MINUTES BROWARD COUNTY COURTHOUSE TASK FORCE ADVISORY BOARD SEPTEMBER 18, 2013

Transcription

1 MINUTES BROWARD COUNTY COURTHOUSE TASK FORCE ADVISORY BOARD SEPTEMBER 18, 2013 MEMBERS PRESENT: County Commissioner Stacy Ritter, Chair County Commissioner Tim Ryan Mayor John Jack Seiler, City of Fort Lauderdale Jeff Marcus, Assistant State Attorney Howard Forman, Clerk of Courts Chief Judge Peter Weinstein Jeffrey Ostrow, Kopelowitz Ostrow Steve Michaelson, Public Defender s Office Jose Izquierdo, Izquierdo and Marin MEMBERS ABSENT: Margaret Bates, Broward League of Cities Scott Chitoff, Brinkley, Morgan, Solomon, Tatum and Lunny Greg Durdin, Greg Durdin, P.A. Howard Finkelstein, Chief Public Defender Linda O Neill, Judicial Assistant to Judge Robert Lee Eugene Pettis, Haliczer Pettis and Schwamm ALSO PRESENT: Steve Hammond, Public Works Department Alphonso Jefferson, Assistant to County Administrator Nancy Cavender, The Laws Group A meeting of the Broward County, Broward County, Florida, was held in Room 430 of the Government Center, Fort Lauderdale, Florida, at 11:00 a.m., Wednesday,. LG/NC 1

2 (The following is a near-verbatim transcript of the meeting.) WELCOME AND INTRODUCTIONS COMMISSIONER RITTER: So, good morning, everybody. My name is Stacy Ritter. I m a Broward County Commissioner. I ve been asked by our staff to just say, welcome, thanks for coming together again. As you know, I was not on this Task Force when you all did your work, as was Commissioner Ryan not. But when I was the Mayor, I asked the County Commission to put together this Task Force to figure out a way to build this courthouse. And we haven t had any updates in a while, so Mr. Jefferson and I decided that we should all get together and at least you could have an update on what s going on as a result of your hard work. So, with that, let s do self introductions. Would you start, Mayor Seiler? MAYOR SEILER: Jack Seiler, Mayor of Fort Lauderdale. COMMISSIONER RYAN: County Commissioner Tim Ryan. MR. OSTROW: Jeff Ostrow, Kopelowitz Ostrow Law Firm. MR. MARCUS: Attorney's Office. Jeff Marcus, Assistant State Attorney, Broward State MR. MICHAELSON: Steve Michaelson, Public Defender s Office. MR. JEFFERSON: Alphonso Jefferson, Assistant County Administrator. JUDGE WEINSTEIN: Peter Weinstein, Chief Judge. MR. FORMAN: Howard Forman, Clerk of the Court. COMMISSIONER RITTER: Okay. Thank you very much. If you wish to speak, the microphones have to be turned on. If you see the little voice, the mouth that looks like it s speaking, with the lines, if you push up the button to the right of that, your microphone will go on. A red light will appear, and you ll be able to be heard by everybody, including the recording secretary. Okay? So, with that, Mr. Jefferson, let s get some updates. MR. JEFFERSON: Well, thank you, Commissioner. Today, Commissioners, Task Force members, we re going to have Steve Hammond, who s going to give you an update on where we are as far as the Courthouse project. LG/NC 2

3 Just to comment very quickly, we are talking about the Courthouse tower, but we re also talking about other projects that s happening on the campus, as well. As you can see, in the audience we have various stakeholders who have been receiving regular updates on the project and definitely they want to hear some of the new stuff that s happening out there, as well. So, at this point, I ll just turn it over to Steve. PROJECT UPDATES: COURTHOUSE TOWER, 500-CAR GARAGE, 1,000-CAR GARAGE, MIDRISE BUILDING, EAST WING REMODELING, UPDATE NORTH REGIONAL COURTHOUSE MR. HAMMOND: Good morning. It s my pleasure to be back in front of the Task Force. It s been, I think, a couple of years, and there s been, obviously, a lot of work, and I think we have a really great story for you this morning. We wanted to be sure to give you the project updates, be able to talk to you about things that are coming up on our near-term horizon, which would probably involve most of you in some, perhaps, decision-making capacities, talk about some of the future issues and challenges that lay ahead of us, and to answer any questions you might have about what we re doing, what s coming up, and where we re going from here. So this morning, we re going to give you quickly some updates on a number of projects, and we generally talk about the Courthouse as the Courthouse project, but it s really a series of different and separate activities, including our thousand-car garage, our temporary secure parking lot, the tower, of course, our 500-car garage, our midrise building project, the east wing remodeling, and the North Regional Courthouse. So where did we start? Back a few years ago, you guys approved for us to go forward with projects on really two primary sites. The Courthouse site, the tower site, is the site of the former garage, which I think you all remember, and then our thousand-car garage site, which is just south, located on the former Comcast property. So this aerial gives you kind of an idea where we were in about So the scope of work, and we re going to talk about each one of the projects, just to briefly remind you about what the scope involves. Our thousand-car garage, and you can see with the red highlighted area on the site plan, that s our thousand-car garage. It s going to have about 12,000 LG/NC 3

