by Glenn Tschimpke
Staff Writer
When Britt Beasley mentions to people what he does, he probably gets a polite smile and a “that’s nice.” After a brief faraway look, the next question could go something like, “What exactly does a court administrator do?” The soft spoken court administrator for the 4th Judicial Circuit doesn’t seem to take offense to the questions. He takes it in stride and revels in the thought that there are others out there with similar mystery jobs.
“Nobody knows what a court administrator does,” said Beasley. “I guess it’s the same with hospital administrators. I’m sure they have similar jobs: handle the budget, personnel, purchasing and working with doctors in a hospital environment. Court administrators manage the budget, personnel, purchasing, procuring and work with the judges in a court environment.”
At the half century mark in his life, Beasley appears more youthful than his picture in a newspaper clipping he keeps from a decade ago. He is tall, but not towering, thin but not withering. He shed his glasses and about 10 pounds since his early days as the court administrator and looks as English as his name implies. And though his hair is a little grayer around the fringes and the wrinkles cut their lines a little deeper around his mouth, he doesn’t seem to let the concerns of his position impose themselves on others.
Beasley has his hands full managing an administrative staff of over 140, appeasing 35 circuit judges, 16 county judges in a courthouse that sees over 300,000 cases filed every year on a budget of around $10 million. Besides ensuring the basic wheels of justice keep turning like a well-oiled machine, he oversees an array of supplementary court programs including mediation, Guardian Ad Litem, juvenile diversion, jury management, case management, court reporting, court interpreters, drug court, teen court, elder court and many others.
While he is glad to pipe-up that many aspects of the court run smoothly, there are issues particular to the 4th Judicial Circuit and the Duval County Courthouse that do present challenges in the administration of the law. Space is his biggest concern — space for administrative staff, space for special programs, space for judges. Gov. Jeb Bush recently appointed two new judges to fill newly created vacancies in the circuit. Linda McCallum will shift over from the county bench to circuit court and Ron Higbee will leave the public defender’s office to don the robe of a county judge. The new positions will take effect in January. While McCallum is simply shifting roles, someone will eventually replace her in county court. Trouble is, Beasley has no space for two new judges.
“We’re totally out of space,” said Beasley of his facility at 330 E. Bay St. “We don’t have 800 feet to spare. We don’t have the room to accommodate the new judges after Jan. 2. In order to make accommodations for those new judges, we had to move the drug court campus to another location and to renovate the spaces they occupied. Between now and when the new courthouse is completed, every time we get a new judge or a couple new judges or whatever, we’re going to have to move somebody out and renovate that space.”
If it sounds like the drug court campus or any other court program is on the losing end of the space issue and the judges get priority, Beasley offers a common sense reply.
“Of course they do,” he said. “It’s the courthouse. That’s what it’s all about. That’s really the function of what we call court administration.”
With more judges comes the need for more courtrooms. When the building was erected in the mid 1950s, it contained three criminal courtrooms, each with accompanying holding cell. Over the years, civil courtrooms were converted one by one to eventually double the amount of criminal trial areas. Beasley knows that eventually shuffling the courtrooms will catch up with him.
“We have to have more courtrooms,” he said. “We’re just out. I think after the first of the year, it’s going to become critical. We’ll have two new judges. Right now, we have come close to not being able to conduct a trial because there was not a courtroom available. We’ve always been able to make some accommodation. We’ll figure out something.”
While a non-jury trial could conceivably be held in a judge’s chambers — and Beasley remembers a few instances where that has happened — it is not the situation the justice system wants to make the norm.
“There was a trial that was conducted in Nassau County a few years ago where the judge sat on the back of a pickup truck and conducted the trial in a tent,” he said. “You can conduct a trial on an orange crate if it can be done in a conducive environment.”
While there are no orange crates or tents on the procurement list, Beasley does have some concerns about the h Circuit’s future efficiency given the current facilities — even though everything is fine at the moment. Many people like to think the courts are backlogged as it is, he said the 4th Circuit does a pretty good job of cycling cases through in a timely manner. In the interim between now and when the first gavel echoes through the new County Courthouse in 2007, Beasley anticipates some creative courtroom scheduling to keep justice moving.
