Tyler

By CASEY KNAUPP
Staff Writer

The Smith County judges agreed during their monthly meeting Monday to ask commissioners to follow an expert’s recommendations that the courthouse should not be used for courts, and to halt planned renovations until security concerns could be addressed.

During the last Council of Judges meeting on June 23, Smith County Judge Joel Baker outlined the county’s first phase of long-range planning, which included renovating the courthouse.

Some of the judges have contended that a new courthouse facility is needed because of space and security concerns in the current courthouse.

Judge Kerry Russell, of the 7th District Court, said Monday that during the June meeting, he asked Baker about the demolition of the fifth and sixth floors of the courthouse and the removal of jail steel making up inmate cells there. He said he was concerned about the noise it would create while judges were holding court.

Russell said he understood that the District Attorney’s Office would be relocated from the third and fourth floors to the fifth and sixth floors, and the district clerk’s office would be moved from the second floor to the fourth floor.

Smith County District Attorney Matt Bingham said his third and fourth floor offices were recently renovated and his office was settled, but that they would work with commissioners’ plans. He said he was also concerned about the noise remodeling would create, and that the elevators didn’t go up to the fifth and sixth floors.

Judge Cynthia Stevens Kent, of the 114th District Court, said in the last few years, the judges have been consistent with expressing the need for more courts and more space for the existing courts and that the commissioners should not use funds set aside for remodeling until a plan was in place. She said a plan had not been shown to the judges and the courts haven’t had their security concerns and expansion needs looked at.

Judge Kent said it appeared a plan was being implemented by commissioners that was secret to the judges, because no one had seen it. She said the judges would like to know what the fifth and sixth floors would be used for.

Baker told the judges at the last meeting, at which Judge Kent was absent, that the plan was to move the District Attorney’s Office to those floors.

Smith County Purchasing Director Kelli Davis spoke about the plan on behalf of Baker, who was unavailable to attend.

She said bids had been sent out for the demolition of the fifth and sixth floors of the courthouse, and they are considering having the work done on the weekends so courts won’t be interrupted. The start date for gutting the floors completely would be at the end of August or beginning of September, she said.

Judge Carole Clark, of the 321st District Court, said several reports done by experts say that because of the condition of the courthouse and its security issues, it should not be used for courts and should be used only as an office building. She said adding the use of the fifth and sixth floors would not be enough space that the reports say the courthouse will need for new courts, projected by 2012.

The judges agreed that Judge Clark would write a letter to commissioners, requesting that they follow the recommendations of the experts that the courthouse not be used for courts, and that commissioners not go forward with the renovations until a plan can be formed addressing the judge’s concerns.

In other business, the district judges, but not the county court-at-law judges, approved the addition of e-filing for the courts. Attorneys will now have the option to file documents electronically for a $2 fee in the district courts.

Russell was voted in as the new local administrative judge for the Council of District Judges, taking the place of Judge Kent, who has served the position for the last year.

Also present at the meeting were 241st District Judge Jack Skeen Jr. and County Court-at-Law judges Tom Dunn and Randall Rogers.