Miami-Dade years behind on structural repairs at courthouse that was evacuated on Friday

Miami-Dade is years behind in making structural repairs at the county’s civil courthouse, which was evacuated Friday after an inspector urged the closing of the 10 highest floors due to an “excessively corroded” column and enough concerns about the status of the floors that he warned a pile of books was too heavy to remain there.

The July 6 report sparked an emergency closing of the 1928 courthouse by the chief judge after county administrators turned over the document, the most drastic action yet for an aging building that’s in the process of being replaced with a new $267 million tower next door, scheduled to open in 2023.

It’s also the most prominent building closed since the Surfside condominium collapse last month sparked a wave of inspections of older buildings across Miami-Dade as local governments rush to assure the public that high-rises remain safe.

Engineering report: Courthouse needs repairs soon

Released Saturday, the report by U.S. Structures Inc. to Miami-Dade’s Internal Services Department ticks off a number of long-standing deficiencies in the tower at 73 W. Flagler St. and notes how most of the repairs have already been called for in prior inspections. Internal Services commissioned the report as part of of a series of emergency inspections of older buildings after the partial collapse of Champlain Towers South, an oceanfront building that opened in 1981.

The inspection report by José Toledo, a U.S. Structures engineer, stated Miami-Dade hasn’t made the repairs called for the last time engineers analyzed the building to see what upgrades were needed to obtain a recertification that’s required for older structures by Miami-Dade’s own building code.

Courthouse repairs flagged in 2015 still aren’t done

“Please note that structural deficiencies exist on the property that were present prior to our visit, and that have been reported on for several years now,” Toledo wrote in the memo to Aundria Blatch, a county engineer with Internal Services. “At the time of this visit, none of the structural deficiencies identified in the 40/50 year re-certification report by Rizo Carreno & Partners (circa 2015), and basement level repairs provided by this office (U.S. Structures, 2015) have been addressed.”

Levine Cava’s own recertification problem in county courthouse

The stern language shines a light on county government’s deferred-maintenance problems across its portfolio of buildings at a time when Mayor Daniella Levine Cava is calling for cities to review older properties in the wake of the fatal Surfside collapse.

Toledo’s report recommended clearing everyone but maintenance staff from all levels above the 15th floor in the 28-story building until more analysis could be conducted — an emergency step Chief Judge Nushin Sayfie said was delayed because county administrators wouldn’t reveal the inspection results.

Toledo questioned prior repairs for some floor joists and recommended more analysis of each floor “to confirm its structural adequacy.” Weight was a concern in the report, with Toledo urging the county to quickly remove pallets of stored books from the 16th floor. “This load must be removed immediately,” he said.

Toledo also said a column on the 25th floor was “excessively corroded” and needed to be shored up within 30 days.

Judge: County was slow to share inspection results

In an interview Saturday, Sayfie faulted Internal Services for not moving quickly once the inspection was completed July 1 and after the inspection report was delivered to the county sometime on July 6. While Sayfie said she wanted to hear the results the day after the inspection was completed, she had to wait until Internal Services emailed the July 6 report to her on Friday afternoon.

“I gave them an earful on that,” she said. “They could have told us all day Wednesday, all day Thursday, all day Friday,” she said. Instead, she said the report arrived by email at 4:03 p.m. on Friday. By the time Sayfie and staff read the report and processed the recommendation to empty the top part of the building, the courthouse was all but closed for the weekend anyway.

Alex Muñoz, the county’s Internal Services director, was appointed to the post on May 7 by Levine Cava after several years running the county’s Animal Services department. In a statement, Muñoz, a veteran administrator who oversees most county buildings and facilities, including the courthouse, said his agency needed a short amount of time after receiving the report to get more information from Toledo on next steps before moving ahead with the recommendations.

“As part of their due diligence, staff worked to clarify items on the report in consultation with the engineer to verify actions needed and took action immediately to begin moving forward” with repairs, he said. Muñoz said the emptying of the upper floors was going to be implemented “immediately” after the consultation, but Sayfie said her staff only knew about the engineer’s recommendation by reading the emailed report.

Levine Cava was elected in November after serving six years a county commissioner, at a time when judges and lawyers lobbied Miami-Dade for more urgent action on a courthouse so old it once housed a trial for Al Capone. While a new building was ultimately approved, county engineers under then-Mayor Carlos Gimenez said the building remained safe after repairs to the interior and exterior.

“It took too long to get people to listen,” said Gene Stearns, a veteran Miami lawyer who led the push for the new courthouse, which was approved in 2019. Commissioners in 2014 asked voters for a property-tax increase to build a new courthouse on a quicker time frame, but the referendum failed.

“The building should have been emptied decades ago,” Stearns said.

With the sudden closure of the county’s main civil courthouse and the seat of the clerks office, judicial administrators are rushing to make new accommodations. Much of the strategy involves reverting back to the virtual operations that took hold after the COVID-19 pandemic began in the spring of March 2020.

“All court business at the Dade County Courthouse will be conducted remotely, and judges and court staff based at the Dade County Courthouse will be working remotely starting Monday, July 12, until further notice,” the county said in a joint release with the court system released late Friday night.

All in-person court hearings will be re-scheduled with “instructions for remote access,” the release said.

Jury trials and other proceedings that require in-person hearings will be moved to other courthouses, Sayfie said, but administrators don’t know how long they’ll have to wait until the main building reopens. “We have a short-term plan, and a longer-term plan we’re working on,” she said.

The closing of the civil courthouse comes at a challenging time for Miami-Dade’s justice system. The global pandemic had largely shuttered the courts to the public for 15 months, with most trials suspended and most hearings taking place on Zoom.

The closures had led to a backlog of cases. Limited jury trials began in March. But it was not until June 28, as COVID-19 cases fell because of vaccines, that courthouses across Miami-Dade opened back up to the public.

The courthouse building has been decades behind in obtaining the 40-year recertification, a delay that was the subject of an Inspector General report in 2016. The probe concluded the building was inspected in the 1970s to comply with the county’s new 40-year recertification rule, but that the paperwork was never finalized. Courthouse advocates pointed to the lack of a recertification certificate during the more recent debate on how quickly to finance a replacement courthouse, which is now under construction on Flagler Street.

Throughout his recent report, Toledo emphasized that many of the building’s issues have been needing repairs for years. He said most columns in the basement had spalling and cracks “ranging from minor to severe...As previously reported and documented, numerous embedded steel column members have varying signs of corrosion.”

Levine Cava has requested a report from Internal Services on why the repairs were delayed for years, said Rachel Johnson, communications director the county.

“As a commissioner, the mayor pushed the administration to get the recertification completed,” Johnson said. “Our immediate priority is to address the repairs, and we’ll do everything we can to get the building recertified.”

Miami Herald staff writer David Ovalle contributed to this report.

This story was originally published July 10, 2021 at 1:50 PM.