08/02/2006: "No Decision On Court House Space"

The County Council has put off making a decision on remodeling of the Court house, and the Carlson building, for at least another week. Chairman Lichter had hoped to have the Council make a decision last week, but Councilman Myhr had demurred, stating he would like to wait until the return of Councilman Ranker (Ranker had taken time off to become a married man). Lichter told the full Council on Monday that he wanted to make a decision at the regular scheduled meeting on Tuesday (Aug. 1), and asked Myhr if he was now ready to decide. Myhr responded that he was ready to discuss it more, but may not be ready to make a decision. Ranker said that "We don't have a full understanding of where we will be financially next year -which Myhr had previously stated was also of concern to him. Lichter said that he did not want to open this up to anymore discussion by the elected officials. I don't want to hear any more whining; I just want to make a decision"!

At the CC meeting on Tuesday, Chairman Lichter, true to his word, introduced the subject by stating that he would like to invite the new County Administrator, Pete Rose to join the discussion, and that the four of them should see if they can make a decision.

Ranker was invited by Lichter to lead off, and he stated that his opinion had not changed from his previous statements that he was "very hesitant to make major changes, or spend hundreds of thousands of dollars, remodeling the Carlson Building" when the Council does not know where they are going to be financially in the coming budget year. He said he was, however, in favor of remodeling the Council Meeting Room to meet the needs of the expansion of the County Council to six members, and the needs of the District Court -which has been using the room as a Court Room- and to create a jury room to be used by the District Court. As for the Carlson Building, he suggested the County Administrator and other county offices be moved there.

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Myhr expressed his concern that the Council not rush into making major changes without looking at some creative solutions, and not just look at space and room sizes. I am not ready to say "This is the way it is going to be".

Lichter asked if Administrator Rose had any input on the subject. Rose said that while he was new on the job, he already has had opinions expressed to him "by the bushel basket full". He gave a short history of what he understood the County has done in the past to address the problems of space needs'. He then told the Council that in his 26 years in administration he has never seen worse conditions in terms of space use and needs. As examples he pointed out that there are County files being stored in hallways, and that handcuffed prisoners are moved throughout open hallways in the Court house.

In terms of some of his observations, he noted to the Council that the key issues are that there, does not appear to be any consensus within the departments on the issues of space needs; and If the intent is to consolidate, then how that is to be done, is not clear. He noted that there is some potential for funding by the use of Real Estate Excise Taxes, and also by the selling of bonds. Another key issue is the timeline. Unless the Council knows what the long-terms goals are, he said, then any changes now should be limited. He also suggested that if the timeline is ten years or longer, then it is important to do true long term planning in order to reach the goals. He said the Council needs to answer the question "How long will you be in the Carlson Building", because if the council is planning -as Ranker has stated- the building will be torn down in a few years to be replaced with a new building, then that has to be understood now.

Ranker agreed that in looking at any short-time fix, the Council needs to not lose sight of the long term needs. Since it was clear that the Council was not going to make a final decision, the Council agreed to continue the discussion next week, and will be looking at ways to finance some of the possible long term solutions. There are still on-going discussions with the Town on the possibility of entering into a joint-use building.