With an opening date of May 29 looming for the Unified Duval County Courthouse, changes continue to develop for the courthouse and the people charged with directing the project.
The City Council’s Courthouse Oversight Special Committee met for the third time this year and was able to discuss why the executive project director for the last four years, Sam Mousa, recently resigned from the project and why $4.5 million in changes to the project were being proposed without consulting stakeholders.
Mousa served as chief administrative officer for former Mayor John Delaney, who charged Mousa with bringing the Better Jacksonville Plan in on time and on budget. Mousa told the committee Monday that the completion of the last major project of the Better Jacksonville Plan, the courthouse, was now someone else’s responsibility.
Mousa was informed by Dave Schneider, courthouse senior project manager, in January that Mousa would be contacted by the City’s Chief Financial Officer, Ronnie Belton, regarding his future with the project. Instead of waiting for the call, Mousa claims to have called the mayor’s staff to let them know what his position was.
“During the Jan. 24 meeting with staff, I recommended that I needed to terminate my contract,” said Mousa. “It became clear during discussions that my services were no longer desired.”
Mousa said he wanted to make sure that staff knew he had a contract and he couldn’t fulfill that contract if he could not have communication with the people responsible for development of the courthouse. He resigned during the first week in February.
As Mousa transitioned out of the project, Chief Judge Donald Moran and State Attorney Angela Corey said there was little communication about the project.
“I just became aware of some items that have been deleted that are functional to the courthouse,” Moran said, when asked by Council member Denise Lee if he was aware of the cuts prior to the meeting. “The state of it today is no, either the administration hasn’t read the ordinance or, if they have read it, they have elected to ignore it. They do not contact the chief judge. They have not contacted the president of the Council,” he said.
At the meeting, Belton said the changes the administration is proposing are the same changes it introduced in January to save money on the project: eliminate the pedestrian bridge between the courthouse and the old federal courthouse, which will house the new offices of the State Attorney’s Office and removing some furniture and audio-visual equipment from a list of possibly deleted items.
Corey explained the pedestrian bridge between the old federal courthouse and the new courthouse is necessary for the safety of her employees, and the move from the Duval County Courthouse Annex needs to happen soon.
“You don’t want to see a prosecutor hauling blood-stained shirts through Downtown Jacksonville,” said Corey who was discussing the evidence and materials her attorneys bring to court on a regular basis.
The answer to the questions has been hard to come by, Moran said.
“I have no contact with Mr. Belton, apparently, he’s in charge. He doesn’t understand the courthouse. He doesn’t understand the functionality of the courthouse,” said Moran. “These are the final things in the courthouse and they are not being put in. They are being cut with no consultation.”
Lee was equally frustrated when she found out that the Procurement Division’s Competitive Sealed Proposal Evaluation Committee had approved the changes March 16 without discussing them with the Council’s oversight committee.
“This committee has met at least three times in good faith. We’ve asked questions. For anybody to go to the CSPEC committee to Mr. (Greg) Pease and send an amendment to do this says that this committee has been circumvented,” said Lee. “That this amendment to remove $4 million has been done without us being notified and this is not in good faith.”
“It’s just not the way we should be doing business. It’s disrespectful,” said Lee.
After meeting with Corey earlier Monday, Belton said he would meet with her again in 6-10 days after hearing her concerns regarding the possible deletion of the bridge between the courthouses to discuss options. Anderson plans to schedule the next meeting of the oversight committee after Belton meets with Corey so that those options can be presented to the special committee.
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