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F. <br />CHARLES E. SMITH Q#� Tubjda &Tuff <br />CIRCUIT JUDGE <br />September 5, 1986 <br />Charles Vitunac, Esquire <br />1840 - 25th Street <br />Vero Beach, Florida 32960 <br />Dear Mr. Vitunac: <br />239 COUNTY COURTHOUSE <br />VERO BEACH, FLA. 32980 <br />PHONE: (305)'387-8000 EXT. 828 <br />I have previously scheduled criminal trials on Tuesday, September <br />9 and will therefore be unable to attend the County Commissioners <br />meeting. The only thing that I would add to my letter to you of <br />August 28, 1986 was that I was hoping from the Court Facilities <br />Fund to be able to accumulate a substantial amount to be provided <br />for the next, fifth courtroom that we will need next year. Archi- <br />tect fees for the planning and renovation of a courtroom and the <br />renovations and equipment for another courtroom could be paid from <br />the non -lapsing court facilities fund. <br />At the present time we have three circuit judges who regularly work <br />in Indian River County and the two Indian River County judges, for <br />a total of five judges who regularly work in this county. In <br />addition to these five judges we have visiting circuit judges from <br />our circuit to temporarily handle cases in Indian River County due=_ <br />to conflicts and overloads that the judges in Indian River County <br />are handling. Additionally, we use retired circuit judges to -"han- <br />dle specific cases from time to time. The Grand Jury meets on <br />a regular basis at least once a month and sometimes as much as <br />three times a month which ties up a courtroom. Occasionally we <br />have the Department of Transportation, Department of Agriculture, <br />and judicial referees for Bar Disciplinary hearings who use the <br />courtroom. - - <br />Our court administrator has recently projected the 1986 -felony <br />criminal case filings to be 46% increase over 1985 case filings. <br />Traffic criminal projected as a 23% increase over 1985 traffic <br />criminal case filings. - <br />We will have an additional circuit judge in our circuit beginning <br />January 1, 1987. We anticipate requesting from the Supreme Court <br />and legislature at least one additional circuit judge in July, <br />1987 for our circuit. <br />The shortage of courtrooms creates bottlenecks in disposing of <br />and trying cases both in civil and criminal. This can result <br />in the increased stay for defendants in jail adding to the jail <br />population. In short we need to immediately start budgeting and <br />planning for the hiring of an architect for an additional fifth <br />courtroom and for additional judges office and hearing room. <br />The upstairs, west side of the annex would be ideal space for <br />these court facilities. <br />Therefore, we would request the county employ an architect and <br />authorize him to proceed to draw up plans for these court facilities. <br />--and to budget enough funds so that it can be completed within one <br />year or sooner. <br />Yours truly, <br />krles/ :"'S th " <br />25 <br />�E� sibbb BOOK 65 F'.1Cr 645 <br />