To the Editor:

In a recent letter, Legislator Parker made light of the decision to provide additional space in the St. Lawrence County Courthouse for the District Attorney and her staff.

The space reconfiguration was not made so that the DA would be “more comfortable” as Mr. Parker wrote. At present, the DA operates out of four separate rooms located on multiple floors. Imagine a local business with a staff of about ten operating out of four separate facilities on multiple local parcels. Effective? No. Efficient? Of course not! This reallocation of space is intended to allow her and her staff to work in contiguous space on the same floor.

To be clear, this resolution had very little to do with the current District Attorney; it has been an operational problem for years. Money simply had not been there in the past and thankfully; we are in a better place now than we were then. Ms. Rain’s predecessor, Ms. Duve, also insisted that the office configuration was difficult. I spoke with Ms. Duve on several occasions and she said that she was sorry for not having taken a call because she had been “down in the basement” (where files are currently stored). That’s right, the basement.

Judge Richards and Judge Demarest both attended a recent Legislative Board meeting following a lunchtime meeting that they reportedly had with Mr. Lightfoot. They too acknowledged that the District Attorney was in need of a more efficient office arrangement. This issue has been debated for more than a decade. In the end, every Democrat voted to fix the problem at minimal county cost and every Republican voted no. This is yet one more operational problem that the Democratic majority has fixed with zero support from our Republican colleagues.

The Planning Department will be relocated to the building next door and the DA’s office will expand to include their current space and a conference room. Only one department will be impacted and only about 2,000 sq. ft. will require modest renovation. The project will require a few new walls, some paint, a few doors and maybe some carpet. The county Planning office (the folks being forced to move) estimates that it will cost about $100 per sq. ft. to renovate the new space. Keep in mind that is a high estimate for a full-blown commercial renovation with new HVAC, fixtures, kitchen, bath, windows, etc. Other county personnel who are familiar with the project have estimated the cost to be less than half of that. Hmmm…

The resolution committed approximately $75,000 to renovate the building that Planning will be moving to. Those renovations are overdue anyway. The DA has committed “forfeiture” funds to renovate the space that her office will be expanding into. Forfeiture funds are not county funds and the county has no authority to account for or appropriate them. The DA has this sole authority just as the Sherriff does with respect to his forfeiture funds. This is an entirely reasonable and cost effective plan.

And yet, in his letter, Mr. Parker called the plan “vague” with potential for “open-ended spending” that would “put tax dollars at risk”. In an odd twist of irony, at least according to Mr. Acres and Mr. Lightfoot, this configuration was actually their idea.

Jason A. Clark,

Legislator, District 12