AOC: "Cleaning up court construction mess" from Herald Leader editorial

The Herald Leader recently did a series on concerns regarding Kentucky's courthouse construction this past decade addressing costs, oversight, etc.

Chief Justice Minton has addressed the courthouse construction, and here is the Herald Leader editorial remarking on the response.  Here's an earlier post for some background - AOC: "Chief Justice Minton to discuss judicial center construction program Oct. 3 at Court Facilities Standards Committee meeting."  And here is a "story" rather than the editorial from the Herald Leader on the Chief Justice's remarks - "Chief Judge Seeks Changes in court-house plan"

Click on the heading for the editorial.

Cleaning up court construction mess

The first step, it's often said, to solving a problem is acknowledging it.

Kentucky Supreme Court Chief Justice John D. Minton Jr. did just that last week when he announced several changes in the near-billion-dollar construction budget for courthouses, also know as judicial centers, in Kentucky.

The new chief justice said he's making the proposal to "shore up public confidence" in the program, a subtle but real way of saying the courthouse building boom has damaged trust in our state's court system.

To recap: In the last decade, under then-Chief Justice Joseph Lambert, Kentucky has spent more than $880 million on 65 new courthouses. Elaborate palaces have been built in some of our poorest counties, often displacing significant historic buildings.

Although the program is rife with cronyism and most contracts are let without competitive bidding, there's been very little outside oversight.

The Administrative Office of the Courts, which runs the program, is immune from the state's open-records law, so it can decide what it wants to let the public know about these huge expenditures.

Minton hasn't pledged yet to completely open AOC records, as we would like, but he has taken some important steps:

■ Creating an online tracking system for "every penny" spent on these projects.

■ Taking steps to include public input on projects, including better notice of meetings of the boards that oversee them.

■ Asking the National Center for State Courts to take a look at AOC's administrative procedures.

■ Asking State Auditor Crit Luallen to take "a closer look" at judicial-center projects.

These actions are a good sign of Minton's interest in creating a culture of accountability in this huge, flawed program that he inherited from his predecessor.

But they are first steps toward changing a system that has support because it has spread building projects around the state while enriching key people.

It will take time and determination to finally arrive at a fundamentally better system.

We wish Minton well and urge him to keep at it.