Johnson County Attorney’s Office could move to MidWestOne building

IOWA CITY - Officials from Johnson County and MidWestOne Bank are in discussions about a deal that would see the Johnson County Attorney's Office move across the street into MidWestOne's new building south of downtown.

Such a move would allow for the construction of two new courtrooms in the basement of the Johnson County Courthouse, where the county attorney's office is now located.

Johnson County Supervisor Rod Sullivan and MidWestOne Executive Vice President Kent Jehle confirmed the discussions. Construction wrapped last year on the five-story bank building at 500 S. Clinton St. The fourth and fifth floors of the building are unoccupied.

'We're investigating it,” Sullivan said Tuesday of a potential move. 'We obviously don't have any kind of agreement with them yet. ... We have a couple of people just trying to figure out if we can come to terms with them on that.”

Jehle said the discussions have involved potentially renting or buying space at the MidWestOne building, which is home to the bank's home mortgage center and information technology operations.

'We're actively looking for folks for those two floors,” Jehle said. 'They fit well with what we're doing there.”

Sullivan said if the county attorney's office is moved out of the basement of the courthouse, two courtrooms could be added. The basement already is home to one courtroom.

Johnson County Attorney Janet Lyness said she could not comment on any negotiations between the county and MidWestOne, but said her offices are at capacity. A part-time employee is sharing a desk with volunteers and closet space is to be cleared out and repurposed as an office for an attorney.

'We are packed as full as we can be at this point in time,” Lyness said. 'We are quite full and really are at the point we can't add attorneys or other staff without getting additional space.”

Lyness said the county is also in need of additional courtrooms. More judges could be assigned to Johnson County based on it's population, but haven't been due to the lack of courtrooms. Lyness pointed to a hearing last month involving a Johnson County homicide case that had to be moved to Cedar Rapids simply because there was no room to hold the hearing in Johnson County.

County officials have twice in recent years tried to address space and safety issues at the more than 100-year-old courthouse - as well as space concerns at the Johnson County Jail - through two proposals for a Johnson County justice center that would have included more jail beds and court space. Bond referendums to fund the facilities reached more than 50 percent support from voters, but failed to reach the 60 percent supermajority needed to pass.

'We'd much rather have the courthouse expansion the voters turned down last time,” Sullivan said. 'The problem hasn't gone away. We have to do something and this is an option.”

It's not the only option being explored, however. Sullivan said other options include using existing county-owned space, such as the third floor of the Health and Human Services building or leasing space for additional courtrooms. Both Sullivan and Lyness said creating a separate court space would require hiring more deputies and court staff, which would add to the expense. Lyness said moving her office too far from the courthouse is not an ideal solution, either.

'It's not a good use of time to have attorneys spending a lot of their time traveling back and forth,” she said. 'Someone from my office is at every hearing. We're really talking about needing a space very close.”

Jehle said each floor at the MidWestOne building has 8,600 buildable square feet.

Sullivan said the board plans to wait and see if an official proposal can be reached with MidWestOne and then weigh the merits of that option. If not, officials likely are going to look at other options for the county attorney's office.

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