4 square feet of built-out space for the Guardian Ad Litem. It s a 29 and a half million dollar project. We have CBE participation, 25 percent. And we re looking to be complete late next spring, so this project is moving along really well. The -- one of the key issues, we did have some -- we had some contamination that we discovered as we demolished buildings on the site. That s been cleaned up. And we re actually probably look at recovering some costs from the original land owner, so that s an issue that you ll see play out in the near term. Just a reminder of what we re building. You can see in this rendering, the old Coca- Cola building, historically significant and going to be preserved, surrounded on the north and east sides by our new thousand-car garage. So what we re building will be a -- I think a beautiful new addition to the Andrews Avenue streetscape. And where we started. Last year, December 2012, we had cleared the site of most of the old Comcast buildings, and we were ready to really go hard core into the construction phase. So December And just to show you kind of how quickly things have been moving, this was August I ve -- so dramatic difference. And what I think is pretty incredible, I get these aerial photos just about every month from the contractor, and -- so with the Task Force meeting that was scheduled and canceled, that was the current state of affairs. Current state of affairs as of about last week, and you can see the dramatic progress that s being made. And, of course, that was last week. This week s different. The entire structure will be built-out probably in late October, so we re looking at a really great story. This is building up to the opening next year no problem so far. The temporary secure parking lot. This is probably the most unpopular parking lot that the County s ever built. So -- but we built it. And it s in use daily, with judges and other people parking there. Key issues, those gates. And we keep having car versus gate incidents, and, to that end, we have actually begun replacing those gates, and the new gates are scheduled to be complete next week. So, with any luck, cars/gates conflicts will be over. Everybody will be happy, as -- as much as they can be with this temporary parking situation. It ll be in place for the duration of the project, until we get the new garage built. Your Honor? LG/NC 4

5 JUDGE WEINSTEIN: The -- part of the problem, it s just not that the judges and court personnel don t know how to drive. That s -- no, no. I didn t mean that they don t know how to drive, but part of the problem is with the -- with all of the construction and activity at the jail site, oftentimes you have people who are stuck, and, you know, you re halfway out the gate, and then you have to stop. So they ve got to make -- make certain that the timing doesn t start closing that gate again. We started pulling out this morning and a BSO detention bus was in the wrong lane, because the -- luckily, I saw them before they saw me, so I -- you know, I was able to stop. But part of the problem is people have gotten stuck midway outside of those gates. You also have a lot of members of the public who are lost, and they end up just stopping, you know, and that s where some problems occur. We have to make sure that there s no -- that the timing is right so as long as there s a vehicle in there - MR. HAMMOND: Yeah. JUDGE WEINSTEIN: -- it won t close. MR. HAMMOND: And with the new gates, that s one of the continuing issues that we re going to be looking at, is how these new gates work, do they work, and what do we have to do to make sure that the parking lot remains safe, accessible, and secure. So this is an ongoing issue and won t be probably finished until we re finished with the entire project. This is a continuing saga. So, just very quickly, before and after. About 2011 and then the glorious parking lot as it stands now. A very significant change, obviously. Heavily landscaped, attention to a lot of detail, particularly along the New River. We were very concerned about the presence there, and worked very carefully with the city to provide landscaping and amenities. Our Courthouse tower, and this is probably the keystone of all of the work we re doing. Again, as a reminder, it s -- you know, it s 700-some-odd thousand square feet, 20 stories, $219,000,000 approximately. 29 percent participation by our small business community. The first phase of the project includes our new Courthouse tower; the connecting bridge, which you see in green, stretching across to the existing east wing; a new façade and elevator at the east wing; and demolition, of course, of the central and west wings to make room for the 500-car garage. LG/NC 5

6 We are still tracking to be complete on this in 2015, mid part of the year. And, again, just the reminder, the pretty picture of what we re building. I think pretty dramatic addition to the skyline of Fort Lauderdale. You can see in the background, of course, the tower, the 500-car garage below, and, at the very bottom of the screen, the roof of the east wing of the Courthouse. The jail in the background, the 110 Tower across the street. Commissioner? COMMISSIONER RYAN: I had -- I was approached by one of the judges that had expressed some concern about the design of the courtrooms in the tower, and that there was some question of whether or not that would be able to accommodate a full jury panel. And have -- has -- have those concerns been expressed to the people on the construction/design team and - MR. HAMMOND: Extensively. COMMISSIONER RYAN: -- how are they -- how are they being addressed? MR. HAMMOND: I ll -- in fact, I ll talk about that in a couple minutes - COMMISSIONER RYAN: Okay. MR. HAMMOND: -- so - COMMISSIONER RYAN: All right. MR. HAMMOND: -- we ve had a very long discussion, and it s continuing, so. Again, progress-wise, December 2012, taking you back to last year. The site was cleared, ready for construction. This is, again, August. We re up through about ten stories of tower construction. And then now, September, we re at 12 stories. So, again, another project that s moving at a very rapid clip. Two stories a month. And that rate is continuing, and I think the construction team s really hit its pace with being able to churn these things out. One of the things that you don t really get to see from the ground is what s happening up on the upper decks of the Courthouse, and this view just kind of shows you the busy activity that s happening daily as we go skyward. There s a lot of people crawling all over the building. In this instance, providing rebar, placing concrete, preparing for pouring the next floors. So LG/NC 6

