Feeling the squeeze on space needs

It’s Wednesday, so let’s talk about space.

Oh, not like rockets taking off. Nah, this is government space.

The County Commission had a workshop Tuesday on space needs. While the space study was intended to look at all available space in county-owned facilities, the discussion boiled down to the Courthouse.

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The judges, you see, need space. I get it. They’re judges. They require courtrooms. The state gives us more judges, which is a good thing. We have no place for them, which is a bad thing.

So, clearly, the idea is to empty the three-story Courthouse of all non-judicial services so the county can build more courtrooms. Makes perfect sense.

County administration is on the second floor. Each commissioner has his/her own individual office. Along with offices for the County Administrator and County Attorney. I’ll come back to this in a moment.

For the past two years, maybe more, the county has tried to find a home for administration/commissioners. First, there was talk of the Adams Building (the one with no parking), and commissioners passed on that. The board voted in March to negotiate a lease with the City of Inverness for space in city hall.
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Meanwhile, the public works folks have been working on plans to renovate the second floor to courtrooms, and all the other rearrangements that have to take place.

Now. What drives staffers crazy (though they’ll never admit it publicly) is when commissioners change the plan with no warning or forethought, such as what happened Tuesday.

Commissioners Janet Barek and Diana Finegan were never crazy about leasing space from the city. And when they heard the rent amount Tuesday — $11,000 a month, over $100,000 a year — Finegan couldn’t jump out fast enough to quash that idea.

Then, almost as an afterthought, someone suggested Park Place, the private two-story office building right next to the Courthouse on Martin Luther King Jr. Avenue. The county could buy Park Place and make the necessary office relocations.

(Useless trivia: It’s called “Park Place” because the street was Park Avenue before the city changed it to Martin Luther King Jr. Avenue. Scary I retain stuff like this.)

Well, apparently, that made everyone happy. The board voted 5-0 Tuesday afternoon to immediately stop negotiating with the city. No idea where they’ll go instead. Maybe it’s Park Place, maybe it’s something else. Who knows?

(By the way, this might not sit well with the city folks. They had worked in good faith to prepare Inverness Government Center for the county, only to get dropped five months later with no explanation. In fact, the only reason it came up at all Tuesday is because City Manager Eric Williams pushed the issue. The city had seen this arrangement as a great collaborative opportunity. Then it vanished, just like that. Hmmm. Just sayin’.)

Mike note: I learned from a friend Wednesday that Inverness Councilwoman Linda Bega owns Park Place. That's...interesting.

I watched Tuesday’s meeting from home, and I could see Judges Carol Falvey and Edward Spaight sitting in the front row listening to this chatter. They had a look that said: “We don’t care where you end up, just don’t delay our new courtrooms any longer.”

And none of this is cheap. Renovating the second floor is about $3.5 million. Renovating the third floor, which comes next, is another $4 million.

I don’t have an answer. It’s frustrating and larger than most people can get their hands around. The public doesn’t want their taxes spent on office buildings, but they’re a necessity for the government to do its job. Few issues place commissioners in a tighter squeeze than space needs.

Somewhat related is the issue of whether individual commissioners should have offices. Finegan and Barek think they’re a waste of money and space. Finegan makes the point that having an office in Inverness does little good to meet with her Homosassa constituents.

A couple of thoughts about that. One is public expectation. To many people, meeting with a commissioner is the same as a legislator, and the office should reflect that pomp.

On the other hand, this county is starving for public projects that cost a lot more money than we have in the wallet. If we can save a few bucks by eliminating individual offices for commissioners, it seems logical.

Simple: Is it a need, or a want? Courtrooms are a need. County commission offices are a want.

I know, I know. Heavy government stuff. Some days are like that. 

That’s it for Wednesday. Have a great one, friends.

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