Janssen painted a different picture of the county's progress. When the planned Antelope Valley, San Fernando and Los Angeles courthouses are completed, the county will have built 172 new courtrooms. Fifth District Los Angeles County Supervisor Michael D. Antonovich called the auditor's report a whitewash of the state's responsibility of creating politically based construction priorities instead of allowing the county to build courthouses in order of need. The state mandates that counties follow a three-tier courthouse construction program. Counties are required to complete construction on courthouses in one category before moving on to the next.
State law does allow counties to plan and design courthouses in any order they wish.
The Antelope Valley courthouse is in the third and last tier, which until recently made it a low priority project - even though circuit judges who visited the current facility in Lancaster called its condition the worst in the state. Designs for the Antelope Valley courthouse may also have to be updated. Construction is scheduled to begin within 18 months. But those upgrades, Antonovich spokesman Cam Currier said, are merely part of upgrading to meet new earthquake codes. Courthouses were delayed because of the recession that hit California especially hard during the early 1990s, after plans were already finished, Currier said.