Nassau County is in need of a better family courthouse. On this, Executive Thomas Suozzi and the county's bar association agree. However, whether the current building, located in Westbury, should be renovated and expanded or relocated elsewhere in the county, is currently up for debate.

Last week, the Nassau County Bar Association, which represents nearly 6,000 attorneys, judges, legal educators and law students, publicly announced that relocating the courthouse to Mineola/Garden City -specifically to the former Department of Social Services (DDS) building (101 County Seat Drive) -would fit in better with a recent state proposal to consolidate New York's court system. The county executive disagrees, stating that relocating the facility would not be economically feasible. Instead, he supports a major renovation and expansion project of the current site.

Earlier this month, some 500 people - including judges, lawyers, administrators, staff and detainees, not including children in the facility's day-care center - had to be evacuated when the courthouse's fire alarm system malfunctioned 11 times in 10 days and, on Sept. 7, the court was closed early. While the cause of the false alarms ended up being a faulty part repaired by the alarm's vendor in time for court to resume Sept. 10, the bar association says a new courthouse is a top priority.

Nassau family court, which is currently located at 1200 Old Country Road, is one of the busiest in the state's family law circuit. Today, 10 judges hear some 25,000-plus cases annually in a building that, when built in 1960, was a two-room courthouse intended to accommodate two judges.

"No one disagrees that we need a new family court facility and that regardless of location, we will need to move family court temporarily until a new facility is built," said Lance D. Clarke, president of the Nassau County Bar Association's Board of Directors. "The question is, do we do what is tantamount to a quick fix now, much in the way it was done in 1960, constructing a family court without requisite vision? Or do we look at all the facts and make the best decision that will provide a much greater benefit to the people of our county now and far into the future?"

He added, "Family court should have never been located in Westbury to begin with. [All] the courts should have been in the same location. The reason it was built in [Westbury] was never explained. The building was never big enough to accommodate the system [and] we are paying a heavy price for a mistake made a mere 47 years ago."

Clarke, who is also a real estate attorney and current Hempstead Village Justice, said relocating family court would fit well into plans proposed earlier this year by the state to consolidate its court system. In July 2006 New York's Chief Judge Judith S. Kaye appointed the Special Commission on the Future of the New York State Courts to assess the need for structural and other operational reforms of the judiciary.

In February 2007, after seven months of intensive study, the commission, which is chaired by Carey R. Dunne, published a 175-page report detailing its findings and recommendations for reform. Among the findings was the need for consolidation of the state's 11 major trial courts into a streamlined, two-tier structure that "would greatly improve the administration of justice and save litigants, the state and the economy over $500 million per year."

Earlier this year, Chief Judge Kaye endorsed the commission and in April, Governor Eliot Spitzer proposed a constitutional amendment to restructure the state's court system, including nearly all of the elements proposed by the commission. "The legislation and constitutional amendments I am proposing ... will bring long-needed reform to our court system, which is one of the most convoluted, politicized, outdated and expensive in the nation," stated Spitzer in an April press release.

The county executive, however, is in favor of renovating and expanding the present courthouse because it would be more economical in the long run. "We have some $75 million in our capital budget for the renovation and expansion of the Westbury site, including doubling its 385 parking spots. It would cost much more to put the family court in Garden City," according to Suozzi in a statement issued to Anton Newspapers. "Additionally, we have for a long time planned to sell the old DSS site and adjacent parking lot for up to $50 million. If we build the court in Garden City instead, it would cost about $140 million - plus the loss of the $50 million."

Clarke, who views Suozzi's plan as a "band-aid approach," said the real property sale of the DDS building should have nothing to do with construction of a family court building and that relocating the building would "kill two birds with one stone [because] the existing county court building is deteriorating.

"The wave of the future is consolidation to save expenses and to create cooperative agreements. We are looking at the long-term future," Clarke said. "If you are going to need to consolidate the courts and possibly have to build another structure down the road, why not build a courthouse that solves the problem now rather than have to come up with another $75 million 10 years from now. Why not do it right the first time?"

Relocating the court to the former DDS site, however, would also be subject to approval by the Village of Garden City, in which the property lies. The county executive stated that he does not expect the village to graciously approve such a project because it would suffer a significant loss of tax revenue on the site, which was recently rezoned residential.

"Garden City's opposition to the proposed relocation of the family court from Westbury to Garden City is firmly based on the need to keep taxes as low as possible for both village and county residents," Garden City Mayor Peter Bee said, adding that the village is already bearing a heavy loss of tax revenues because of all the county offices located in Garden City. "We need relief," he continued. "The site was recently rezoned to allow for taxpaying housing."

And although he believes there is no question that a new family court would be far more expensive than refurbishing the one in Westbury, Mayor Bee added, "We all know how estimates balloon once the hammer hits the nail. Taxpayers should not be burdened with even higher taxes to pay for a new building ... Nassau County has recently renovated its juvenile detention center in Westbury. This tax money should not be wasted and a nearby family court makes more sense."

Currently, the bar association is calling for all the parties involved to work together to formulate a comprehensive plan to determine where the best location for all the courts, including family court, is in order to provide a dignified environment to dispense justice for all the people involved. Clarke said the Nassau County Bar Association is working with the Unified Court System, the Nassau County Executive's Office and officials from Mineola and Garden City to gather information about court space and parking needs, case loads, traffic patterns and other data referable to the Nassau County Family Court.

"... The bar association would like a solution that is in the best interest of the taxpayers of Nassau County and the patrons of the courts," said Clarke, adding that the bar association believes "it is in the best interests of justice and the community to locate a new Nassau County Family Court facility within a comprehensive Mineola/Garden City court complex."

The county's social services department relocated from 101 County Seat Drive to Mitchel Field in Uniondale two years ago. The building currently still houses Nassau County's Probation Department.