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HomeMy WebLinkAboutMinutes 01-29-2009 COURT FACILITIES SPACE NEEDS COMMITTEE Minutes of Meeting January 29, 2009 Convened: Adjourned: 2:05 p.m.2:53 p.m. CALL TO ORDER Commissioner Craft called the meeting to order at 2:05 p.m. in Conference Room # 3, 2300 Virginia Avenue, Fort Pierce, Florida. ROLL CALL Roll call was taken. Members Present: Commissioner Chris Craft Mark Godwin, SLC Criminal Justice Coordinator Councilwoman Michelle Berger, Port St. Lucie Bruce Colton, State Attorney Tom Genung, Court Administrator Roger Shinn, SLC Central Services Director Sheriff Ken Mascara, St. Lucie County Members Absent: Mayor Bob Benton, Fort Pierce Joe Smith, Clerk of the Courts Diamond Litty, Public Defender th Chief Judge Roby, 19 Circuit Others Present: Lisa Savage, SLC Pretrial Department Major Pat Tighe, SLC Sheriff’s Office Lieutenant Douglas Hardie, SLC Sheriff’s Office Sergeant Troy Church, SLC Sheriff’s Office APPROVAL OF THE MINUTES: The minutes from the September 25, 2008 meeting were unanimously approved. OLD BUSINESS: Roger Shinn gave an update on the courthouse saying that everything is coming along very well. After the last meeting, went to the Board and asked to incorporate part of what was going to happen in the next phase in this current phase. It backed us up to around June or July. The Law Library will be completed by the end of February. Court Facilities Space Needs Committee January 29, 2009 Page 2 Commissioner Craft asked Roger to briefly explain the rational as to why we added the part of the next phase to this. Roger said we added that phase in order to have a separation. We had a concern because we are building the inmate holding cells in the basement of the old courthouse in order to expand the holding cell area in the courthouse. We need to have safe passage from the sally port back and forth without interrupting the construction. Commissioner Craft said this morning we were having discussions about things that we can expedite on a county level to help generate jobs and keep people working. Roger said they have funding to do Phase I-A. What I-A does is add 3 courtrooms to the first floor of the courthouse annex. Tom Genung said the courtroom has been finished in St. Lucie West. The county staff did a great job. Sheriff Mascara asked if the gate for the sally port is working. Lieutenant Hardi said it is not up to par. They are working on it. It is currently working. NEW BUSINESS: nd Mark Godwin said the drug lab is currently on the 2 floor. The old clerks building which is on the rdnd 3 tier known as the 2 floor has empty space on the far end that has been designated for clerk offices. The drug lab in 7 months did 5200 samples.Our analyzer is in one end of the building and we have the lab at the other end. We converted a jury assembly bathroom into the drug lab bathroom. We are going to apply for the lab to achieve and exceed DOT standards and there are some requirements in there that have the bathroom in a certain area where it is not viewable by anyone waiting. Commissioner Craft asked Mark if he had this conversation with Clerk Smith. Mark said he hopes to see Clerk Smith today. Sheriff Mascara told Mark that he remembers reading that the positive results the highest, was marijuana. Is that still the same? Mark said no, it is oxycodone. Commissioner Craft said if there is something in the court system that needs to be done, enhanced, if this body can make a recommendation to the BOCC of what your priority would be within the judicial system that he can take to the Board and say this is a priority and this is the cost savings it’s going to have to us. We should have a letter come from this Board to our Delegation requesting no further cuts from Judiciary when they go to cut the 3.4 billion dollars from the budget. Would Court Facilities Space Needs Committee January 29, 2009 Page 3 like to have 100% support on this. Mark will work with everyone and everyone’s name in the committee will be on the list. Bruce Colton asked if the meeting has a short agenda could the meeting start at 2:45 p.m. and if the agenda is long set the meeting time accordingly. Commissioner Craft said this body should petition the State to exempt the requirement of Sunshine for this body because technically you guys are trying to find official ways to run the courts. You can’t really talk about it under Sunshine the way the laws written so we may want to partition someone to carry a bill to change that. Just for technicality reasons. ADJOURNMENT: Commissioner Craft adjourned the meeting at 2:53 p.m. Submitted by, Carol Strobert THE NEXT MEETING WILL BE March 26, 2009