Officials Lobbying to Keep Court Expansion in Torrance

In the history of Torrance, a seminal chapter was written in 1967 when the late Mayor Albert Isen persuaded county officials to open a Superior Court right next to City Hall.

“I don’t think it’s any coincidence, the phenomenal growth that you have seen (in Torrance) in the last 15 or 20 years,” said Chris Crawford, administrator of the South Bay Municipal Court, which shares the building with the Superior Court. “It is connected to the lock it has on justice services. It is the government center of the South Bay, and that attracts business, industry and growth.”

Lawyers and city officials agree. And with the Maple Avenue courthouse filled to overflowing, they have long expected construction of a second court building next door.

But county officials last month announced a plan to rent courtrooms around the county. They said they might go as far away as Long Beach or Santa Monica to find up to 14 additional courtrooms for the South Bay.

Started Lobbying Campaign

Lawyers, Torrance officials and local court administrators are upset at the prospect of losing courts to other areas and have begun a lobbying campaign to ensure that court expansion takes place in Torrance, or as nearby as possible.

“The bar’s position is that we have to have the courts here in Torrance,” said Emilie Elias, president of the South Bay Bar Assn. “There are more than a million people served by the Torrance courthouse and obviously we have to have the courts near those people. . . . I think the people here see themselves as a distinct community, and to go all the way (to Long Beach) is a long way to go.”

Mayor Katy Geissert said she is concerned that if the courts expand to another community, Torrance could lose the lawyers and other professionals who now rent a considerable amount of office space in the city. The city is considering sending a letter asking Frank Zolin, executive officer of the Los Angeles Superior Court, that additional courts be added in Torrance. (Torrance Superior Court is one of 10 branches of the Los Angeles court.)

One court official predicted that Zolin will heed the pressure to keep courts as close to Torrance as possible. “It would be political dynamite with the Board of Supervisors, the local cities and with the bar” to move courtrooms outside the South Bay, said the official, who asked to remain anonymous.

Zolin said he has assured local officials that his office will work hard to lease court space as close as possible to the Maple Avenue courthouse.

70 New Courtrooms

The plan for leasing court space was described last month in a letter from Zolin to the Board of Supervisors. In the letter, the court administrator proposed renting space to open 70 new courtrooms for the Torrance, Pasadena, Santa Monica, Long Beach and downtown Los Angeles Superior Court districts.

Zolin said in an interview that the top priority of the rental program is to ease the crowding at the Torrance courthouse. A study last year showed that the time needed to bring a civil case to trial in Torrance has more than doubled, from 14 to 34 months, in the last 10 years.

The 14 courtrooms planned for the South Bay would handle civil cases so the Torrance courthouse could be used exclusively for criminal cases, Zolin said.

Zolin said, however, that he must plan for the entire county as he searches for courtroom rental space. Courts serving the South Bay could end up in Long Beach, or vice versa. The locations of new courtrooms will depend on a number of factors, he said, including location of the communities to be served and availability and cost of rental space. The Board of Supervisors will have to approve Zolin’s choice.

“Nothing that I have said in any way means that we are not considering leasing courtrooms in Torrance,” Zolin said, “but what I am saying is that we are pursuing alternatives to Torrance.”

State funds are available to pay the $11 million a year that will be needed to rent 70 courtrooms, Zolin said. Money for construction is much more scarce, so long-term leases are expected to replace most of the plans for building new courthouses.

Others have not given up hope of building a second court building in Torrance.

William G. Willett, presiding judge of the South Bay Municipal Court, said in a letter to Torrance officials that a law may soon be enacted that would double the amount of money that the state sets aside for new courts. Under the proposal, which has passed the Legislature and awaits the governor’s signature, $2 would be contributed to court construction for every $10 collected statewide in criminal fines. The contribution for new courts has been half that.

Municipal Court officials plan to meet with Zolin next week to discuss the court expansion, according to Willett’s letter.

Geissert suggested at a recent council meeting that city officials should help the courts find space somewhere inside the city or risk lawyers moving elsewhere to rent offices.

Bar association President Elias agreed. “We don’t want any of the civil courts moved out of the area,” she said.

Frank Baffa, supervising judge of the Torrance Superior Court, said new courts should be as close to the Torrance courthouse as possible because files, lawyers, judges and other personnel will move frequently between the two courts.

Seymour Cohen, past president of the local bar association, said court expansion outside Torrance would destroy the centralization that Mayor Isen fought so hard to establish 20 years ago.

“I very strongly feel a sense of belonging to this community,” said Cohen, whose office is in Torrance. “I’m firmly of the opinion that if you don’t make your views known very forcefully, it is possible there will be a compromise downtown that would overlook the views of the community.”