Federal judges say the San Antonio courthouse is falling apart
The San Antonio federal courthouse is “held together by duct tape and hope,” according to the San Antonio Express-News (sub. req.). And a few of its judges are raising a fuss.
Four federal district judges spoke directly to the Express-News editorial board yesterday to complain about the conditions in the building, originally constructed 50 years ago for a fair.
“I’ve never seen a situation as dramatically bad as San Antonio’s federal courthouse,” Senior U.S. District Judge David Alan Ezra told the newspaper.
The problems they cited include some that affect basic functioning and safety. There are no separate elevators or air circulation system for prisoners. The court’s telephone switchboard and its servers containing sealed court files are cooled by two home air-conditioning units because the original air-conditioners were “condemned long ago,” according to the newspaper. Water samples taken this summer show elevated lead and bacteria levels in the drinking water, and asbestos in older HVAC pipes is sometimes becoming airborne, posing a cancer risk.
There are also comfort issues. The building’s thermostats have not worked in more than four years, according to a bill introduced in the House of Representatives by San Antonio’s congressional delegation. Personnel must adjust vents by hand, causing wild temperature fluctuations in a city where summers can be very hot. One of the building’s air handlers is broken; two others are originals dating from the 1960s. Because fresh air passes through a space with leaky pipes, the HVAC system can accumulate mold.
“It’s outrageous that some of the most violent drug trafficking and organized crime cases in Texas are being tried in a 1960s movie theater,” Rep. Will Hurd, R-Texas, told the newspaper. “The building’s shortcomings pose a serious physical threat to the federal employees that work there and the increasing number of civilians who visit the adjacent playground.”
The problem, the Express-News says, is that the federal General Services Administration can’t fix some problems because of the age of the building. Those problems that can be fixed have been deprioritized because the GSA would rather spend the money on a new courthouse. And the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts has dropped San Antonio down the priority list for new facilities.
City leaders also want the new courthouse in part because the existing one stands in the way of development plans. In 2010, the city agreed to swap the courthouse site for the site of its former police headquarters. City Manager Sheryl Sculley says the city is waiting only for Congress to authorize the funding. Two Republican U.S. senators met last week with a Judicial Conference committee chairman and an appropriations subcommittee, respectively, to advocate for a new courthouse.
Judge Xavier Rodriguez told the Express-News that the money exists in a federal building fund and need only be released.
