New Municipal Courtroom Won't Serve as Council Chambers

by Callie Lyons
February 6, 2010

Though the City of Marietta has a number of accessibility and space issues involving most departments and facilities, it doesn’t appear that those problems will be alleviated by having the newly renovated municipal court building provide space for city council chambers.

In a recent luncheon meeting of the Public Lands and Buildings committee, council members and local judges weighed in on the complications involved with sharing space.
The city administration is preparing to relocate city departments as the court vacates their current facility at City Hall.

A rough sketch by the engineering department proposing the placement of city departments would move the city auditor’s office and treasurer’s office to the first floor of 301 Putnam Street where they would occupy space currently serving the mayor and law director’s offices.

The administration’s proposal for the re-use of City Hall did not include council chambers, which led Councilman Harley Noland, who chairs the Public Lands and Buildings Committee, to explore other options – including the new municipal courtroom.

“In my discussions with Kevin (Crock) it is quite clear that when the court vacates its square footage in city hall there really isn’t that much space there,” Noland said. “There’s a fraction of the space needed. And, Kevin has put together a plan – a rough sketch of space allocation – that to me seems quite logical and very workable without a huge amount of shuffling.”

No matter where council meets, Noland said it is still essential to know how much space council needs. But, Councilman Jon Grimm explained that during the last term of council the former Public Lands and Buildings Committee reviewed the space requirements for all city departments in anticipation of some relocation.

“When we did do the program requirements, we found that the engineering department, with the exception of the court, had the largest square foot requirements,” Grimm said.

No matter who moves to City Hall, an elevator will have to be installed in order to make the facility handicapped accessible.

“We have an opportunity right now in a slight reconfiguration of a municipal courtroom to allow us the opportunity to plan to come up with a better facilities plan than continually to put band-aids on things or making do,” Grimm said.

Noland noted that the courtroom is used during the day and council only needs a meeting room two evenings a month.

“I don’t see there’s a conflict of space allocation and the usage of both are places of public assembly,” Noland said. “To me it’s space that exists that we don’t have to duplicate and with budgets as they are we simply don’t have the money to duplicate.”

But not everyone agreed that the court should be opened up to council after hours.
“I don’t think, it’s my opinion, but there are three branches of government – administrative or executive, legislative and judicial,” said Council President Paul Bertram. “We have a building at 301 Putnam Street that could very well be council chambers as well as our clerk’s office. That’s where I think we ought to focus. We are now 50 to 60 percent into the design phase at the municipal court building, which is the OBES and now we’re going to have to switch things around because we have all these different requirements of security issues and such. I just think this is wrong. We need a home, but I don’t believe we need to be in that office, in that building.”

Councilperson Kathy Shively agreed, saying the current court facility could easily be transformed into council chambers.

“I have been thinking about the three branches of government and how easy it would be to use the current court as our assembly room up there,” Shively said. “I’m not an architect or an engineer, but I can envision taking one end . . . and we could fit in Cathy’s room and a storage room plus a meeting room for everybody to use.”
She questioned the administration’s plan for the rest of the building.

“I do think that we’re putting the wrong offices in that – the income tax and the treasurer’s office. Those offices don’t work as closely with the mayor as the engineering and development offices,” Shively said.

Juvenile Court Judge Timothy Williams said the council chambers should be located in a city building – not the municipal court building.

“When I read that proposal I was concerned,” Williams said. “It may be available in the evenings but it’s a dedicated court facility and as a judge I need to be careful of how it’s laid out and who uses that building.”

Councilman Jon Grimm said the city needs a larger facilities plan that will address the current and future needs of the city, including a plan to make all departments accessible.

“One of the things I’d like to accomplish with my new committee assignment is a broader plan,” Grimm said.” That would also impact what we’re talking about here. We can certainly react as we have before – build this here, shoehorn that in there. Or we can look at this more of an overall plan and make this fit together, which I think is more appropriate.”