7 it s an incredibly busy, busy site. Likewise, one of the things you probably don t see as you stand on the street is what s happening inside. And as the building races skyward with both structure and envelope, the interior s being built out as well, with metal studs, mechanical systems, electrical, plumbing. So the guts of the building are happening from the ground up, chasing the structure as it reaches to the sky. And we re still working out on Courthouse Drive. So while we re reaching to the sky, we re still digging down in the dirt, working on utilities and rectifying existing conditions, making new plumbing, fire protection, drainage lines. So, some of the challenges that we have with the tower. Of course, pedestrian safety along Southeast 6th Street is one of our primary concerns. It continues to be an issue. We are looking at having some discussions about changing our maintenance -- maintenance of traffic plan to expand it to make the street even safer. We have a very difficult pedestrian control problem, a little bit lesser of a vehicular control problem, but they add up to be issues that we need to continue addressing. The Courthouse Drive utilities, I think we re finally getting to the point we re working through those issues. It s been a process of discovery, a lot of hand digging, a lot of finding some of the unknown surprises and dealing with those in the midst of a very tight construction schedule. The potential courtroom redesign, and this, Commissioner, is where we come back to those issues. We have over the summer a series of mockup reviews with judges and other stakeholders where they came in and they actually looked at the physical models, full-scale, built up, of what the courtrooms are going to be like. And we took an extensive amount of comments from the judges and other stakeholders about the functionality of those courtrooms. So we ve really boiled down the issues now, I think, to a short list of things that are fairly significant, particularly with the hearing rooms, and now we re in the midst of trying to integrate those into our design and the construction. So we re very much aware and on top of those issues. Things like number of jurors, configuration of the bench, I guess some refinement of sight lines, seating arrangements, those kind of things. It s all -- we have a -- a good list of the comments, and we re addressing each one to try to make the courtrooms absolutely functional. LG/NC 7

8 COMMISSIONER RYAN: If the -- if the redesign requires that you increase the square footage of some of these courtrooms, I mean, are you ultimately looking at reducing the total number of courtrooms? MR. HAMMOND: No. In fact, primarily, one of the issues -- the big issue about the size of the courtrooms, there -- there are really two. The original program had a couple of split courtrooms where we were providing like two first appearance courtrooms, and we ve actually been able to just take the dividing wall out and make that a bigger courtroom. So that s -- that s fairly easy. MAYOR SEILER: Can I interrupt for one second? MR. HAMMOND: Sure. MAYOR SEILER: May I make a motion that we appoint a Chair so that -- I know I see Peter s -- Judge Weinstein s hand go up and your hand go up. I recommend that Stacy, as a County Commissioner, serve as Chair of this meeting, and, that way, we can have a flow to it and -- because - UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: I just assumed that (inaudible) was Chair. MAYOR SEILER: -- and so -- that s okay. There s been a motion and a second, so, Madam Chair, you would have to call that vote. MR. HAMMOND: Just very quickly, we do - COMMISSIONER RITTER: I m not calling that vote. UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: Yeah, yeah. UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: We -- just make sure - COMMISSIONER RITTER: Fine. Whatever. Is there any objections? UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKERS: No. COMMISSIONER RITTER: Yeah, thanks. Good, I get to put that on my -- I can put that on my resume, Ken. Chair of the Courthouse Task Force. Judge Weinstein. JUDGE WEINSTEIN: One of the things that we -- Commissioner, one of the things that we looked at was a very large number of deposition rooms. We re really under no obligation to provide large numbers of deposition rooms. LG/NC 8

9 That was -- that was designed into it, and we found some of the civil courtrooms were really tiny. And our recommendation was just take the wall out and make these rooms more functional. They weren t. They really weren t. And in July, when we went through it, or early August when we went through it, some of the sight lines were bad on some of the courtrooms, but when -- when we did the build-out, there s some big improvements. I don t know that the final decision -- my assumption was if you re taking walls out, it s not going to substantially change the cost of the building, and - COMMISSIONER RYAN: As long as it s interior walls. JUDGE WEINSTEIN: Yeah, they re interior. Right, interior walls. And I haven t heard back yet if that s been approved, the redesign s been approved. COMMISSIONER RITTER: Hold on, Mr. Hammond. MR. HAMMOND: Okay. COMMISSIONER RITTER: Fonz. MR. JEFFERSON: We re going to continuously look at this particular item. We re going to have to bring something back on what the final decision will be on these items. Yes, we have extensive reviews that have been -- been conducted on these particular items, but we also have to look at the cost that may come out of this, as well. We have to bring it back on the things that we can do, and find other solutions if we have to find those particular solutions. But we have the comments, the team is looking at those particular comments, and once, from a County Administration standpoint, we know what that is, we will bring that item back. COMMISSIONER RITTER: So the team including the contractor? Is the team that -- that is looking at this - MR. JEFFERSON: Yes. COMMISSIONER RITTER: -- include the contractor? MR. JEFFERSON: Yes, it does. LG/NC 9

10 COMMISSIONER RITTER: Okay. MAYOR SEILER: I just want to follow up on that. COMMISSIONER RITTER: Mayor Seiler. MAYOR SEILER: Mr. Jefferson, the -- based on what Judge Weinstein said, the -- I mean, I was on this task force I think from the start, and I don t remember any discussion about deposition rooms. It s not something that s necessarily the role of government, other than to have them, I think, for the State Attorney and Public Defenders, but there s certainly no need to have deposition rooms for the civil side or private practice. I would think if you would just simply take those rooms out, take those walls out, the cost would be less. Right? COMMISSIONER RITTER: Well, he can t answer that question today - MR. JEFFERSON: Right. COMMISSIONER RITTER: -- but I think that, generally speaking, you re right. I mean -- and as far as the State Attorney and the Public Defender go, I m sure they have rooms in their offices which provide for - MR. MARCUS: We re fine. COMMISSIONER RITTER: -- depositions, too. I mean, you know, you have conference rooms. MAYOR SEILER: All right. So nobody really needs them; is that what we re hearing? MR. MARCUS: We re fine. UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: We re fine. COMMISSIONER RITTER: Okay. COMMISSIONER RYAN: Well - COMMISSIONER RITTER: Commissioner Ryan. COMMISSIONER RYAN: -- yeah, it was -- I asked the question, and was told that I guess there s three or four deposition rooms now on the tenth floor of the Courthouse, and I d be curious to know what their use is and what was the number that you originally designed or anticipated that you were going to LG/NC 10

