New South County Courthouse Gets Nod

SANTA ANA — After nearly two decades of setbacks and delays, the Board of Supervisors on Tuesday voted to begin planning a new South County courthouse in Rancho Santa Margarita even though funding for the $82-million project has not been secured.

The proposed development would house as many as 19 courtrooms and replace two woefully overcrowded court facilities in Laguna Niguel, where judges handle more cases per capita than any other Municipal Court in California. Space is so tight that officials have trouble organizing jurors, transporting defendants and storing records.

“It subjects people to crowded conditions that, in some respects, are like Third World conditions,” said Supervisor Thomas W. Wilson, who represents South County. “This gets people off the dime and moving forward on the project. . . . I’m pretty optimistic.”

The 5-0 board vote does not allocate funds to the project but directs Chief Executive Officer Jan Mittermeier to seek a location and a developer for the courthouse, which would probably be part of a larger office development. The board also established a subcommittee that will work with her to develop a financing plan.

Mittermeier recommended that supervisors not approve the project, arguing that the county does not have the money to finance new construction as it struggles to recovery from bankruptcy.

The courthouse will cost about $82 million to build, but total payments on a 30-year debt service would total $172 million, or about $6 million a year. Mittermeier said that money would have to come out of the county’s already tight general fund, which pays for a variety of public services.

Gedale Horowitz, a Salomon Bros. financial consultant, warned the board that issuing court construction bonds “would not be a great way to reestablish the county’s credibility” with Wall Street in the wake of the bankruptcy.

Bond rating agencies have already questioned the county’s ability to pay bankruptcy-related debts and balance its operating budget under existing conditions, he said.

County officials said it might be possible to issue bonds for the project through an “intercept revenue program” established as part of the bankruptcy recovery plan. But the program is the subject of a lawsuit by a government watchdog group that calls key portions of the recovery plan unconstitutional.

Another potential source of funding is the $26 million the board set aside for early repayment of county debts. But Wilson, Supervisor Jim Silva and others said they oppose tapping the bond repayment fund.

Instead of building a new courthouse, Mittermeier suggested a $6-million-to-$10-million expansion of the Laguna Niguel facility. Board members dismissed the idea as a “Band-Aid” approach.

Judge Pamela L. Iles, who has been seeking a new courthouse for years, said that she was “ecstatic” about the board’s vote and was confident that a financing plan could be worked out.

Iles and other judges said that the eight existing courtrooms cannot handle the 13,000 annual cases.

“For taxpayers to go and serve on a jury there is unacceptable,” added Supervisor Todd Spitzer, a former prosecutor.

When the Laguna Niguel courthouse was built in 1968, South County had just 100,000 residents. Today the population exceeds 450,000.

“More and more big-city problems are moving south, and more people are entangled in the court system,” Wilson said.

Mittermeier is scheduled to return to the board in 30 days to report on her progress. County officials acknowledged that it will take time to work out a financing proposal.

“We still have a long way to go,” Board Chairman William G. Steiner said. “But we have clearly placed this as the priority of the board.”

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Court Delays

For more than 20 years, South County leaders and judges have been pushing for new courthouse in the area. Here is a chronology of some key dates:

* 1986: Board of Supervisors approves design contract for expanded Laguna Niguel courthouse.

* 1988: Expansion discontinued due to lack of constsruction funds.

* 1991: Study finds need for South County civic center that would include more courts and county government facilities.

* 1992: South County civic center plan scaled back because of costs.

* 1994: Koll Co., selected as developer for courthouse; project delayed by bankruptcy.

* 1997: Board votes to begin planning new courthouse in Rancho Santa Margarita; funding still absent.

Source: Orange County executive office; Researched by SHELBY GRAD / Los Angeles Times