O.C., Judges Have Month to Compromise on Courthouse Plans

Hoping to avoid a lawsuit over crowded South County courthouse conditions, Orange County supervisors agreed Tuesday to give county and court officials a month to forge a compromise on the size of a new facility.

The delay adds a bit more time to the nearly 20-year battle that began with pleas to expand the Laguna Niguel courthouse, where meetings are held in jury rooms and clerks are forced to work in hallways.

County officials originally planned to build a 250,000-square-foot courthouse, but in a cost-saving move last week, County Chief Executive Officer Jan Mittermeier proposed a drastically smaller, 87,000-square-foot facility.

Municipal Judge Pamela L. Iles, angry that supervisors were considering such a huge reduction, threatened to sue the county. She said a facility that size would not alleviate the crowded conditions.

On Tuesday, Iles said she hoped an agreement could be reached.

“We are looking at a dramatic doubling of the population in South County,” she said. “There are only so many beans you can put in a sack.”

The board agreed to use as much as $32 million for the new South County courthouse if an agreement is reached within 30 days.

To ease the acute overcrowding, court officials have taken such measures as turning a closet into a employee lounge and a jury room into chambers for two judges.

The courthouse was built 30 years ago to serve South County’s population of 100,000. The population has grown to 559,200 and is expected to reach 1 million by 2010. The growth of cases also has exploded. The number of felony cases has gone from 447 in 1986 to 1,385 last year.

County officials were planning to build a facility that would house 19 courtrooms in the South County community of Ladera at a cost of $54 million. But the budget proposal was sliced by Mittermeier to $20 million last week. The current courthouse has eight courtrooms; a trailer houses another.

Supervisors found they could not afford to pay $54 million for the courthouse because they needed to expand the Theo Lacy Branch Jail and allocate money to pay off the massive bankruptcy debt.

On Tuesday, board members voted to reduce the debt payments from $15 million to $7 million and to approve the second phase of the Lacy expansion.

The Lacy expansion in Orange would provide dozens of new beds. Sheriff’s officials said they have had to grant early releases to scores of prisoners because of the lack of space.