County OKs Lease-Buy Deal for Court Building

San Diego County supervisors agreed Tuesday to lease and then buy a building they hope will ease a Superior Court space crunch, despite several board members’ misgivings and one supervisor’s assessment that the $7-million purchase would be a “crummy deal.”

The supervisors voted, 3-1, with Leon Williams opposed and Brian Bilbray absent, to lease a building at 1555 6th Ave. from John Burnham & Co. to house the Superior Court’s family law and probate divisions. The county is expected to buy the building early next year.

The move is intended to ease a space shortage at the County Courthouse at 220 W. Broadway, freeing room there for six Superior Court judges whose positions were approved by the state Legislature but who have not been appointed because of a lack of space for the courtrooms and the offices to go with them.

The board’s action followed a spirited debate at which the owner of the International Convention Center next to the El Cortez hotel contended that the county improperly shut off consideration of his building, which is also for sale.

Jerry Dawson, an attorney for World Evangelism, which owns the center, said the county could buy his client’s building for about the same price as the Burnham property and get 20,000 more square feet of space and a 20,000-square-foot lot that could be used for expansion.

Dawson said the county was wrong to enter into negotiations with Burnham without first soliciting bids from the public. The county did so because a consultant hired by the Superior Court said the Burnham property was the only building on the market that would suit the county’s needs.

All four supervisors present criticized the county staff’s handling of the deal, but three of them voted for it nonetheless. The board had given tentative approval to the lease agreement in July.

“This is not a good deal; it’s a crummy deal,” Supervisor Paul Eckert said after the vote. Eckert said that he voted for the agreement because Chief Administrative Officer Norman Hickey assured him that the deal would be a good one for the county.

“The community will have to live with that,” said Eckert, who lost a bid for a third term and will leave the board in January. “The CAO (Hickey) will have to live with it.”

Eckert and Williams said they were disturbed that the work that led to the county’s decision to purchase the Burnham building was done by the judges and their staff independent of Hickey, who answers to the Board of Supervisors.

“I see some potential here for an irresponsible decision if we proceed,” Williams said.

But Superior Court Judges Donald Smith and Dennis Adams said the Burnham deal is a good one. They said that backing out of the agreement now would create unacceptable delays in the search for new court space.

“We just don’t have the luxury of waiting,” Adams, chairman of the court’s space committee, said. “We just don’t have the luxury of more studies. We need some interim solutions, and we need them now. We’re in a crisis. Our court is being held together with bubble gum and Band-Aids.”

Louis Garday, a senior vice president for John Burnham & Co., said the firm had spent $100,000 on plans to remodel the building for the county since the board tentatively approved the lease in July. He said a building contractor is prepared to begin the remodeling immediately and that the space will be ready in six months.

“I am convinced that this will be a cost-effective, remarkable, excellent facility for the County of San Diego,” Garday said. “We’re ready to go. We’ll build you a damn fine facility.”

Supervisors Susan Golding and George Bailey said that they were voting for the Burnham deal despite misgivings about the way the negotiations were handled. They said the agreement--whatever its origins--to lease and buy the Burnham building appeared to be good for the county, particularly given the critical lack of court space downtown. Even with the purchase, they said, the county would still be free to pursue the International Convention Center property independently.

“As long we are purchasing a building at its appraised value, we should proceed and get the job done,” Golding said. “For us to not move ahead would fly in the face of everything we’ve been saying for two years.”

Under the terms of the deal approved Tuesday, the county will lease the Burnham building for $83,049 a month, beginning in May, 1987. The county will have the option to buy the building for $6,925,379. That price will climb $8,333 each month after May if the county delays buying the building.

In a related action Tuesday, the supervisors asked the county staff to look at several alternatives for financing the construction of jails and courthouses now that voters have rejected an increase in the sales tax.

Among the choices to be considered are seeking voter approval for a bond issue; entering into a partnership with a private firm to build a jail and then lease it to the county, and using city redevelopment funds to build a new courthouse or jail, or both.