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Question of the Week: Federal courthouse location
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Posted by lward Tue Nov 30, 1999 00:00:00 PST
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0 responses 0 comments Q: What’s the status with the proposed federal courthouse? Is there still a chance it will end up in the Southwest?
Curious in the Southwest

A: After several years of accepting and negotiating proposals, the General Services Administration announced that officials decided a Castle & Cooke site at the corner of Stockdale Highway and Buena Vista Road was the best spot for the courthouse. The city of Bakersfield disapproved of the site and sent a letter to GSA asking for a review. Congressman Bill Thomas and Sen. Barbara Boxer did the same. The city alleged the GSA ignored an executive order that gives preference to downtown locations in the construction of federal buildings.
A group of Southwest residents behind www.nocourthouse.com claim the site is bad because a federal courthouse does not belong in a residential neighborhood. The Web site brings up a number of reasons, such as: “ Ronald Reagan Elementary School is 800 feet away from the courthouse location” and “Federal courthouses are known terrorist targets.”
The site invites community members to a meeting Thursday, April 6, at Ronald Reagan Elementary School.
The Southwest Voice asked Bernard C. Barmann, Sr., County Counsel and Chair of the Local Bar Association Coordinating Committee for a Federal Courthouse, for his opinion on the matter:
“A federal courthouse is needed in Bakersfield now. Not 10 to 15 years in the future, if even then.
“The General Services Administration (GSA) has the plans and a contract in place to build a courthouse on Stockdale Highway. 
“A downtown site would have pleased many community leaders and most of the lawyers in the community. But if this project is derailed, there will be no federal courthouse in Bakersfield for at least a decade, and no guarantee that it would be built even then in downtown Bakersfield.  
“Community leaders and responsible citizens will support the project offered to this community, if they understand the federal government’s process and the standards required for the siting and design of a federal courthouse. That process required a fair and impartial assessment of the packages put together by developers.  After three years of planning, designing, and reviewing those packages, the GSA chose the package that placed the new courthouse on Stockdale Highway.
“The site was only one of many factors, including the quality and track record of the design, build and management team as well as the quality of the facility design and its cost. 
“The proposal with the highest score was awarded the contract, and the GSA is not about to compromise its process and the possible safety and security of those who will use the building.
“Our choice now is a courthouse on Stockdale Highway or in Fresno. Citizens called for jury duty in the federal courts must appear in Fresno, a four- to five-hour drive away. Citizens seeking justice and their attorneys must make the same trip now. Bankruptcy matters require a visiting judge. My office has many lawsuits pending in the federal court. County witnesses, experts and attorneys must travel to Fresno for trials and live there during a trial at great cost to the taxpayers of this county. 
“If the community rejects the project that has been put together for our benefit, it will be a loss and mistake we will regret for many, many years. 
“The National Judicial Conference issued a moratorium on new courthouse buildings in September of 2004. That moratorium is still in place, and our project survived only because Bakersfield has a full-time judge magistrate without a court room and the project is under the dollar threshold that requires approval of Congress. If this project fails, we will go into the national pool of courthouse needs and await our turn with Congress.
“The proposed courthouse is not a jail. No prisoners will be housed there overnight. The Stockdale site is no closer to homes or schools than the downtown proposals. That site is at least 15 acres, and the 3 or 4 acres selected for the courthouse are separated from residences and a school by at least 12 acres of commercial or business offices.
“GSA representatives are planning a trip to Bakersfield to explain in a public forum their process, standards and selection process. Please plan to attend.”

How do you feel about the federal courthouse? Go to www.swvoice.com and enter the “Talk to Your Neighbors” section to join the discussion.
E-mail  question suggestions to: lward @swvoice.com

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