Members of the City Council Courthouse Oversight Special Committee sought to question Sam Mousa, consultant for the new courthouse project, about the project during its Wednesday meeting but didn’t have the chance.
He was absent for the meeting and, according to City officials, resigned from the post last week. Dave Schneider, the City’s courthouse manager, relayed the information to the committee and said Kevin Hyde, Mayor Alvin Brown’s chief administrative officer, showed him an email indicating the resignation.
Ronnie Belton, City chief financial officer and administration representative to the committee, said he had not seen the email, but was told it was sent to Hyde last Tuesday.
Council committee members expressed their desire at the previous meeting to question Mousa in person. When Council member Denise Lee didn’t see Mousa in the Council chamber Wednesday, she made it clear his absence was unacceptable.
“I requested that he be here. He is not here. I’m pissed off,” said Lee.
“Mousa was hired. He was paid. He should be here,” she said.
Council member John Crescimbeni asked Belton if Mousa’s resignation was “big news” and whether the administration has disseminated the news.
Belton said he didn’t know.
Crescimbeni said he has been going to meetings about the courthouse project since 2005 but had not seen Mousa at any of the meetings.
“I think he should be subpoenaed,” said Lee.
Mousa was hired by former Mayor John Peyton as the consultant on the project. Mousa is required under the terms of his contract to be the custodian of documents and records related to the project.
Crescimbeni agreed with Lee and said that even if Mousa has resigned, his contract should require him to appear before the committee to answer questions.
Schneider said he believed Mousa resigned because he thought that since the project was near completion, his work as the consultant was over.
“If he resigned because he’s through and doesn’t want to waste the taxpayers’ money, that’s fine. If he resigned because of things that have happened recently at this committee, that’s another thing,” Crescimbeni said.
At the Jan. 25 meeting, many questions posed by the committee went unanswered because the people who were responsible for various aspects of the courthouse project, primarily Mousa, were not present.
Under City Council rules, standing committees and special committees are empowered to subpoena documents and compel witnesses to appear, said Assistant General Counsel Margaret Sidman.
Committee Chairman Greg Anderson said he was “not inclined” to subpoena Mousa because it would “be insulting.”
Anderson said he would prefer to ask Mousa as a “special favor” from the administration to appear when the committee next convenes.
“If there is a problem, ask him to contact the chair,” Anderson said.
State Attorney for the Fourth Judicial Circuit Angela Corey appeared before the committee to answer questions about the amount of office space her office has requested in the former federal courthouse adjacent to the new County Courthouse.
At the previous meeting, the 180,000 square feet of space included in the renovation of the building was questioned by the committee. The issue arose as to why the State Attorney’s Office needs 180,000 square feet in the new location when the office is functioning in 115,000 square feet in its present location in the former City Hall on East Bay Street.
Corey said that the 115,000 square-foot figure was inaccurate. She said her staff had gone, with a tape measure, room by room through the offices and calculated the present space totals approximately 180,000 square feet.
Corey also addressed the issue of the pedestrian bridge between the former federal courthouse and the new county courthouse that was cut from the budget by the administration.
She again cited the issue of safety for prosecutors and documents going between her office and the courts in asking the committee to reverse the administration’s decision to eliminate the bridge from the project.
Corey said that for the past few years, since the State Attorney’s Office was moved out of the County Courthouse and into the former City Hall building across Liberty Street, she and her staff have been concerned about safety based on threats from convicted defendants and their families.
“I’ve been a prosecutor for 30 years. In the last three years, the threats have become more prevalent,” she said.
Corey brought with her Assistant State Attorney Jessica Klingensmith, who told the committee she regularly fears for her safety traversing between the two buildings.
Klingensmith said she has more than once been approached by family members of defendants she has prosecuted and convicted. In an instance last week, she said, a family member of a convicted felon approached her from behind as she was carrying boxes of evidence back to her office across the street. He asked her questions unrelated to the case, she said.
Klingensmith said it’s common to have to ride down the elevator in the courthouse with as many as 15 members of a just-convicted defendant.
“We’re asking the committee to protect those who are asked to protect the community,” Klingensmith said.
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