At 200 feet tall, it is home to America’s second tallest flagpole. The city population is 866 people. The courthouse is located at 324 north pine street. It is a freshly remodeled doublewide mobile office-type courthouse building that is shared with the Sheriff’s department. It’s high up in snow country. They recently closed another court office 42 miles away, open only one day a week and consolidated operations here. The courthouse, freshly remodeled with all of its contents costs a couple hundred grand.
(The tallest flagpole in North America is currently 308 feet and located in Laredo, Texas)
Welcome to Dorris, California – just a rocks toss from the Oregon border in Siskiyou county. Last year, the AOC completed remodeling the courthouse portion of this doublewide that has served this immediate community of 866 well and serves all of eastern Siskiyou county. Given the remoteness of this territory, this courthouse is anticipated to serve about a quarter of the population of Siskiyou county (population 44,000) for the forseeable future.
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Alpine County is home to a little over a thousand residents. Most of those residents are crowded in the western half of the county around Alpine lake and Bear Valley. The lesser half of the residents of Alpine county live in the town or area surrounding Markleeville, California – Population 200. Alpine County is remote. Most of the land in Alpine County belongs to the federal government and the liklihood of needing large court facilities or planning for future growth is unnecessary. The main highway that connects the two halves of the county is closed six months out of the year due to snow.
The AOC intends to spend $130,000.00 per Markleeville resident to build an elaborate one courtroom courthouse with holding cells designed to serve the purpose of the local jail as well. After all, the court never knows when in-custodys may be snowed in and need to be held for a week or more – but let’s plan this anyways. This new courthouse will have a new jury deliberation room for their new trials that only happen about once per year. It will have all the bells and whistles of any modern courthouse and at 26 million dollars, its primary function will be processing traffic tickets (over 90% of their business)
It will never, ever pay for itself. Dorris however, demonstrates prudent use of scarce public funds. So what gives? What makes Markleeville deserving of a 26 million dollar courthouse and Dorris deserving of a couple hundred thousand dollar doublewide?
Inquiring minds want to know….
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More from Law.com / The Recorder’s Cheryl Miller with a video – Courthouse construction estimates break new ground
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A question about the AOC’s funny math: In this link provided by Cheryl Miller in her article, we can see the AOC’s estimates:
Facts
Courtrooms: 3
Square footage: 38,283
Estimated total cost: $51,767,000
Estimated construction cost per square foot: $644
Current status: Site selection and acquisition
Expected completion: 1 Q 2015
Let’s do the math the same way the federal government does the math.
Question from a Senator to the head of GSA: How much will that courthouse cost per square foot = Estimated total costs / Square footage = costs per square foot = $1,352.00 per square foot.
We have no idea what the AOC is doing, unless they’re telling us something like the land underneath the courthouse is being bought from someone’s good friend for about $27 million dollars. Given that there is a wholesale exemption to public contract code for acquisition of land it wouldn’t be against the law to purchase it from someone with juice and overpay for it.
Michael Paul
June 6, 2011
Bingo. The real estate transactions….
Judicial Council Watcher
June 6, 2011
http://www.law.com/jsp/ca/PubArticleCA.jsp?id=1202496326405&AOC_Is_ReScoping_Plans_for_26M_Courthouse_in_Markleeville
The AOC announced today that it is re-scoping the Markleeville Courthouse.
If only the AOC reacted to every damning press report in the same manner, we would be getting somewhere.
JusticeCalifornia
June 6, 2011
Cheryl Miller, and JCW, and Michael Paul, and Jon Wintermeyer rock.
If the CJ/JC/AOC listened more often, the branch and its court facilities would not be where they are now.
I was looking at all of the courthouse works in progress the other night, and it raised a whole lot of questions for me. You compare the costs, with the population, and court hours, and median income, and you think— why is this palatial structure being built right now, in this economy, at this cost, often with interesting fancy architects, when existing structures could simply (and much more economically) be improved/expanded, and when county residents are suffering financially?
