COEUR d'ALENE - Citing a current lack of security and space limitations, Kootenai County officials opted to move the public defender office staff off the county campus to a space on Lincoln Way.

"In the old building there's no security," Kootenai County Commissioner Dan Green said Friday. "There's just no room in the old building."

The public defender employees currently occupy two separate buildings, including 5,440 square feet of floor space at 400 Northwest Boulevard and approximately 1,200 square feet inside the Old Courthouse building at 501 Government Way. The county owns both buildings.

The county will now be leasing 9,100 square feet of office space at 1607 Lincoln Way for $7,000 per month, Green said.

The move is scheduled to be completed next month.

Shawn Riley, Kootenai County's facilities director, said the cost to get the public defender office into the new location is expected to be $110,000.

That includes a full new security system, remodeling, and connection to the county's fiber optic backbone, along with other moving expenses, Riley said. The county's fiber optic backbone runs from the county campus to the Kootenai County Sheriff's Office and the jail, traveling along U.S. 95, Riley said.

Young Construction Group of Idaho is the general contractor for the remodel work.

The space on Lincoln Way was previously used for medical services, he said.

The Public Defender's Office has 36 employees currently, said Skye Reynolds, the county's human resources director. Three of those are temporary positions, and the county is in the process of recruiting for three more of the total, she said.

Chief Public Defender John Adams "constantly asks for more public defenders," Green said. "And there is no place to put them" within the county's current facilities at the downtown campus.

Green said the state Legislature might require the county to hire more public defenders. A Public Defense Reform Interim Committee was formed by the Legislature, and the committee is poised to make recommendations this legislative session.

"It's hard to know how many defenders are needed," Green said.

Adams declined on Friday to make a public comment about the move of his office to a new location off campus.