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After two and a half years of stalled negotiations between David Huffman, the county Register and Recorder, and the Lycoming County Commissioners, a judge has ruled that Huffman's office has to join other county offices at Third Street Plaza, a move which he has fought citing security issues.
The ruling came just over an hour before the commissioners' weekly meeting and brings to a close a sometimes acrimonious dispute which has played out not only in court but in the media.
For the commissioners, it is one of the final pieces of the puzzle which when completed will see not only the Register and Recorder's office in a new location but will allow a much needed expansion of the sheriff's department at the Courthouse.
"The county has faced challenges with the size of government growing and moving forward with proper and adequate space for each office," said Commissioner Scott Metzger.
"One of those issues was the sheriff's office," he added.
At the time the Courthouse was built in 1970 there were two judges. Now there are seven courtrooms in use. There are also only two holding cells in the building. If there is a female who needs to be in a cell, she must have one for her alone in a location where she can't hear the male occupants of the other cell.
"So, through the hearings, you may have 10, 11, 12 men in one holding cell and one female in the other holding cell. Even if you don't have a female, you still have multiple offenders in each cell," Metzger said.
Sheriff Eric Spiegel, whose office deals with the situation daily, spoke about the lack of space at the 56 year-old building.
"Lycoming County is outgrowing our courthouse. There's no doubt about that. The court system is exploding. I don't know how-and hats off to court administration and court scheduling-I don't know how they juggle it all. The court schedule is insane, and as we tell the public, the sheriff's office beats to the drum of the courts," Spiegel said.
"When they call and say we need an inmate for this hearing or that hearing, we have to transport that inmate. We have to supply security for the courtroom. All of that takes a lot of coordination and a lot of work, and that's why our office has, for lack of a better term, expanded drastically over the years," he said.
Spiegel shared when he joined the department, he was the ninth deputy. Today there are 29 people in his department, including the chief and his second in command, but they are still in the same space as they were when he came on board.
Another essential for the Sheriff's Department to carry out their duties in the courthouse is their proximity to the elevator.
"The hub of our office is that secured elevator. That's how we transport the inmates safely. We can't go anywhere else...Sometimes I wish we could. Maybe we have already been moved," he added.
In addition to just the growth in numbers in his department, Spiegel noted that they now have female employees, including his second in command, Chief Deputy Sheriff Keely Mahosky. And there is no locker room space for either the males or the females.
One of the arguments the Register and Recorder has had against the move to Third Street Plaza is the lack of security. At the courthouse visitors are screened before they can enter the building. At Third Street Plaza the security is centered at the various departments.
"I've met with the register recorder several times talking about the move. He has concerns about the safety and security of his office. Our job is safety and security of the courthouse and the Third Street Plaza, the visitors, the employees. So I take his concerns very seriously," Spiegel said.
"We've done plenty of research. You know the reality of putting a full-time deputy into the Register and Recorder's office every single day. We can't do it. We don't have the staff to do it. We have a rover that patrols Third Street Plaza as well as the courthouse multiple times a day, and we have 76 duress alarms throughout Third Street Plaza and the courthouse. When those duress alarms are pushed, every deputy receives that alarm on their portable radio. Every adult probation officer receives that alarm on their portable radio, and every available deputy and adult probation officer respond," Spiegel said.
During an incident earlier this year in one of the offices in the courthouse, those alarms were put to the test. Spiegel shared that the response time was about 48 seconds for deputies and adult probation officers to arrive at the scene.
"If something would happen, and I won't say never, but in my 17 plus years of working here at the sheriff's office and in the courthouse, we've never had an incident in the Register and Recorder's office," he stated, adding, "But I'm not one to say it'll never happen."
He noted that he had also contacted the state's Judicial Incident Reporting System and they told him that in the last three and a half years there had never been an incident reported at any Register and Recorder's Office across the state.
