The Pierce County Board’s Finance & Personnel Committee took the first steps last Monday toward getting the current county board room converted for additional courtroom space.

The committee recommended to the county board transferring contingency funds to the Information Services budget to wire the room for court use.

With the new county board room planned in renovations to the Courthouse Annex, the room which is too cramped for county board use, will be ready to be repurposed for the courts.

A memo to the Finance & Personnel Committee from Administrative Coordinator Jason Matthew states: “The Pierce County Circuit Judge, Joseph Boles, has expressed the need for additional space for court activities dating back to Dec. 11, 2018 when the issue was presented to the Building committee for consideration. Since that time, administration and maintenance staff have worked to develop a plan to accommodate these and other space needs to be rolled into one project.

“That project included renovations in the Annex to include a new County Board Room as a which would then allow the circuit court to utilize the existing County Board room as a hearing room. This project was approved to be funded from existing funds in the building outlay.”

There was a delay in getting the Annex project out for bids because of COVID-19.

“Since that time, Judge Boles and Clerk of Courts Kerry Feuerhelm have expressed the need for the courts to have additional space available for a hearing room to handle the court’s backlog due to COVID-19. The needs for this additional space will continue, post COVID-19 due to the limited capacity in existing court facilities.”

Finance & Personnel recommended to the County Board the transfer from the Contingency Fund to the Information Services budget of $30,000. A quote for technology upgrades necessary for the new court hearing room two years ago was approximately $22,0000.

“The court is preparing to resume in-person hearing soon and therefor time is of the essence to complete this initiative,” Matthys wrote.

The second item related to the matter that Finance & Personnel recommended County Board approval of was transferring funds within the Circuit Court budget fort hearing room furnishings, equipment and supplies.

With COVID-19 stopping many court proceedings, there are funds in the budget that can be used. Matthys wrote, “Although an exact dollar amount is unknown at this time, it is anticipated that the purchase of the various furnishing, equipment and supplies could be achieved by utilizing existing funds in the Clerk of Court budget in an amount not to exceed $25,000.”

Items that need to be purchase include the “appropriate furnishing, equipment and supplies for that space to accommodate the prosecutor, defendant, attorneys, Judge/Commissioner, court reporter, witnesses, the court clerk and gallery.”

In other business, the Finance & Personnel Committee didn’t take any action on information that came out of an Industrial Development Committee meeting that same day. The committee talked about a $65,000 budget for 2021 and also about the possibility of disbanding or eliminating that committee, however that needs to be done by revising county code through an ordinance.

The matter likely will be forthcoming from the IDC again in the near future.