11 have in the building and -- you know, so we kind of -- there may be a need for a few deposition rooms for the PD and the -- and the prosecutor. COMMISSIONER RITTER: Well -- go ahead. MR. IZQUIERDO: Yes. COMMISSIONER RITTER: You need to turn your mic -- you need to identify yourself for the record, please, and turn your microphone on. MR. IZQUIERDO: Jose Izquierdo. Currently, I know we ve used the deposition rooms -- my law firm happens to do criminal defense work -- on court-appointed defense cases, where the court appoints you as a special Public Defender on a case. There are specific rules that are done with JAC, the -- and we have special rates set. And a lot of times we ll set depositions in those rooms on the tenth floor. There s about three or four of them right off of the elevator. So I know they re -- they re used. I don t know how often. COMMISSIONER RITTER: Is it -- would it be possible to, when you are appointed as a special Public Defender, contact the Public Defender s Office, and see if you could use one of their conference rooms to take the deposition? MR. IZQUIERDO: Assuming the Public Defender s Office is okay, with it, I - I would assume that would be okay - COMMISSIONER RITTER: I mean - MR. IZQUIERDO: -- but - MR. MICHAELSON: We don t have a lot of room as it is. COMMISSIONER RITTER: I under -- if it were available, would it be an issue? You need to speak -- you know, you need to turn on your mic. MR. MICHAELSON: I m sorry. COMMISSIONER RITTER: -- turn on -- she just can t pick it up (inaudible). MR. MICHAELSON: I haven t really analyzed our space needs recently for - for that. That could create a problem. Just don t know right now. COMMISSIONER RITTER: Okay. MR. MICHAELSON: Although -- well, the State Attorney s a party to all LG/NC 11

12 depositions in criminal. COMMISSIONER RITTER: Okay. MR. MICHAELSON: And also, depositions - COMMISSIONER RITTER: Yeah. MR. MICHAELSON: -- even if they re required to be at the Courthouse by court order and by tradition, usually a lot of attorney s use court reporter offices within a few blocks of the Courthouse - COMMISSIONER RITTER: There s that, too. MR. MICHAELSON: -- and the State, as far as I know, has never objected. COMMISSIONER RITTER: Mr. Marcus, do you have any - MR. MARCUS: Well - COMMISSIONER RITTER: -- comments. MR. MARCUS: -- usually, when they - MAYOR SEILER: Turn your microphone on. MR. MARCUS: Let s see. It depends on how far it is from the Courthouse. Usually, if it s in, within across the street area, then we accommodate those attorneys. But I would be more in favor of having deposition rooms in the Courthouse - COMMISSIONER RITTER: Okay. MR. MARCUS: -- because they re needed. COMMISSIONER RITTER: Commissioner Ryan. COMMISSIONER RYAN: Yeah. It was my understanding that, for the majority of the cases that you appoint special counsel, it s not a workload issue, but, rather, a conflict between, you know, co-defendants in a case and so in that scenario, I wouldn t think that you would have depositions within the PD s Office, because you re supposed to have this separation, this firewall between special -- appointed counsel and the PD. So it would seem to me that ultimately you re going to have to have, I guess the minimum that we re using now. LG/NC 12

13 MR. HAMMOND: And - COMMISSIONER RYAN: We re using three or four. MR. HAMMOND: -- probably to help the discussion, the deposition rooms that we re talking about eliminating are attached to the hearing rooms. There are other deposition rooms on each floor, so there shouldn t be a problem with those logistics. These are -- I think I -- we ve been identifying them as extra that we can do without to make the hearing rooms larger. So I think it s all going to work fine. JUDGE WEINSTEIN: Okay. We went through it. Some of the hearing rooms, really, the configuration was not very good. With the elimination of the deposition rooms, just in that area, I think it was the unanimous feeling of everyone who was there from the construction team, et cetera, that that would be -- it would be a lot better. But there will be deposition rooms in the building. There s no question about that. COMMISSIONER RITTER: Okay. JUDGE WEINSTEIN: So I think we re good. COMMISSIONER RITTER: Okay. Move on? Ready to move on? UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: Yeah. UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: All right. Thank you. MR. HAMMOND: Couple of other quick concerns. Obviously, we ve got to start getting ready for occupying the building, which is a huge undertaking for everyone. And we re beginning to look at, in detail, the existing central and west wings and considering how the demolition is going to happen, and what needs to be done to take into account safety and security, and pedestrian flow, how people enter the Courthouse, what happens during that demolition period. Our 500-car garage is the second phase of the Courthouse tower project. It includes a new public plaza, a secure 500-car garage for judges and other key stakeholders. It includes our functional public art project, and has, we think, an estimated cost right now of about 14.9 million dollars. We are going to be looking to the County Commission to talk about how we re going to deliver the construction, and I ll talk a little bit more about that in a little bit. Completion of this phase is scheduled for LG/NC 13

