COEUR d'ALENE - The Kootenai County commissioners are considering creating a long-term plan for all county facilities, which could include relocating departments, moving out of some structures and even building a new one to consolidate services.

"We need to really have a handle on where we're going overall, county-wide, with our facilities," said Commissioner Jai Nelson.

The idea stemmed from concerns during the commissioners' tour of county facilities earlier this year, she added.

"Some of the plans that were being proposed, I certainly didn't think they were the most cost effective decisions," Nelson said.

The commissioners are asking firms to submit proposals to write a facilities master plan, analyzing the use and status of each county building. The document will rate how facilities accommodate departments that are growing or downsizing, evaluate the condition of the structures and offer ideas for improving how departments are situated.

"Tremendous cost effective decisions," Nelson said of what could come out of such a plan. "Really this is a proactive road map to say, 'Where are our buildings, and where should they be?'"

The plan would include facilities like the county Administration Building, county courthouses, the Parks and Waterways facility on Ramsey Road, the airport, the fairgrounds and the jail.

A county-wide facilities plan has never been done before, Nelson said.

"This is just step one," she said of gathering firms' proposals. "I'm hoping we can get it going, and depending on what they determine, the commissioners are willing to act on it and implement it."

Commissioner Todd Tondee said the plan will provide useful information.

"I think it's a great idea to go through that process and understand all our facilities and needs of our facilities, and what we need to move forward," Tondee said.

A possible outcome of the plan, said Commissioner Dan Green, is consolidating all justice services into one building, including courtrooms, prosecutors and judges.

"We'd have to build a new building," Green said. "But we don't want to go down that path without an updated plan to help determine your needs, look at costs, all sorts of things."

Court facilities are fractured right now, he pointed out. Currently courtrooms are in four different locations, spread between the county jail, the old courthouse, the new courthouse and the Juvenile Justice Center on Fourth Street.

That means that prosecutors and defenders are stretched between spaces, he said, as is the sheriff's department charged with transporting prisoners.

"We have prosecutors and defenders traveling to different locations," Green said. "There are inefficiencies."

He hopes the plan would analyze whether the Juvenile Justice Center, the old federal courthouse that the county acquired two years ago, is a prudent space for the county to use, he added.

"It is fiscally responsible? It is expensive to maintain?" Green said.

Sheriff Rocky Watson lauded the commissioners' decision to review county facilities.

The sheriff's department would like to see all the courts in one location, he added.

"We spend a lot of time and money moving prisoners to the courts and in and out of the courts," Watson said. "About 80 percent of the people in the jail are pre-sentenced, so they're in and out of court possibly three times a week. That's 300 people in and out of court."

Karlene Behringer, First District trial court administrator, said the court process would be easier for all parties with a new campus that puts prosecutors, judges, courtrooms and jail in the same area.

A new building is more likely, she added, but that might require more employees to run it.

"The staff numbers have to be consistent with what's needed," she said, adding that expanding parking is also an issue.

Nelson would like to find a better alternative to the Public Defender's Office on Northwest Boulevard, she said.

"They do not have enough space, so the prior board was looking at an addition," she said, adding that some of that office staff has been relocated to the lower level of the courthouse. "I didn't feel that was the cost effective solution."

The county owns 25 buildings and leases three.

Green hopes that a master plan, if the commissioners decide to go ahead with it, could be ready within a year.

"Just long-term planning, I think, needs to be addressed," he said.