Will state ever fix county courthouse?

The main courthouse in El Centro was damaged in the Easter earthquake more than two years ago. The main staircase has been blocked off with scaffolding ever since the building reopened to the public. I asked one of the local judges if the state was ever going to fix the building. He told me that while the state officially owns the building, there is a contract with the county that provides that the county is required to repair all earthquake damage for the next 30 years. I learned from another source who works at the courthouse that the county is renting the scaffold that is blocking the main staircase to the tune of $3,300 a month. It seems like the county would be better off to bite the bullet and make the repairs rather than flushing the money on renting scaffolding. Is there any plan to make the repairs? — Legal Eagle, Brawley

All of the information in the letter is essentially correct, and that was confirmed by both the court’s executive officer, Kristine Kussman, and County Executive Officer Ralph Cordova.

The simple and speedy answer to the overall letter is, yes, there are plans to make the repairs. When that will happen is up for some question.

Another portion of this query that has an answer is the cost of the scaffolding, and whether it would be more cost-effective to simply start making fixes.

Cordova confirmed that the monthly rental cost of the scaffolding is $3,240. However, he said the cost of the remaining repair work is $260,000. Based on those numbers, through 31 months, the rental has cost the county $100,440, less than half of the total amount to fix the courthouse.

Plus, Cordova added, that cost “ultimately serves the purpose of protecting life and property on premises, which will deem the scaffolding’s rental expenses eligible for cost reimbursement through (the Federal Emergency Management Agency).”

FEMA reimbursement and the glacial pace of the federal government has been at the core of the delays, Cordova said.

Those excuses are hard for the folks at the courthouse to hear, though. And now, it seems the state is poised to put some pressure on speeding up the process, said Kussman.

Kussman and the presiding judge of the courts went to speak with the administrative offices of the court of California a couple of weeks ago to plead their case.

This comes after Kussman said she had tried and tried to get the county to hurry up and fix the courthouse. “We, as a court, have spoken at public comment (at the county Board of Supervisors meeting), spoken to board members in passing, had meetings with the building facilities department,” she said.

To no avail, she said.

She said the state administrative court office has committed to going to the county and asking whether it has done everything it can to speed along the process.

“The state is working on options, reading the contract to determine what their next steps are going to be. I believe they will start exerting pressure,” Kussman said.

The contract she is referring to is the one that turned over the care of the courthouse to the state from the county. The letter writer is correct that while the state owns the courthouse, the maintenance for the next 30 years is the responsibility of the county.

Kussman said that courthouse has what is referred to as a Seismic 5 rating, the worst. In order for the property to pass over to the state, it would only agree if the county continued to maintain it.

It appears as though the state is looking through that portion of the contract to find something that would compel the county to do the work faster.

“I don’t think this was a priority for the county. It doesn’t appear from my perspective that this was their priority,” she said.

Meanwhile, Cordova said the county has had to wait for approvals of the work from FEMA, the California Emergency Management Agency and the state Historic Preservation Office because of the age of the courthouse.

“Needless to say that nobody could have anticipated the amount of time it has taken CalEMA, FEMA and SHPO to provide approval for these construction documents,” Cordova wrote.

“At this point the county is still going through FEMA’s required process to achieve final approval of the scope of work; expediting responses and additional information requests whenever they are needed,” he said.

Recently, Kussman said she sent a notice to the county giving it 45 days to reconfigure the scaffolding. When asked what the court could do if nothing is done in that time frame, she said she did not know.

We’ll keep you updated on this one as it unfolds.