North County Courthouse Just Too Small : Cramped Space Puts the Squeeze on Justice

Just seven years after it opened its doors, the county courthouse here is in a squeeze.

Hard-pressed judges are facing a shortage of courtrooms, prompting the county to negotiate to buy two office buildings across the street.

“The courthouse, in its present condition, is just not adequate to allow for future expansion unless we can get some additional grounds or buildings,” said supervising Superior Court Judge Don Martinson. “I think it’s pretty common knowledge by the time we occupied this building it was obsolete.”

The county is talking to the owners of two office buildings across Melrose Street about the purchase of the complex, called the Civic Center Professional Plaza, according to Larry King, the county’s special projects director for the criminal justice unit.

The North County courthouse is in a “serious crunch,” King said. The structure is already 16,000 square feet short of space, and the county predicts that by the year 2005 it will need 200,000 additional square feet, he said. The two buildings across from the courthouse contain 52,000 square feet.

The courthouse contains 10 Superior Court courtrooms, one of which is a former court clerk’s office, and nine Municipal Court courtrooms, including one that is housed in a trailer. The structure also holds a County Jail, a sheriff’s station, a marshal’s office, offices for deputy district attorneys and a law library.

“North County is one of the fastest-growing areas in the United States,” said Municipal Court Judge Tony Maino. “We definitely need more judges. The question is where to put them.”

Maino said one reason the courthouse is too small is that eight years elapsed between the time the building was designed and when it was built. In the meantime, the North County population exploded.

Martinson echoed Maino, saying the Superior Court has enough courtrooms for its current number of judges, but more judges are needed and no courtrooms are available.

A bill pending before the state Legislature would authorize nine additional judges in the county, but “as of now, we don’t have a place for the nine judges to sit in San Diego County,” he said.

Judges said the lack of space has not affected the speed with which criminal cases go to trial, although in Superior Court the backlog of civil cases is increasing. Civil cases are bumped off the court calender to make room for criminal cases because the latter must be heard within 60 days of filing.

“I can tell you as a civil lawyer up in North County that we desperately need courts and judges,” attorney Tom Mix said. “For one case I’ve been to court five times and no courtroom was available.”

Deputy Dist. Atty. Michael Running, who is in charge of Municipal Court cases at the Vista courthouse, said the Municipal Court “is very, very busy.”

“North County is a rapidly expanding area. As the area expands, there is no doubt that the court system has to expand,” he said. Not only are more judges needed, but also more attorneys and more court clerks will be needed, he said.

“We are totally out of clerical space already,” said Patricia M. Johns, municipal court administrator. “We’re getting ready to put Municipal Court employees in the basement, which is designated as storage space.” Municipal Court services have spilled into three trailers, she said.

Johns said the North County Judicial District last year had the highest number of jury trials per judge of any district in the state.

The bargaining for additional space across the street started after the Vista law firm of Mix & Wampler, which is housed in one of the buildings, introduced county officials to the complex’s owners, who are a based in San Diego and Colorado, Mix said.

Although he is not involved in the negotiations, Mix estimated the purchase price of the complex, which includes a graded area upon which a third structure can be built, to be between $5 million and $6 million.

“We just introduced the couple. If they get married, that’s between them,” Mix said.

A study estimated that building onto the courthouse would cost $93 million in 1989 dollars, King said. Instead, the county hopes to buy additional space and move some of the court services to the new building, he said. The courthouse would then be remodeled to accommodate more courtrooms in the freed-up space.

Presiding Municipal Court Judge Victor Ramirez said the two sides “are very close to completing the acquisition.” When court services are moved, space will be available to build four to six courtrooms, he said.

“With six more courtrooms, that should carry us well into the early or mid-1990s without spending the $90 million,” he said.

The county Board of Supervisors on June 23 granted approval to negotiate the purchase of the complex. Supervisor Paul Eckert, whose district includes Vista, said the present structure “was deliberately underbuilt because we didn’t have the money. We have far exceeded the capacity of this building.”

Meanwhile, the County Jail in Vista is undergoing a much-needed expansion, Sheriff’s Lt. Kathy Huth said. The jail has a capacity of 246 inmates, but is holding 380 and has held as many as 440, she said. A new jail building, which is in its design phase and will be constructed next to the present one, will have room for 250 more inmates, she said.