Kentucky

John Cheeves post at the Herald Leader's Bluegrass Politics blog is somewhat disturbing on two fronts as it addresses the Madison County family courts' rental of a building to house the family courts business.  The landlord is Sen. Worley; the tenant is the county; the occupant of the rented premises is to be the family courts.

The post is entitled Sen. Worley?s new building will house Madison family courts.  The gist of the article seems to raise concerns over appearances rather than illegalities.  However, in a time of fiscal travails for state and local government, this definitely raises an eyebrow regarding the legislator's activities.  And do you remember this earlier story from the Herald Leader on Pike County's courthouse construction?  See, OP-ED FROM HERALD LEADER: "Courthouse plan wastes taxes, trust - Pike tale shows why Ky. never progresses"

Here's the post:

Worley, who is the Senate Democratic leader and a private developer, spent $765,000 over two years buying up most of a downtown Richmond block full of 19th-century, Italianate-style buildings, which he demolished.

He?s now building a two-story, brick-veneer office building on the site to house Madison County?s family courts division.

UPDATED: JAKE PAYNE AT PAGE ONE BLOG HAS ALSO RAISED CONCERNS OVER THIS RENTAL: 

Why is it legal for Ed Worley to make $410,000 a year in rent from the Madison County Family Court? Is the Administrative Office of the Courts just in existence to funnel hundreds of thousands of dollars in cash to various folks around the Commonwealth? Why is it Ed Worley can legally take hundreds of thousands of dollars in state funds while he?s a member of the state legislature? [John Cheves]

However, what about the other side of the rental equation as the post goes on to say

[Madison's family law courts have] been in a county-owned building next to Worley?s property since 2002.

The county-owned building is too small and needs repairs, Clark said. And he said there is no room for family courts in the county?s existing courts buildings, including the Madison County courthouse, the Madison Hall of Justice and the $5 million courthouse annex that opened three years ago.

With no appropriate space, the county had to find a private landlord and pay outside rent, Clark said. He advertised for anyone who could offer 15,000 to 16,000 square feet of office space within two blocks of the courthouse.

With the recent addition of a $5 million courthouse annex only 3 years old (on top of the courthouse and the hall of justice] who has been on top of this building program with such shortsightedness and inability to project growth just a year or so down the road. 

Or worse yet, what if the facility construction was obsolete even before the first shovel of dirt?

I am again reminded of the recent series by Herald Leader raising questions on Kentucky's courthouse construction (Law & Mortar: Courthouse building boom).  The Herald Leader wrote a scathing editorial with a hint of optimism in hopes that the new Chief Justice Minton will address the problem and resolve it (eg., "Cleaning up court construction mess" is the editorial and no longer on line, but due to its potential long term importance I incorporated a large portion of it in my earlier post dated Oct. 9, 2008 - AOC: "Cleaning up court construction mess".  

As the editorial and series noted - $880 MILLION for 65 courthouse construction projects in 10 years.  And now one project has to be supplemented by rental for the family courts in Madison County.  Not a positive sign for the AOC.  But, I must confess the AOC may not be the culprit constructor in this case as there is no mention in the Herald Leader's data base of any judicial center construction in Madison County which means the AOC is not involved or the data base is not accurate.  See, SEARCH DATABASE: Courthouse boom.

I am not familiar with the procurement process regarding buildings and grounds, but when the Herald Leader raises an eye, then I think it is worth a look.  A look at the landlord, the tenant, and the occupant as to how in the heck did we get here?

Here are the assurances anticipated and noted in the Herald Leader post:

Minton hasn't pledged yet to completely open AOC records, as we would like, but he has taken some important steps:

? Creating an online tracking system for "every penny" spent on these projects.

? Taking steps to include public input on projects, including better notice of meetings of the boards that oversee them.

? Asking the National Center for State Courts to take a look at AOC's administrative procedures.

? Asking State Auditor Crit Luallen to take "a closer look" at judicial-center projects.

Here are some earlier posts:

COURTS: AOC Courthouse Construction Program Under In-House Audit by CJ Minton; others wanted state auditor Luallen

Contractors ordered to completely insure work - Latest News

Ky. hires new director for courthouse construction

COURTHOUSES: Herald Leader story follows up on its investigation into Kentucky Courthouse construction with story on failure of Harrison County project to accommodate disabled