“Right now, we’ve been, I think, creative trying to utilize the space that we have available,” he said. “I think at times between now and when the new courthouse is built, I think the lack of space may adversely affect trials and the disposition of cases. It has not yet, but I think we will be close. This building has really served its purpose considering what all has gone on here.”
The desperate situation is not lost on Beasley’s senior deputy court administrator Conni Lewis, who focuses on financing and physical facilities.
“Space is such a commodity. We are in desperate need,” she said. “We have people whose offices are in closets and storage rooms.”
Rank does have its privileges, though. While space is tight in the courthouse on the river, it simply means that not everyone has room for a comfortable office with a river view and room for morning calisthenics — judges and Beasley excluded, of course.
NFL Commissioner Paul Tagliabue recently joked his customer satisfaction rate on any given Monday is about 50 percent. Beasley is in a similar situation. While traditional private companies and even government entities strive for 100 percent customer satisfaction, the court system is in the anomalous position of pleasing only about half its customers. But like the NFL, Beasley’s customers keep coming back for more. No matter how hard the courthouse tries to provide quality, fair service, the winners and the losers are always about half and half. Since 1992, the number of circuit civil cases filed has hovered just above 20,000 and the county civil cases has actually risen from a scant 16,000 to over 23,000 a year.
Still, Beasley says his courthouse is underfunded despite his increased customer base and pending budget cuts by the Florida Legislature could force further budget streamlining.
“As of yet, we have not had to lay anyone off in court administration,” he said. “We were able to transfer people from positions that were abolished by the legislature to other positions.”
A hiring freeze of non-essential positions and attrition have put the administrative staff at the Duval County Courthouse somewhat shorthanded compared to other circuits though the court takes it in stride.
“There is a hiring freeze as far as state positions are concerned,” said Lewis, listing areas like family law, court administration, drug court and family mediation. “If somebody leaves a state position, we can’t rehire unless they’re a judicial assistant.”
The same goes for physical assets. The court has to make due with what it has for now.
“That means no computers and no new furniture,” she continued. “But we’re not really in a crunch just yet.”
Beasley doesn’t obsess over the state of the budget or the hiring freeze, at least not anymore.
“I think it’s the culture of this circuit,” he explained. “If you look at the comparison of other circuits our size, they have more employees. I think it’s just a matter of what you get used to. We are just used to everybody carrying a full load. If a position is vacant and you don’t fill it for a while, you just step in and work a little bit harder. Obviously there are certain functions that have to be done that are characteristic of larger circuits. Of the seven largest circuits, we have the fewest administrative support positions to provide the same services that other circuits provide.”
For the next few years, the jewel on the horizon is the proposed new county courthouse, expected to be ready for business in 2007. Offering about triple the usable interior space than the current building, Beasley and company have something to dream about at night.
“It should be enough for our immediate needs for 10 to 15 years,” said Beasley. “The worst possible thing that could happen with the new courthouse is we would occupy every square-inch of space from day one.”
Added Lewis: “It’s going to be such a wonderful thing. It will be a delight to come into a nice, clean building.”
One area in the new courthouse with notable improvements will be the juror holding area. While the clerk of courts is responsible for summoning jurors, the court administrator must accommodate them once they arrive.
“Right now, the jurors are held in a large courtroom,” said Beasley. “The courtrooms with their hard benches and straight backs are really not designed for people to have to sit there all day. From the court’s perspective, the jurors should be able to focus their attention on the trial and not have to worry about whether their parking meter expired.”
Beasley began his career in the courts in 1979 in Tallahassee. The Ocala native and Florida State University graduate worked as the director of judicial of personnel for the Florida Supreme Court before coming to Jacksonville in 1990 as the 4th Judicial Circuit’s court administrator.
While he spends his days at the courthouse, he said he spends very little of his time actually in the courtroom. When he does, it’s usually during high profile trials keeping the media at bay to protect the jurors and ensuring everything runs smoothly. Despite working with judges and lawyers on a daily basis, he has no legal aspirations himself.
“I have a great deal of admiration and respect for lawyers and judges; it doesn’t particularly appeal to me,” he said, though he enjoys the caliber of his colleagues. “Sometimes I’m still amazed at how intelligent and how insightful they can be sometimes — even when dealing with administrative problems.”