Businesses and families with children are fleeing (especially in small towns and counties). Schools are closing or figuring out how to survive/consolidate (especially in small towns and counties). And really, aren’t county residents paying for these palatial extravaganzas via fines and assessments residents cannot afford, in any of our counties? (someone correct me if I am wrong). Yet, county residents are being assured that they are NOT footing the bill for the palatial, fancy extravaganzas being built in their cash-strapped counties. Hey minimimi, isn’t this true?
And Michael, I noticed that same thing about the square foot costs reported. I do believe that a public information request for information about from whom the land for each new courthouse was acquired, at what cost, and with what assistance (and from whom), would be in order.
P.S. I invite all of you to visit the old California Courts website, and try to click on historical iinformation in which you might be interested. I have found that more often than not, I am directed to a GENERIC, NON SPECIFIC location at the new court website, at which I am NOT able to locate or find documents that were available on the old website.
I know I used to be able to find certain things, and now I cannot.
Hey minimimi, please fix this. I understand the fix is easy.
antonatrail
June 6, 2011
Nah, she is beholden to the people who put her there.
wendy darling
June 6, 2011
True, This! —
Beneath the rule of men entirely great,
The pen is mightier than the sword.
Behold
The arch-enchanters wand! — itself a nothing! —
But taking sorcery from the master-hand
To paralyse the Cæsars, and to strike
The loud earth breathless! — Take away the sword —
States can be saved without it!
— Edward Bulwer-Lytton, 1839 for his play Richelieu.
Long live JCW!
Long live the ACJ!
Jon Wintermeyer
June 6, 2011
We need a chorus of the and: “The Waste goes on and on and on”.
But, Michael and I have both witnessed that the AOC Legal Council and The AOC Lobbiests will tell every legislator in the State that Michael and I are incorrect in our accusations, dispite our documentation and in my case actual past proven remodel projects that were 25% OF THE COST THE FMU WOULD SPEND OF SIMILAR PROJECTS.
I only wish that I had been working for a Bench with some members of the Alliance and CEO that was not bought and paid for by the AOC and were not part of King George empire. Many of these Bench Officers saw what I accomplished during my years as a Director in CC Courts, but they all stood silently by when I was railroaded out of my position based on false accusations . But I knew it was going to happen that way, they said nothing when she terminated the four other senior management staff before me.
I originally played by the rules and reported the waste to my immediate managers and we in turn reported it to CEO Torre and she broke the law CA, Government code 8547, which requires her to report it to the Bench that hired her and AOC Management. Instead she was allowed to silence me and will probably retire before anyone ever raises the fact she was never asked to answer to those charges..
Did any one of these Bench Officers think to ask why the Director of their Court’s award winning unit, all of sudden became, according to her accusations made that I was incompetent and insubordinate in six months, after 66 months of accomplishments.
Mrs. Kramer
June 7, 2011
“Did any one of these Bench Officers think to ask why the Director of their Court’s award winning unit, all of sudden became, according to her accusations made that I was incompetent and insubordinate in six months, after 66 months of accomplishments”
Probably. And then they thought about why they would not want to ask that question so they, too, were not retaliated against. Its a classic example of evil flourishing when good men stand by and do nothing.
John and Michael, I am so sorry this happened to you for doing the right thing when other “good men” stood by and watched the messengers get shot.
wendy darling
June 10, 2011
Published today, Friday, June 10, on Legal Pad, the on-line blog of The Recorder, from Cheryl Miller:
AOC Steps Back from Second Costly Courthouse
[Cheryl Miller]
http://legalpad.typepad.com
Plans for a new courthouse in Alpine County aren’t the only blueprints getting another look by the Administrative Office of the Courts.
A one-courtroom, $23 million building planned for Sierra County’s tiny Downieville is under review, too, according to an update on the AOC’s construction Web site.
read the rest of the article on Legal Pad: http://legalpad.typepad.com
Long live the ACJ.
sharonkramer
June 11, 2011
From the LegalPad: “True, some of the projects’ costs have risen since 2008 –- a head-scratcher given the recession. But many have dropped, including the whopping $1.2 billion estimate for downtown San Diego’s new courthouse (now pegged at $633 million).”
