by Bradley Parsons
Staff Writer
Gov. Jeb Bush allowed a bill to pass Saturday without his signature that will add four judges to Duval County’s bench. The next step will be figuring out where to put them.
The City is already building two new courtrooms to bring some relief to a crowded Duval County Courthouse. To make room for three new circuit court judges and one new county court judge, positions created by the Florida Legislature, the City needs to continue building courtrooms, said Britt Beasley, court administrator at the Courthouse.
“We have an existing shortage, if we’re going to add additional judges we could probably use six more courtrooms after the two we’re building,” said Beasley. “That’s just to meet our immediate need. That doesn’t take into account future growth.”
Beasley said the City supported plans to add two courtrooms to those under construction. The problem is finding room in the packed Courthouse.
The State Attorney’s Office vacated space on the East Bay Street building’s fifth floor for the current expansion. Beasley said the SAO would likely have to clear out more office space for future courtrooms.
The City plans to move many of its own administrative offices from the City Hall Annex on East Bay Street to Hogan Street’s Ed Ball Building. That should clear room in the Annex for offices currently housed in the Courthouse.
Dave Schneider, overseeing the move for the City, expects that process to begin in September.
Asked what offices Courthouse administrators could juggle to clear rooms for additional courtrooms, an exasperated Beasley said the space crunch was approaching “crisis level.”
“I hesitate to use that word and we’re not there yet, but we’re at the level right under that,” said Beasley. “The answer is a new Courthouse, but that’s not happening until 2010, so until then we’ll have to do the best with the inadequate facilities we have.”
Beasley said all judges were rotating among existing courtrooms. That presents security problems when criminal cases are tried in less secure civil courtrooms instead of criminal courtrooms.
The new judges will be elected positions, appearing on the fall ballot. Supervisor of Elections Jerry Holland expects candidates to qualify July 17 with candidates for the Florida House of Representatives.
Other than the new positions, Duval County’s bench shouldn’t see too much turnover. No one qualified to run against a sitting judge.
But Holland said the judicial election season could get interesting if sitting county judges run for the new circuit court seats. Florida’s resign to run law would require them to resign July 7 to chase those spots. That would create openings on the county bench.