Fry – The covered walkway. You can have any where from 80 to 200 people showing up for jury and the security’s real good at getting them in pretty quickly. At 7:30 in the morning you can have a bit of a line out there. The jurors come in pretty rapidly its when you have the 200 case docket call and its more than the people who are appearing for court. A lot of times they bring their entourage with them. So now instead of just having one individual you have the one individual that’s coming for court and you can have four to five to six family members coming with them also and they are all standing out there waiting to get in. Commissioner Craft asked, what is the biggest delay there? Is it the x-ray machine? Is that what’s slowing people down? Mr. Fry – It would still be the same issue. Where is the space to be able to put that? Commissioner Craft said I imagine we could find some space there in the entry way. Mr. Shinn – There is an exit door, there is an enter door. Mr. Fry said please check with the security at the Sheriff’s Department with the Sheriff on that. Commissioner Craft asked does the Sheriff’s Department do that? Court Facilities Space Needs Committee January 31, 2008 Page 8 Mr. Fry said the Sheriff’s Department has the contract with Wackenhut but they are under contract with the Sheriff to provide that service. Mr. Shinn said the $500,000 cost was to buy the extra equipment and also man that and then you have the ongoing cost each year of about $200,000 to man that. That was a bigger part of the issue. Commissioner Craft said if he is saying it is only one day a week, I’ve only got to worry about having one person extra or maybe two extra staff two days a week and not a whole day. It’s like half a day. Mr. Shinn – There are other bailiffs there and I don’t know when they get busy with the judges. Would it be a possibility to use a bailiff? Mr. Fry said generally on the busy days what happens is when people come through the magnometer the bailiffs are there to help do the wanding but the bailiffs are also in all of the courtrooms because all of the courts are going so there are bailiffs assigned to work with the judges so they are in the courtrooms providing security for the judges. I know the bailiffs are really busy on Monday and Tuesday. ADJOURNMENT: Commissioner Craft adjourned the meeting at 2:50 p.m. Submitted by, Carol Strobert THE NEXT MEETING WILL BE March 27, 2008