14 And you can see in the -- sort of the purplish highlighted area, plaza along 6th, the parking garage further back, and, in the middle of that block of future parking garage, the walkway that ll provide a pedestrian connection to the New River and house our public art. So, what we re going to build, there s the plaza, garage in the background, our new tower further in the background. The side along the New River sort of back by the jail will include the elevated walkways that will connect the new tower to the existing Courthouse buildings. And our functionally integrated public art project is entitled Flow. It s by local artist Margi Nothard. And it will include a series of seating elements and I guess the artistic depiction of water flow in South Florida. So we re excited to see that. It s going to have an interesting presence, both daytime and nighttime. A lot of the elements will light up. It s going to be pretty interesting. We don t have the final design for that completed yet, but we re working with the artist to achieve that very quickly. Our challenges, the construction award, how we re going to actually award the contract for doing the garage. As you might remember, it was an alternate in our original Courthouse bid, and we elected not to take that alternate, because we thought, well, we ll get it cheaper if we re-bid it separately. That thinking might have changed, and we ll be revisiting that with our Commission hopefully in the near term. City DRC conditions and permitting, we appeared before the City Commission about two weeks ago, and we ve received conditional approval for the 500-car garage. We, of course, continue to have issues and concerns about the safe pedestrian and vehicular movements along Southeast 6th. They get a little bit more interesting as we transition to this phase of the project, because we re right on the street and doing some big demolition and work. The east wing demo- -- disruption, we re going to effectively be tearing off the west face of the east wing of the Courthouse to build this new garage, so that, of course, is something of a concern that we re going to be addressing in great detail. MR. JEFFERSON: Just very quickly, just to back up just quickly on the city DRC conditions and permitting, we do have concerns with that. I think Ms. Henry has sent an to Mr. Lee Feldman regarding those conditions. LG/NC 14

15 They really are items that we need to keep on the forefront. You know, the - as you see, the thousand-car garage is going up fairly quickly, and there has not been discussions regarding the conditions that have been placed on that particular garage. Remember, that garage is for the employees of the Courthouse. And those conditions that -- that we re aware of that have been placed on that has -- we have some concerns with, and we have sent a letter over to Mr. Feldman regarding those conditions that have been placed on that. As you re aware with the 500-car garage, that s a secure parking garage. That s for the judges and for selected individuals over there. And we have concerns with opening that item up to the public, as well, from a security standpoint. So there s -- there is -- we do have some challenges, as Mr. Hammond has indicated, on these garages that we have to resolve so it does not impact these projects as we move forward. COMMISSIONER RITTER: Mayor Seiler. MAYOR SEILER: Yeah, let me comment, so we can put a lot of this miscommunication - COMMISSIONER RITTER: And the Task Force - MAYOR SEILER: -- to rest. COMMISSIONER RITTER: -- may not be aware of this. MAYOR SEILER: Yeah. There is -- there are two garages, so everybody understands what s happening, because you re going to -- if you saw the letter, and the letter s just not really - COMMISSIONER RITTER: No, they haven t seen the letter. MAYOR SEILER: I think the letter was sent to everybody on the Task Force. MR. JEFFERSON: It was. MR. FORMAN: (Inaudible) something - MAYOR SEILER: Yeah. LG/NC 15

16 COMMISSIONER RITTER: Which -- our letter. MAYOR SEILER: Yes. COMMISSIONER RITTER: Okay. MAYOR SEILER: So I m just going to -- let me give you the background on this. There are -- there are two garages. And if you remember correctly, we pledged our Build America bonds to do this project to the County so we could get this done. But some of those Build America bonds could have been used for our parking in downtown Fort Lauderdale, but we, in order to facilitate the County, pledged all our Build America bonds, gave them to the County so they could proceed with this, get some savings out of it, as well as to facilitate the construction of the Courthouse. In that process, we always expected that one of the garages, and not the 500-car garage, but the other garage would be open for public parking. It was called a public garage. Our staff was under the understanding at all times it was a public garage. Our leadership was under the understanding at all times it was a public garage. And we always thought that that thousand-car garage was going to be open, after hours, to the public as part of our south of the river parking solution. Nobody at the County ever told us it wasn t. Then, all of a sudden, about seven months ago discussion started. We kept saying, you know, where s the public access for this public garage, the thousand-car garage. The feedback -- and, again, this -- none of these communications were made staff to staff, so I want to make sure that s clear. This is my staff s version of events, is all of a sudden the County said, well, we re not sure about this. We ll get back to you, but it shouldn t be a problem. Shouldn t be a problem, shouldn t be a problem. Also, we get a letter in August saying that the thousand-car garage is too far down the road. It s not going to be open to the public, and it can t be used for public parking. Obviously, that s inconsistent with everything the city did in its commitment to provide an expedited Courthouse on the south side of the river. We have had no good reason told to us why the thousand-car garage, which is a public garage, is not open after hours to the public. We talked to staff. LG/NC 16

17 We -- according, again, to our staff, the first one was, well, we re too far down the road to do it. Well, that makes no sense, because it s a public garage throughout the day. The second reason was, well, it s too expensive to operate as a public garage at night. So we said, fine. City of Fort Lauderdale offered to take the garage after hours. We ll pay all expenses. We ll operate it. We ll do whatever improvements need to be done from an infrastructure standpoint, and we ll keep the revenues, the nighttime revenues, since there were not going to be any nighttime revenues with the County operating it. And we said, we ll take it. We ll underwrite it. We ll upgrade it. We ll put the infrastructure in place, and we ll operate it as a public garage on the south side of the river for those hours the County doesn t want to operate it. County then came back and said, no, no, no, we don t want that. So the whole issue is now we have said one of these garages has to have public parking after hours. I mean, part of our 24/7 live, work, play downtown requires some public parking. So the condition was put on the 500-car garage. Understand, from the city s standpoint, we have no desire to have public parking in the 500-car secure garage in downtown Fort Lauderdale. We don t want to be in the judges garage. We don t want to be in the employees garage, and it s a non-issue with us. The issue is is that the County, because they kept telling us we had public parking until August, this was the only garage left to be approved, and we said we ve got to get -- so I think this gets worked out. That s why I had a lengthy meeting yesterday with Commissioner Jacobs, both on Monday and Tuesday. And I think if our staffs get together, we re going to set up a meeting with Bertha. I think once the public parking s worked out for the thousand-car garage, this is a non-issue, and this garage will not be delayed in any way, shape or form. But I think when we operated under this assumption for the last three, four years that we had a public parking garage in downtown Fort Lauderdale, that -- not asking for any rate breaks, not asking -- other than the fact we ll operate it if they don t want to operate it after 6:00 p.m. at night. So that s the issue on this garage. So I don t think it ll impact or slow down your project at all. COMMISSIONER RITTER: Commissioner Ryan. LG/NC 17