"To me, that's huge. I understand Dave's concerns and safety concerns, and as I said, I've met with him, and I promised, 'Look, we're going to be there. If you push that duress alarm, we will be there in seconds. You know we will have cameras,'"
"I know the commissioners already agreed to putting cameras in the office in the lobby area. We have cameras currently right outside the entrance. I don't know what else we can do to assure his safety, other than you know what we are doing," Spiegel said.
One of the arguments against moving the Register and Recorder's office is that the people who frequent that office would have to cross back and forth from the Courthouse to Third Street Plaza in order to do their work.
At the meeting were two people who work searching information in the Register and Recorder's office. One, Holly Thorne, said that she would welcome the move and was not concerned with the security measures that would be put in place, while the other, Jenny Johnson, was asking the commissioners to reconsider the move. Thorne also said that she did not see an issue with walking back and forth from the Courthouse to Third Street Plaza in order to visit the Prothonotary's office.
"I don't see a huge problem with that, and I'm the oldest abstractor there,"Thorne, who has been doing the job for 45 years, said.
Johnson, who has been doing title searches for 15 years, argued that it would be inefficient for those doing the work to have to cross back and forth between buildings.
"This move will also cause a hardship for title searchers and attorneys who use this office frequently. Searchers will no longer be able to work without traveling between buildings and this will 100 percent affect my ability to do my job efficiently," Johnson said.
She also stated that the move would affect the public who are applying for a marriage license if they were previously divorced or for adoptions which are held in a courtroom and filed in the Register and Recorder's office.
Johnson too, expressed concerns with security.
"We'll be moving out of a building with officers posted at the door, with metal detectors and an X-Ray scanner into a space that's completely void of any of these protections," Johnson said.
She also pointed out the potential for some documents which are hundreds of years old to be damaged in the move, even though the commissioners have assured it would be conducted in a secure manner.
Commissioner Marc Sortman summarized the issue.
"No matter what department moves, someone's going to change the way they do business within the county buildings. Sadly, no change goes without people being discouraged," Sortman said.
"I think we've heard from our sheriff's office, and I'm very happy with their comments in regards to safety in all of our facilities, not just this facility or any of the facilities that we own as a county. What is sad is I think this situation has become a personal situation. I'd like to remind everybody this is not personal. We have a crowded courthouse. We had to make a decision for somebody to move. The decision was not an instant decision," he said.
Sortman also commented on the cost to the taxpayers who have been bearing the brunt of funding the legal fees for the years' long dispute.
"The cost to the taxpayers is ridiculous. That we've spent two and a half years challenging a move of a department-this is costing our taxpayers way too much money. Why can't people have a conversation? Because that's all this was-a business decision with a conversation that turned into a two and a half year lawsuit," Sortman said.
"I want you to know this: as taxpayers, we pay for both sides. We pay for the register and recorder to fight the commissioners. We all work for you. That, to me, is the most ridiculous thing that's come out of this situation. If you worked for Walmart and Walmart tells you your office moves, you move. You don't fight that in a court of law, or you sit down with your boss and you have the conversation, and that's what needs to continue to happen in this county. Not lawsuits to make something happen. Have a conversation to make something happen," he said.
Commissioner Mark Mussina also commented on not only the cost of the legal fees, but also the cost for those departments that are wanting to move and can't until this issue is totally resolved.
"We've heard that he's had four attorneys, and what the legal bills will end up being on both sides. We sat through a mediation that he sent a mediator from State College who had to drive down, so he probably had to pay two hours of drive time and and that didn't go anywhere and the cost to just move an office across the street and the statute-I don't know if it's verbatim but he has to be provided an office space that is adequate to do his job in a county building in the county seat," Mussina said.
"It is just at the end of the day through all of this, I feel bad for our sheriff's department, our adult probation office, for all those people there who are waiting to move because the move is going to make their jobs safer and more efficient. I feel bad for them that they've had to wait, and I feel bad for the taxpayers that are going to end up footing a bill that seems to be unnecessary. And that's at the end of the day, that's the saddest," Mussina said.
When contacted about what comes next, Huffman referred the Sun-Gazette reporter to his lawyer, Gregg Stapp, for any comments, which the Sun-Gazette will pursue if necessary.