Recognizing the limitations of the executive branch, the late Utah Gov. Scott M. Matheson used to say that judges go on affecting people's lives long after the governors who appointed them are gone.
"I think what he was saying is underscored by the fact that, here it is 13 years since he was governor, and many of the individuals he appointed to the bench are still there," said Scott M. Matheson Jr."One of the things that motivated him to run for governor in the first place was the opportunity to make a significant impact on the judiciary."
And Matheson took full advantage of that opportunity, appointing 50 judges and all five Supreme Court justices during his two terms in office from 1977 to 1985.
Now, many of those same appointees will be deciding fates and fortunes and shaping the law for many years to come from inside the new Scott M. Matheson Courthouse.
Located across the street from the historic Salt Lake City-County Building at 450 S. State, Utah's newest and largest courts complex will be dedicated and opened to the public at 2:30 p.m. Friday.
The $79 million building consolidates courts, legal services and administrative offices that until now have been scattered throughout the city. Built on time and within budget, the courthouse is being billed as classical on the outside, ultramodern within.
"It's a traditional building with a nice, distinctive appearance," according to Gordon H. Bissegger, director of administrative services for the Administrative Office of the Courts. "It looks like a courthouse."
But behind the judicious faux Doric columns and cherrywood-furnished courtrooms are a state-of-the-art electronics and com-munications system, "air-tight" security, and built-in functionality.
Don't expect it to make lawsuits, trials, divorces, jury service, traffic fines or death sentences any easier to take, but it does put those otherwise unpleasant experiences in a more "user-friendly" setting.
Bissegger, who has been involved with the development of the courthouse since it was conceived 10 years ago, said it was designed with the public in mind. For one thing, litigants and their lawyers won't be running all over town anymore.
The tenants of the new building include the 3rd District Court Divisions I and II, from separate locations at the Metropolitan Hall of Justice; the 3rd District Juvenile Court, from 3522 S. 700 West; the Utah Court of Appeals and Administrative Office of the Courts, from 230 S. 500 East; and the Utah Supreme Court and State Law Library from the Capitol.
It will be the closest thing to one-stop shopping Utah's court system has ever had. Plus, the 420,000-square-foot judicial hub will save taxpayers an estimated $39 million in rents and operating costs over the next 25 years.
Bissegger said design/build construction and other cost-saving measures helped keep the cost down to $115 per square foot. Nationally, new state courts buildings cost an average of $150 per square foot, he said.
"We did a lot more with less," Bissegger said.
All visitors to the new courthouse - including lawyers - enter from State Street on the east or Church Street on the west, passing through security checkpoints and metal detectors.
At the State Street entrance is the showpiece, five-story rotunda with a hand-painted ceiling. At the Church Street (38 East) side is a public cafeteria. Thanks to private donations, the dramatic, diamond pattern quarry-tile flooring in the rotunda has been extended to all of the public corridors. The original plans called for cost-cutting commercial carpeting.
Bissegger said individuals and organizations contributed about $500,000 toward various improvements. About half that amount comes from Utah State Bar dues to upgrade the furnishing of the 70 attorney/client conference rooms.
State law set aside 1 percent of the cost of the project for art, including the hand-painted cupola, custom etched skylights, classical stenciling and selected artworks to be showcased throughout the court-house. The art fund also paid for a controversial mural that towers over the Supreme Court bench.
Most of the public business - filing or viewing court documents, jury assembly and paying fines - will be handled on the first floor. Juvenile courts are on the second, district courts on the third and fourth, and the Supreme Court and Appeals Court on the fifth.
Tucked away behind the public areas in surprisingly austere, almost institutional offices are the administrative and support offices and judges' chambers.
Even the five Supreme Court justices make do with comparatively small quarters, industrial grade carpeting, painted doors with jail-slot windows and used furniture. But at least they boast a spectacular view of the City-County Building against the Wasatch Mountains.
"It's wonderful," said Justice Leonard H. Russon as he was settling into his "penthouse suite." As the rookie on the bench, he had last pick (in other words, no pick) and got stuck with the runt of the offices. However, by a quirk of design, or justice, his room actually turned out to be roomier than some of the others when furnished.
While looking forward to working in the new environment, Russon confesses he and others had some "misgivings" about leaving the Capitol.
"There was so much history there," he said, recalling the emotional impact of sitting where so many of the state's most famous jurists once sat.
Justice Richard C. Howe, who becomes the chief justice next week, shares those sentiments.
"The new courthouse is a nice building, very adequate, but there is only one State Capitol," he said. "The Capitol has a special charm."
While the move may be a step down in the public building hierarchy for the Supreme Court, it's a giant step up for just about everybody else.
The 3rd District Court civil clerks, for example, aren't waxing nostalgic over their dank, trashy, overcrowded basement in the Metropolitan Hall of Justice. For the first time, they will be above ground and under the same roof as all the other downtown court clerks, judges and support staff.
The 28 district courts in the new building include two high-security courtrooms for high-risk trials, and the latest computer-integrated-courtrooms that accommodate a wide range of computer-generated text and video presentations.
Bissegger said architects relied upon the advice of judges, court staff, law enforcement experts, attorneys and community representatives in the design of the building.
The results include seven juvenile courts that accommodate children and families in a more intimate setting; spacious jury assembly rooms; video trial facilities; and a special network of prisoner elevators, corridors and holding cells.
Prisoners are brought in through a special entrance off 500 South and taken to a steel-gated sally port underneath the courthouse. With room for 200 prisoners at a time, the adjacent holding area is larger than most jails in the state. Eight elevators with no outlet to public areas move prisoners to secure holding areas between the courtrooms.
Bissegger said the system was designed to prevent the kind of public-prisoner interaction that facilitated the famous 1985 Ronnie Lee Gardner escape attempt and shootout at the Metropolitan Hall of Justice.
One sore point for court personnel - and probably for the public - will be the limited amount of parking at the new courthouse. There are only 334 stalls for more than 440 employees, though overflow parking and shuttle service for court workers will be made available at nearby lots.
Meanwhile, more than 1,200 daily visitors to the courthouse will be competing for 275 stalls. The public parking facility has been contracted out to Diamond Parking.
The Supreme Court and Appeals Court have already moved into the Matheson Courthouse. They will be followed by the 3rd District Court during the first two weeks of April, Juvenile Court and court administration in May, and State Law Library in June.
The final touch, a life-size statue of Scott M. Matheson, will be placed in the rotunda sometime later this year if private contributions come through, Bissegger said.
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ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
Building layout
1st floor Public access
2nd floor Juvenile courts
3rd/4th floors District courts
5th floor Supreme and appellate courts
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The courtrooms
VIDEO RECORD: The new courtrooms will have the latest in equipment to provide a video record of court proceedings. Videos can be reviewed by court members or during jury deliberations.
ARRAIGNMENT: Video communications can also make the arraignment of prisoners possible without moving them from the jail.
CHILD TESTIMONY: A video camera will also be used when sensitive testimony of young children is needed. A special room with video equipment will provide a secure environment where a child can feel comfortable without having to face menacing adults.
Individual elevators provide access to prisoners in main holding cells located in the basement.
Surveillance cameras monitor the courthouse from command station in the basement.
ZONES
People in the courthouse will move through three zones that will segregate the movement of prisoners, judges and the public.
PRISONERS come up in elevators from large holding cells in the basement and are put in smaller cells adjacent to the courtroom until they are needed.
PUBLIC moves through halls and areas that are inaccessible to prisoners.
JUDGES enter and leave through separate door behind the bench.