18 COMMISSIONER RYAN: It s appreciated that the Mayor s clarified the situation, then, with regard to the -- to the 500-car garage which is adjacent to the tower and the 1,000-space garage, because I was very concerned about the security issue with the JAs and the -- and the judges in what is really a high security garage facility. And it just didn t seem possible that you d be able to have access after hours, because the judges schedules, some of them, especially in dependency, are working to 8:00, 9:00 o clock at night, coming in very early. And this idea that you might have to sweep the garage every morning would be, I think, unworkable. With regard to the thousand-car garage, the -- I don t believe the Commission has had this discussion about a shared use, and I -- you know, we re open to what the needs are, you know, understanding what the -- the impact is in -- in downtown and -- and what -- you know, what after hours use or level of use that you might anticipate. So that s something -- I mean, we d have to understand how much of the space, whether the entire space would need to be open, and address the security issues. But that hardly seems to be insurmountable. MAYOR SEILER: I learned yesterday that the County Commission was not aware of this issue, that we were always under the impression that the thousand-car garage was open to the public in downtown. And then I found out that apparently staff had not conveyed that to the County Commission, that that was the hold up. So we re going to put a Wave station down there -- you re going to put a Wave station down there, it s a joint project, and that garage will be perfect for after hours with the Wave. And that s -- that s really the issue that s between the staffs. UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: Wave? COMMISSIONER RITTER: Wave. MAYOR SEILER: Wave. It s our downtown trolley. UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: Oh, oh, oh, right. MAYOR SEILER: So if that -- I think this is a very resolvable issue, in my communications one-on-one with County Commissioners, but I just think that it wasn t conveyed to them that the issue was the thousand-car garage and public access. LG/NC 18

19 COMMISSIONER RITTER: Judge Weinstein, and then I ll go to you, Mr. Jefferson. MR. JEFFERSON: Okay. Thank you. JUDGE WEINSTEIN: The -- so -- so - COMMISSIONER RITTER: We re not going to do the back and forth thing. JUDGE WEINSTEIN: -- so - COMMISSIONER RITTER: Okay. JUDGE WEINSTEIN: Okay. So we re -- we re -- we have cut down the number of jurors significantly, which is really problematic, and we re going to increase the jury call once the thousand-car garage is opened. But that leaves the east garage with a lot of space in it. And I ve been receiving all kinds of communications from attorneys whose concern is that the cost is very problematic. I don t know if they re still charging $8 an hour - COMMISSIONER RITTER: Oh. JUDGE WEINSTEIN: -- but that s very, very high, and if somebody s got to be in court four or five hours, five hours, 40 bucks to park in a -- in a garage is really problematic. COMMISSIONER RYAN: In New York City. JUDGE WEINSTEIN: Well, that s an hour. That s an hour. COMMISSIONER RITTER: Yeah, so what re you complaining about? JUDGE WEINSTEIN: Yeah. COMMISSIONER RITTER: That was a joke. JUDGE WEINSTEIN: I m not complaining. COMMISSIONER RITTER: That was a joke. JUDGE WEINSTEIN: I know, I know, I know. COMMISSIONER RITTER: I know you know but - LG/NC 19

20 JUDGE WEINSTEIN: I know, I know. COMMISSIONER RITTER: -- you know. JUDGE WEINSTEIN: I know. So the -- the issue is, you know, the -- once those spaces are freed up, I think we really need to make it more accessible to the public at a reasonable rate, so that -- it s not just attorneys. You have witnesses, you have many, many litigants who need a place to park, and we need to make it more reasonable. COMMISSIONER RITTER: Mr. Jefferson. MR. JEFFERSON: Just very quickly, even with the east garage, you know, from the County s perspective, from County Admin, we have to be able to maintain those particular garages. And any time that we look at rates associated with those, we have to make sure that it s reasonable in nature, but we also have to maintain it. So we have to be very aware of that, what we re -- what we re trying to do in that particular garage. Also, and with the thousand-car garage - UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKERS: Bless you. COMMISSIONER RITTER: Thank you. MR. JEFFERSON: -- with the thousand-car garage, let me just say from a back and forth standpoint is there has not been any conversation that -- as to rise to the Board s level at this particular point in time where the County staff had to bring this to the Board s attention. There has been some very small conversations regarding the thousand-car garage, but nothing that rose to a level where we thought there was going to be conditions placed on the garage itself. So but we will be working out those particular issues, and we will definitely be bringing this back to the Task Force and eventually to the Board, as well. COMMISSIONER RITTER: Okay. Well, this meeting s noticed; right? Okay. So we can talk to each other. I don t know about you -- well, I guess I do, but I think that while it s all well and good that the staff has been working through this, I think it is -- because we ve gotten letters back and forth from Bertha to Lee and Lee to Bertha, that it may have come to the point where it s a subject now the Board needs to discuss. LG/NC 20

