County determines judicial needs, snubs south end
BY FRANKLIN HAYES Gulf Breeze News franklin@gulfbreezenews.com

I-10 Vacinity of Potential Sites for the Proposed Santa Rosa County JUDICIAL CENTER

South end county residents may not be any closer to having more convenient access to courtrooms, as county officials look to determine their needs for a new judicial facility. A discussion about the requirements of the county's judicial system sparked a conflict about the needs of the southern portion of Santa Rosa County.

Santa Rosa County Commissioners recently hired a planning firm to determine the county's judicial needs. With a contract not to exceed $29,000 HOK Incorporated, a worldwide engineering and consulting firm, will determine exactly how much space the county would require for its proposed courthouse. Commissioners are looking at a handful of sites located centrally in the county and plan to fund a new facility with bond money. Commissioner John Broxson of Gulf Breeze would like to see judicial services expanded in the South end.

"What's happening is that the judicial system is being very sensitive to the fact that there is a great deal of legal activity in the South end of the county," Broxson said. "It's overburdening the inadequate facilities up here. They're looking for space wherever they can find it... I want to be sure that this plan includes a look at the South end and how much we need to add down there as well."

However, Commission Chairman Tom Stewart believes county judges do not want to hold court in the south end.

"I'm not sure that that's what we've asked HOK to do and I'm not so sure that I agree with [Commissioner Broxson] that it's necessary," Stewart said. "Our primary purpose is to correct the facility inadequacies of the downtown courthouse as it presently is... It would be my intent that we do that in a single facility accommodating all of the judicial employees under one roof so that we have consolidated those services and put them into a single, less expensive operations than having operations in multiple areas."

"If the judges want to have court in the South end they need to come to us and tell us that," Stewart added. "I don't have a problem with them conducting court and having some court functions in the South end but it is not our place to tell them we're going to build them a facility down there so they can go down there and hold court. We're not receiving word from the judges, the judicial system, that they want to do that in the south end."

Commissioner Gordon Goodin of Navarre added that as population continues to surge south of East Bay, more facilities would be needed.

"I don't know what the judges are telling us, but I don't know that we've asked," Goodin said. "To make sure that we haven't overlooked something let's ask the question. I think we're going to find that the need for services is there, particularly where it's not criminally related."

The current judicial facility is buckling under the weight of an overloaded docket and cramped working quarters. Residents from the south end of the county typically travel close to 30 miles to the courthouse in Milton. Although the City of Gulf Breeze and the Navarre Community Center hold limited hearings in the South end, the need far outweighs the current strategy, Broxson said.

"It's gracious of the city to allow us to do that, but it is woefully inadequate," Broxson said.

Commissioner W.D. "Don" Salter blamed the current lack of courthouse funding and availability on a failed tax referendum from 2002.

"This is what happens when you have to work from the bottom of the budget, you meet the minimum requirements," he said, referring to the 2002 voters' rejection of a sales tax referendum to fund a $40 million replacement courthouse to be located in downtown Milton. Voters in every precinct overwhelmingly rejected a one-cent sales tax to be levied for four years. Designs for the proposed facility were scrapped after the tax was defeated.

Design of the proposed courthouse will be studied by HOK. The consultants will speak with judges, court administrators, the clerk of courts, the sheriff and employees from the state attorney's office, public defender's office and the bar association.

"We have kept this effort to a minimum so that we can get it done quickly, but in sufficient detail that if a site is selected we would be ready to start full design services," Duncan Broyd with HOK wrote in a letter to county officials.

"We'll look at if a two or three story facility is more necessary," said Commissioner Stewart. "It will be determined by our [judicial] need."

The current county courthouse, located in downtown Milton, is a dilapidated structure the local government has been trying to replace for much of the last decade. Its original central corridor dates back to the 1920's.

The commissioners also recommended $748,375 for the installation of an approximately 12,000-square-foot modular building adjacent to the courthouse in Milton. The building, purchased from Resun Space Solutions, will provide additional working space for court employees and should be installed by May.