Call to Order and Roll Call
The 2nd meeting of the Capital Planning Advisory Board was held on Friday, July 20, 2012, at 10:00 AM, at the Shelby County Judicial Center. Representative Melvin B. Henley, Chair, called the meeting to order, and the secretary called the roll.
Present were:
Members: Senator Jack Westwood, Co-Chair; Representative Melvin B. Henley, Co-Chair; Senator Paul Hornback, Representative Ron Crimm, Charles Byers, Carole Henderson, Mark Overstreet, and Katie Shepherd.
Guests testifying before the Board: The Honorable Lowry S. Miller, Shelby County Circuit Court Clerk, and Carole Henderson, Budget Director, Administrative Office of the Courts.
LRC Staff: Shawn Bowen, Josh Nacey, and Jennifer Luttrell.
Welcome and Remarks
Senator Paul Hornback and Representative Brad Montell, legislative representatives for Shelby County, welcomed Board members and invited guests.
Representative Henley thanked the Shelby County Government officials and the Court of Justice staff for hosting the meeting. He then introduced the Honorable Lowry Miller to briefly discuss the new judicial center. Mr. Miller said the new Shelby County Judicial Center, which opened in December 2011, has made the judicial process more efficient, safer, and organized. The project was authorized in the 2004-2006 State/Executive Budget (House Bill 267), at a project scope of $18,441,000. The use allowance, which refers to the court's proportional share of the annual principal and interest costs in connection with the construction or renovation of the facility, was $1,651,000. Completed at a cost of $17.7 million, the 60,000-square-foot facility includes space for Circuit Court, District Court, the Office of Circuit Court Clerk and ancillary services. The judicial center also provides the highest level of Kentucky court security through a single-point entry with magnetometers and security personnel.
Presentation – Court Facility Construction Program
Representative Henley introduced Carole Henderson to briefly discuss the court facility construction program. Codified as KRS 26A.160, the court program was created by the 2000 General Assembly. Its main purpose is to oversee the design, financing and construction of court facility construction projects. The court projects are overseen by the Administrative Office of the Courts (AOC) and the financing and construction of the facilities falls to the local government.
The projects are authorized as part of the capital budget, however, they are considered local rather than state projects. Since 2000, the General Assembly has approved 55 court facility projects. Presently, nine court projects are in construction, and a total of $712.3 million in bonds have been issued by cities to fund the projects. The total debt service for these projects is $53 million. Court facilities were last authorized in the 2008-2010 budget for the counties of Allen, Bracken, Carlisle, Lawrence and Morgan. The Morgan County Judicial Center, under construction and almost 65 percent complete, was largely destroyed by a tornado on March 2, 2012. Leased space in the county has been outfitted as a temporary courthouse until the facility can be rebuilt.
Relative to questions from Representative Henley regarding the Morgan County Judicial Center, Ms. Henderson said approximately $8 million remained in the project budget when the facility was destroyed by the tornado. AOC is working with the insurance companies to make certain enough money remains in the project budget to complete the facility. The estimate to raze the damaged building and reconstruct it is about $11 million. A new project completion date has not been established.
In response to questions from Senator Westwood, Ms. Henderson said courthouse operations in Morgan County were only closed for three days due to the tornado. The Morgan County court is now temporarily operating in leased space in West Liberty owned by Morehead State University.
AOC – Acquisition and Renovation of the Former Home Depot Building
Ms. Henderson updated the Board on the AOC Renovation and Lease/Purchase of the Vandalay Drive project in Frankfort. On January 30, 2012, AOC announced that it had entered into a lease-to-purchase agreement to acquire the vacant Home Depot building in Frankfort. The sales price is $5.9 million and payments are structured as a series of quarterly installments of $211,250 ($845,000 annually) over a seven-year period. AOC plans to pay off the lease in less than seven years to reduce the purchase price.
The project will also entail renovations to the building, including conversion of 62,000 square feet of the building’s 94,900 square feet into office space, with the remaining square footage to be used for warehouse space. The renovations will be paid with earmarked one-time savings from the facilities budget and criminal record report revenue. The project is currently in Phase A design, and will be bid for construction in September 2012.
In response to a question from Representative Henley, Ms. Henderson stated that once AOC staff meets with the architect, ShermanCarterBarnhart PSC, they will know the estimated construction/renovation cost.
In response to a question from Senator Westwood, Ms. Henderson said the Renovation of Office Space - 1001 Vandalay Drive project is authorized in the 2012-2014 budget ($6 million restricted funds.)
Representative Henley thanked Ms. Henderson for her presentation and said the Board's next meeting is tentatively scheduled for September 21 on the Kentucky Community and Technical College System campus in Lexington.
With there being no further business, Representative Henley made a motion to adjourn the meeting. The motion was seconded by Senator Westwood and the meeting adjourned at 10:21 A.M.