From Joe Pyritz:

The Pinal Co. Board of Supervisors received a report from Judge Bill O’Neil regarding future Superior Court improvements needed to keep up with the growth in the County.

Judge O’Neil was joined by Vice-Chairman David Snider as co-chair of a committee of 7 Pinal Co. residents dedicated to study the current & future requirements of the Superior Court. The study began in 2005. The plan takes a wide ranging view of the Pinal Co. judicial system from the Superior Court to Justice of Peace Courts along with court departments.

Addressing the Supervisors, Judge O’Neil said the report sets forth recommendations for the Board on “how to accommodate the future growth that is obviously upon us.”

O’Neil said that experts consulted for this study 1st doubted the County’s calculations on the growth it is experiencing. “They said there was no way we could be experiencing this amount of growth,” the Judge recalled. “In civil filings, when we started this study we had a thousand plus filings a year. This year, we have 2,800 civil filings.” Many of those civil filings, O’Neil added, are due to land disputes.

Supervisor Snider said the Board deems the report as important when planning for the overall growth of Pinal County.

“What is significant,” the District 3 Supervisor began, “is that this document is a critical piece in a countrywide facility master plan. The County Manager and staff has been analyzing the county’s facility needs and having the courts’ specific input will help that larger plan reach its goal.”

Both Supervisor Snider and Judge O’Neil said the plan placed an emphasis on cost effectiveness.

“The needs are many,” Snider said, “& the resources are limited. So we took the approach that we need to look at what we can accomplish with the money that will be available. We also looked at areas where we can save the taxpayers money in the long run. These goals set forth are not ‘pie in the sky,’ they are definitely attainable.”

O’Neil said there were seven major recommendations from the committee.

* Centralization of administration functions
* Centralization of criminal, in-custody juvenile and civil jury dockets
* Decentralization of non-jury, civil matters
* Implementation priority of decentralization of court services
* Further development of the Clerk of the Superior Court’s online services
* Expand court services through extended us of new technology
* Establish mixed use court facilities for various courts.

“This is a good plan that is well thought out & has an eye toward our future,” Supervisor Snider said. “The citizen members of the committee put in long hours in reviewing a mountain of information - I join Judge O’Neil in thanking them for their service to the County.”