Although entrances to the new Leelanau County courthouse in Suttons Bay Township will be equipped with metal detectors and security screening stations, the facility will not be staffed with security guards when it opens next year.

The Leelanau County Board of Commissioners decided last week that it will not include funding for security guards at the new Governmental Center in the county’s 2008 budget

Now under construction north of M-204 and west of Horn Road, the facility is connected by a tunnel to the jail at the adjacent Law Enforcement Center where the Sheriff’s Department is headquartered. Officials expect the Governmental Center will be completed and occupied around the first of the year when the courthouse and other county facilities in Leland are vacated to make way for a new housing development.

County commissioners first discussed the security guard issue as part of budget discussions during an executive committee meeting earlier this month. Following the discussion, District No. 5 commissioner David “Chauncey” Shiflett moved to recommend that the county “not man the security area at the new Governmental Center for budgetary purposes.”

The motion carried 6-1, with District No. 2 commissioner Mark Walter opposed. Following the meeting, Walter said he voted against the motion because he believed that, although security guards might not be needed immediately at the new courthouse, they would be needed eventually and the county should budget for them. Walter works fulltime as a state prison guard supervisor.

At its regular monthly meeting last week, the county board voted 6-0, with Walter absent, to accept the executive committee’s recommendation.

County administrator David Gill said staffing of a security area on the top level of the new courthouse would cost approximately $120,000 yearly for two people working eight hours per day, five days per week. He said one court or another is in session in Leelanau County every working day of the week.

The top level of the three-level, 68,173-square-foot facility will contain three courtrooms, the county prosecutor’s office, judges’ chambers, jury rooms and other court-related spaces.

The main floor of the $10.6 million facility will contain most other county offices, including those of the clerk, treasurer, register of deeds, and many others routinely visited by members of the public. The bottom level, will contain facilities for the buildings and grounds department, an employee break room, a meeting room and several thousand square feet of “future unfinished” area.

Commissioners noted that the Grand Traverse County Board of Commissioners last week had a similar discussion about courthouse security. Unarmed guards man security stations and metal detectors fulltime at the courthouse in Traverse City; and Grand Traverse officials were considering renewing a $504,000 annual contract with a private security firm.

“The timing of that discussion was perfect,” commented Leelanau County board chairman Robert W. Hawley who represents District No. 6. “If you’re going to have unarmed people manning those stations, why have them at all?”

Gill explained that although an armed Sheriff’s Deputy serves as bailiff in courtrooms, the bailiff is primarily responsible for protecting the judge and overseeing inmates in the courtroom – not providing screening or security for the courthouse.

District No. 7 commissioner Melinda Lautner said she wondered why security facilities were planned only on the top (courtroom) floor and not on the main floor of the building. Gill responded that appropriate wiring is in place on both the main and top floors, and security equipment could be placed anywhere desired.

“It’s just a matter of whether you want to require a granny visiting the Register of Deeds office to go through a screening every time she comes into the building,” Gill said.

District No. 3 commissioner Will Bunek noted that there has never been a permanent security screening station at the courthouse in Leland, but that screening and extra security has been provided there on an as-needed basis by the Sheriff’s Department. He said the county could continue operating that way in the new facility as well.

Bunek said he believes it would be prudent for the county government to see how things work out in the new facility before budgeting for extra security. The rest of the board, minus Walter, agreed.