21 So I d like to see it -- I d like to -- Mayor Seiler s telling us right now that they ll pay for after hours. MAYOR SEILER: We ll operate it. COMMISSIONER RITTER: They ll operate it. And one of the big things in the letter was the cost. So that s no longer an issue. Now, there may be other issues that are not being discussed today, but I don t know about you, Tim, but I think that the County Commission needs to talk about this. I mean -- COMMISSIONER RYAN: Why don t we -- why don t we -- Madam Chair, why don t we go ahead and ask staff to set it on the next available Commission meeting after you ve had an opportunity to discuss with Fort Lauderdale City staff some of these concepts with regard to shared use? COMMISSIONER RITTER: Okay. Okay. Thanks. Mr. Hammond. MR. HAMMOND: Okay. Midrise, we are also going to undertake a complete renovation of our midrise building. And those of you who may not be completely familiar with the midrise building, it s sort of a -- it s sort of undercover office space that we use that s part of the large east parking garage. And we are going to be consolidating the -- a lot of the functions for the Public Defender, State Attorney, BSO, and the Clerk of Courts. We re also going to be undertaking the upgrade of the building to provide life safety systems, elevator upgrades, those kind of things. So this is a project that s just getting underway. It s approximately $11,000,000. The main goal is to reduce the County s exposure to continuing rental rates. We ve got people in leased space. We ll be bringing them into County-owned property. Scheduled completion, late That might be a little bit optimistic at this point. We are in negotiations with our design consultant, and will be bringing the design contract to the Board probably in the next few meetings, so that s very much on the near horizon. We re also in the process this week of completing the selection process to provide a ranking to the Commission for a CM at risk contractor. The midrise in all its glory. You probably drive by it all the time and you don t notice it very much. One notable thing about it, this building was pretty much wiped out in Hurricane Wilma, so it has an all new curtain wall system on the outside LG/NC 21

22 that s completely hardened, so good for the foreseeable future, and a great place now, when we renovate it, to house the court functions well into the long distant future. The interior, pretty nondescript, and so we are going to be doing some things to make that space a little bit better, and hopefully minimize the impacts on all the people who come and go through that building. It s already occupied by some BSO functions and others. So project s just getting underway, and you ll be seeing a lot more about it soon. Our east wing renovations is another on-the-horizon project. We are going to, we hope, completely -- completely renovate floors two, four, five, and six, and, in doing so, make a lot of improvements to the restrooms, the mechanical rooms, the building systems, and, of course, the office spaces in that building. Preliminary cost estimate is 11.9 million dollars, so roughly 12,000,000. We don t have complete project funding for this yet, so this is one of the things that we ll be talking to the Commission about in great detail as we go forward. But much needed. Currently, on our schedule of things, 2018, but it s out there post tower, post 500-car garage. This is the next real stepping stone in the Courthouse complex. COMMISSIONER RITTER: What year was the east building -- the east wing built? MR. HAMMOND: The east wing was about the mid 80s. COMMISSIONER RITTER: Okay. Wow. Okay. MR. HAMMOND: Yeah, so - MR. FORMAN: I think it was 1990-something. COMMISSIONER RITTER: Didn t realize it d been that long. I thought it was later than that. MR. FORMAN: It was 91, 92. COMMISSIONER RITTER: 90 - MR. HAMMOND: No, the design, probably in the mid 80s, and then the construction - LG/NC 22

23 MR. FORMAN: 91. MR. HAMMOND: -- be the early 90s. COMMISSIONER RITTER: So you think it s - MR. HAMMOND: It s at least 20-something, almost 30. It s a good -- it s an aged building. COMMISSIONER RITTER: No - MAYOR SEILER: It s 21. COMMISSIONER RITTER: -- only -- okay. MR. HAMMOND: Twenty-one. COMMISSIONER RITTER: Thank you. Oh, thank -- Mr. Forman. MR. FORMAN: The bond issue passed in 86. The construction ended, I think, in 91 or 92. MR. HAMMOND: Okay. So I m corrected. COMMISSIONER RITTER: Oh, I didn t realize it was that long. MR. HAMMOND: But, with that age, things like mechanical systems, they ve reached pretty much the end of their anticipated life, so a lot of work we need to start picking up with the existing buildings. COMMISSIONER RITTER: Although, when you compare it to the age of this building, it s a baby; right? MR. HAMMOND: Well, we ll be hopefully talking to you - COMMISSIONER RITTER: Which opened November 1st, 1947, for any of you who might not know that. COMMISSIONER RYAN: Thank you for your research. MR. HAMMOND: -- hopefully, we ll be talking to you about this building soon, too. We re still in the -- the process of defining the project and really working out what we ve got to do, so a lot more discussion for both the Task Force and our Commission on that project. LG/NC 23

24 The North Regional Courthouse, I just want to talk briefly about. There was $8,000,000 originally set aside in the Courthouse projects to undertake work at the North Regional Courthouse. That money has, for the most part, been reallocated to do work in the midrise. We are doing some mechanical work in the east wing. We re going to be doing some things with the record center, relocate it to the 64th Street warehouse. So that money, the Commission reallocated that over the spring. So the $8,000,000 is now off the table. We ll have to revisit the north Courthouse to make those improvements. We re still undertaking, though, some very significant work. Our Facilities Maintenance Division is doing a two and a half million dollar roofing repair, and a lot of other work, more piecemeal, as we continue to occupy and use the building day-to-day. There are significant parking issues, as you all know, with that facility. And we didn t have a really great solution to go forward with, and we really need to go back and look at the building, how it s used, what it s used for. How do we deal with the almost impossible site, as well. COMMISSIONER RITTER: Mr. Forman. MR. FORMAN: Yeah, Madam Chair. Yeah, the parking is rough, like in any of our regular regional courthouses, too. We have -- the Clerk s Office has an evidence facility up there - COMMISSIONER RITTER: Yeah. MR. FORMAN: -- in the -- you know, in the North Regional Courthouse. What -- what s -- you know, the 64th Street warehouse, that s going to be for County records or our records, for one, and are we going to keep our evidence room up there? MR. HAMMOND: I think for the near term, yes. But it s in transition, the whole records-keeping concept of -- and what goes where, what s housed where is still being developed. So it s a discussion yet to come. MR. FORMAN: I know we worked out our evidence situation over at the -- in the new Courthouse on the second floor. MR. HAMMOND: Yeah. And this is probably a more significant and more LG/NC 24

