Critics knock court repair plans
First phase starting in January doesn’t include lobby issues
More than 15 months after flooding from Hurricane Harvey shuttered Houston’s 20-story criminal courthouse, county leaders say they will begin in January on the first phase of a multi-part $86 million restoration project, which won’t be finished until 2020.
But there is no timetable for the most ambitious part of the project — not scheduled to begin until June 2019 — that would greatly expand the chronically-crowded lobby areas, add more elevators and move crucial building machinery out of the basement.
The extensive flood damage to the downtown skyscraper at 1201 Franklin has forced the relocation of hundreds of attorneys and staffers from the courthouse offices of the district attorney, public defenders office and other county departments to far-flung buildings across the city. The closure also forced dozens of courts to locate in other county courthouses, generally doubling up with courts that weren’t damaged, which has disrupted trials and clogged dockets.
The damage has also reignited the debate over the wisdom of making repairs to the critical court complex on the banks of a floodprone Buffalo Bayou.
“We can’t possibly ask taxpayers to foot the bill for redesigning the Criminal Justice Center without knowing the exact cause of the repeated flooding, and what is being done to stop it from happening yet again,” Harris County District Attorney Kim Ogg said Friday. “We have to object.”
The prosecutor’s objection to moving forward with the county’s plan comes a day after it was discussed at the quarterly meeting of the Criminal Justice Coordinating Council, a county subcommittee that brings more than a dozen office holders and agency heads together to work on problems facing the criminal justice system.
During that meeting, Tony Foster, a project manager with the county engineering department,
said officials still don’t know exactly how the court building’s basement flooded. The county is also uncertain why the $13 million underground Jury Assembly Building, on a plaza across the street from the criminal courthouse, filled with water and was destroyed.
Officials have said the underground flood doors for both facilities held, but unprecedented amounts standing water seeped into the underground walls, damaging both buildings. In an ironic twist, the skyscraper’s highest floors were flooded when water in the basement shorted out electronics that controlled the building gauges.
The building’s pumping system ramped up, sending huge amounts of water up through the building that burst water pipes on most floors, destroying offices and courtroom despite being high above flood waters.
Some parts occupied
However, the courthouse today is not completely empty, as county contractors have repaired the top four floors and where judges now share those courtrooms for daily docket calls.
At the meeting Wednesday, Foster said workers are investigating how the water seeped in to the basement of the courthouse, which is larger than the footprint of the buildings.
“There were multiple sources. Most of came from standing water on the plaza.” he said. “If you’re standing outside of the building, on the steps, you’re actually standing on the basement. We’re going to take out all the pavement and find the source of that water and fix it.”
Critics say the pace of the restoration effort is too slow, and questioned whether the county should be considering building a new courthouse on higher ground.
Any criminal courthouse must be located close to a pair of multi-story jail facilities on the bayou, since hundreds of jail inmates must be transported to courtroom holding cells each day.
“Things are progressing far slower than they should and the direction the county is going is just patchwork, not a long-term solution,” said Chris Tritico, a prominent attorney who has proposed converting the courthouse into an office tower. “We need a long-term solution that will keep us from having to do this again in a few years.”
Tritico’s proposal would be to build a new criminal courthouse across the street where the outdated family law courthouse stands. That courthouse, which has been deemed a fire hazard because it lacks a sprinkler system, was scheduled for demolition. After the storm, it was pressed into service and now hosts docket calls and jury trials because the main courthouse remains largely unusable.
Tritico said repeated catastrophic flooding, along with long-standing design problems including a small lobby and limited elevator capacity, makes the building unworkable for the hundreds of residents coming who use it every day. The courthouse, which opened in 2000, was closed for a year of repairs after it was damaged by floods during Tropical Storm Allison in 2001.
‘Just not functional’
“The problem with the Harris County Criminal Courthouse, besides the flooding, is that it’s just not functional,” said the attorney, who is part of the county committee to study the courthouse repairs. “The population of Harris County is increasing, not decreasing, so the number of people coming in that building every morning is going to increase. Until somebody takes a look at that problem, it will always be a problem.”
County officials have said, since Harvey shuttered the building in September 2017, that they want to use the time the building is closed to make the kind of improvements that Tritico and other critics want.
In January, Precinct 3 Commissioner Steve Radack said the situation is an opportunity to make the necessary repairs and as well as adding major improvements, such as adding elevators, expanding the lobby and moving the mechanical equipment up to the first floor and away from flood waters.
On Friday, he echoed those words.
“I wish I could magically make everything go faster,” he said. “It’s painful to go through, but when it’s all said and done, I think it will be greatly improved.”
The timeline calls for modernizing the existing elevators, which will be completed by April 2020. New carpet and wall finishes for offices and courtrooms are expected to be installed in January 2020.
The first floor restoration and lobby expansion, basement restoration, five new exterior elevators, new flood barriers and gates and the transfer of equipment from the basement to the first floor is expected to start in June. The county has not said when they phase would be completed.
John Blount, the county engineer, said the timeline also includes a staggered re-entry for the county’s 22 felony judges and 16 misdemeanor judges to return to their courts when they are completed.
Less than $86 million
Foster, the project manager, said he is optimistic that the price tag for the whole thing will be less than the projected $86 million. And he expects the Federal Emergency Management Agency to foot the bill for some of the work.
He said the courthouse is being designed to have a flood barrier outside, and by moving the mechanical and electrical equipment higher and the lobby will be “floodable.” Meaning if it floods, it can be fixed in days, not months.
Still, all that is not enough for some critics who muttered that they want a new courthouse as they left the CJCC meeting.
“I’m disappointed in the county commissioners and the county judge for making the decision not to scrap the building,” said Doug Murphy, president of the Harris County Criminal Lawyers Association. “It’s the second time it’s flooded, and it won’t be the last.”