How were they able to cut estimated costs by a whopping one half? What $600M worth of new construction was deleted from the San Diego project? At that drastic cost difference, it seems they would have had to redesign the entire project.
I hate to be such a skeptic given the fact that I am aware there are reported IAQ problems in the SD downtown courthouse that are not healthy for the court employees. But are these new estimates based on line item cuts to the project? Or did someone just apply fuzzy math to white out “$1.2B” and fill in “$633M”? (because you all have been on them like white on rice!). Tell me again, what was the original estimate for the CCMS?
http://www.mesothelioma.com/asbestos-exposure/states/california/san-diego/
Environmental Impact Report for new building
JusticeCalifornia
June 10, 2011
Well, this is progress, but I do hope minimimi is figuring out how to step back from her disastrous inner circle she inherited from RG. Tell us minimimi, are you recruiting fresh energy to replace Vickrey? Or are you going to play musical chairs on the Titanic yet again????
Let’s see who’s hoping to be on your short list? Kim Turner? Mike Roddy? Jody Patel? Kiri or Ken Torre? Please. . . . .
None of them is going to fly. . . . .don’t even try.
Judicial Council Watcher
June 11, 2011
If I wanted to be as in-your-face as I could possibly get, Kiri Torre would be a first choice. Given it would represent a pay cut (Why exactly is she paid as much as she is again?) I can’t see her accepting the job without a raise. Based on current CEO salaries I would imagine our next executive director to be making as much as the President of the United States.
Mrs. Kramer – You’ve really underscored the mold issue and we’ve highlighted how the judicial branch has somehow supported the fraud upon the court in your case so I think it’s best to wrap it up if you know what I mean. 🙂
Most of the media on our side believes that if the mold issues were given the consideration they should be getting, then the courthouse construction priority lists would be re-ordered accordingly. However, it is our universal belief that courthouse construction is based partly on need and mostly on the politics of leverage.
sharonkramer
June 11, 2011
“Mrs. Kramer – You’ve really underscored the mold issue and we’ve highlighted how the judicial branch has somehow supported the fraud upon the court in your case so I think it’s best to wrap it up if you know what I mean. :)”
Yes. I completely agree. No need to go further on this board of what has occurred within the Ca legal system that aids adverse conditions to continue in private sector public health and workers comp policies and practices. I feel safer now that I will not be experiencing the ultimate retaliation available from the bench, with no one aware or understanding what is occurring. Again, thank you so much for allowing me to bring this to greater public light among those who already recognize there are severe ethics and conflicted interest problems in our judicial system.
Now back to the point of this board for you all to discuss and expose: Who controls the CA courts, how did they get there, how do they stay there, and what on earth could they possible be thinking? 🙂
JusticeCalifornia
June 11, 2011
I personally believe the issue of who should replace Vickrey should be the subject of statewide branch discussion. And also that “the usual suspects” in top leadership who have so spectacularly failed the branch by getting it into its current mess “need not apply”.
Unfortunately, it appears to be pretty obvious that the reason the musical chairs game is so popular, and people like Turner, Torre, Roddy, Patel, Calabro, Fuentes, Huffman, McConnell, and on and on up and down the branch remain key players in the game, is because they can be counted upon do do what is “necessary” when push comes to shove.
Genuinely accomplished, objective, competent AOC directors and personnel brought in from “the outside” might check the books, look in dark corners, and ask too many questions.
JusticeCalifornia
June 11, 2011
I was websurfing about GOVERNMENT CODE 8547,
http://spb.ca.gov/legal/policy/statutes.htm
but inadvertantly typed in a wrong code section — Government Code 8597.
http://law.onecle.com/california/government/8597.html
And then came across this:
http://www.aroundthecapitol.com/code/getcode.html?file=./pen/00001-01000/830-832.17
ALL of the above are interesting. Make of it what you will.
SF Whistle
June 12, 2011
Meet Ms Howle—
She should be very busy—??
http://www.bsa.ca.gov/aboutus/state_auditor