25 difficult challenge with - MR. FORMAN: I m sure. MR. HAMMOND: -- with that work, and what s housed up at North. MR. FORMAN: Thank you very much. PENDING ACTIVITIES: CONSTRUCTION CONTRACT FOR 500-CAR GARAGE, AMENDMENTS FOR THE JOINT VENTURE AND OWNER S CONSTRUCTION PROJECT MANAGER, OCCUPANCY PLANNING, DEMOLITION PLANNING MR. HAMMOND: So some of the things that we have on the plate to deal with. I spoke briefly about the 500-car garage, and, obviously, we have to do a number of things, both with the continuing discussion about the -- primarily the thousand-car garage with the DRC conditions. The County Commission will be asked to consider our construction options. I ve been working on the agenda item for that, so possibly late October you ll be seeing a package from us. We do need to finalize the public art project and integrate that into the construction program. And we ll also be bringing a series of actions to the County Commission for their consideration, including some amendments for our design team, which will take care of additional work items that we need to have in place for the continuing construction. It ll address the courtroom redesign that we ve been talking about this morning, and update billable rates that they haven t had updated in a few years. We also have an amendment for the Weitz Company, our project management company. Our construction change order, the large construction change order for mechanical redesign that took place, was approved over the course of the last year, increased our project time by about 63 days, so we re going to have to do a catch up item with the Weitz Company to square that up. And we will be bringing design and probably pre-construction agreements for the midrise project to the Board for their consideration, as well. MAYOR SEILER: I just have one - COMMISSIONER RITTER: Jack - MR. HAMMOND: So a lot of Board action. LG/NC 25

26 MAYOR SEILER: Just one question. Is there a timeline done for the midrise in terms of when it starts and finishes in relation to the other? Because, obviously, a lot of people now are using 3rd instead of Andrews because of - have you guys coordinated that - MR. HAMMOND: We have - MAYOR SEILER: -- construction timeline? MR. HAMMOND: -- I do have a schedule that -- and I ve got a whole wall, actually, up in my office - MAYOR SEILER: I figured you must, but - MR. HAMMOND: -- that shows how the different pieces interact. I didn t condense it down into a product for you today. I can get that for you and send it to the members so you can see it. But everything, like you said, overlaps. And there s this starts, this is happening in the middle. And one of the things we haven t even talked about, we have a hazard mitigation grant program where we re going to be working on the roof, too, So - MAYOR SEILER: Right. I would just ask, whatever you give to one, give to all here, so - MR. HAMMOND: Absolutely. MAYOR SEILER: -- we re all in the same loop and -- because I know it s a very tight schedule. And you guys are doing a good job with it. It s just going to be tight to try to make sure - MR. HAMMOND: And - MAYOR SEILER: -- we can alternate that traffic back in, traffic patterns and pedestrian patterns. MR. HAMMOND: -- and we re going to be working really extensively over the next months with our stakeholders for exactly those issues, because it - the impact, there are nights I know I lay awake thinking of how are we going to do all of this, so very, very considered. And - COMMISSIONER RITTER: Hold on. MR. HAMMOND: -- exactly, you know, the next slide pretty much addresses LG/NC 26

27 that. The - COMMISSIONER RITTER: Hold on, Mr. Hammond. Senator Forman. MR. FORMAN: Yeah. Yeah, thank you, Madam Chair. It s -- refresh my memory, please. Remember we talked about the thousand-car garage, and we were talking about a connection - MR. HAMMOND: Yes. MR. FORMAN: -- between the thousand-car garage and the new Courthouse. What -- what s the progress? MR. HAMMOND: Well, there really isn t any. We took a package, a proposal package to the city s Rights of Way Committee about probably a little over a year ago -- and was -- it was unanimously turned away and disapproved. So that that effectively put an end to that elevated walkway project. We are, however, working to develop the alternative, which is keeping people on the ground and making pedestrian improvements to get you from here to there. MR. FORMAN: And how about if it pours one day? MR. HAMMOND: Well - COMMISSIONER RITTER: Okay. MR. FORMAN: I know people who take -- carry umbrellas (inaudible). MR. HAMMOND: And I think -- I think that s a -- that s a thing that I owe you is that -- that solution and what that s going to look like - COMMISSIONER RITTER: I think the - MR. HAMMOND: -- and we don t have it developed yet entirely. COMMISSIONER RITTER: -- I think the Mayor wants to weigh in here. MAYOR SEILER: Well, I ll comment on it, and I -- I m actually in agreement with you, Senator, just so we re clear, but my city staff and the Right of Way Committee and the Mobility Department all spent, you know, months analyzing this thing and talking to the experts on walkability and pedestrian access and mobility in downtown, and the consistent message was that this walkover or crossover, which, as I said, I supported, was totally inconsistent LG/NC 27