The Pennington County Commission meeting room in the courthouse, normally the venue for discussions about such things as property taxes, road maintenance and zoning variances, begins its new career today as a courtroom.

Seventh Circuit Judge Merton Tice will hear several criminal cases today and throughout the rest of the week in the commission meeting room on the first floor of the courthouse.

Tice and his court reporter have already moved from offices upstairs in the courthouse to the back part of the commissioner's area.

The move is part of a series of shuffling in the courthouse to make more room for the 7th Circuit Court, which is adding a judge in December.

Here's the sequence of moves:

-- The county Equalization Department will move to the county's newly acquired County Office Building on St. Joseph Street next to Schmid Insurance.

-- The auditor's office will move into the equalization offices on the east side of the courthouse.

-- Then, one of the 7th Circuit judges will move into the auditor's office, which is being converted into a courtroom.

-- Even after the auditor's office is transformed into a courtroom, the commission meeting room will remain in use for magistrate court to handle civil cases, small claims and non-jury trial criminal cases, according to 7th Circuit Presiding Judge Jeff Davis, who has overseen the shuffling.

Davis has been working with the county commission and other county officials to handle the increasing space needs of the court system.

State law requires counties to provide space for the state courts, which have the right to take over county offices.

The most immediate space need is a courtroom for newly appointed 7th Circuit Judge Mary Thorstenson, who will begin her duties in December. The state Legislature created a seventh judge's slot for the 7th Circuit. In addition to the seven circuit judges, the circuit also has three magistrate judges to handle a case load that has increased 45 percent since 1990.

In addition to adult criminal cases, Tice currently handles juvenile cases, which are closed to the public. So the commission meeting room is being modified to maintain privacy for the juvenile defendants. Curtains have been placed over the windows to the hallway, and magnetic coverings will be placed on the narrow windows on the doors.

The commission meeting room, now called the Commission Courtroom, isn't set up for jury trials, Davis said. For those, Tice will move to an upstairs courtroom.

For Tice, the move to the commission meeting room is temporary, because he recently announced his retirement, effective on Jan. 10, 2010.

Gov. Mike Rounds will select a replacement, Davis said.

Davis said he likely will assign one of the current 7th Circuit judges to the auditor's quarters on the first floor of the courthouse and put Thorstenson and Tice's replacement in court rooms and offices upstairs.

Davis told commissioners at their regular meeting on Tuesday that he plans to modify the commissioners' meeting table so it can hold a flat panel computer monitor with a glass cover for the judge. Workers will make similar modifications for the court clerk on one end of the table and the commission clerk on the other end of the table.

"The logistics of this have been huge," Davis said after Tuesday's meeting.

The arrangement will have to last for a while until the county finds more space for its offices.

The county commission voted earlier this year to hire a firm to complete its master facilities plan, which will look at existing county facilities, space needs and options, including a new county office building.

Meanwhile, Judge Davis and his staff are working with county officials to schedule court around the regular county commission meetings, held on the first and second Tuesdays of each month, the county planning commission meetings on the second and fourth Mondays of each month, and special meetings and uses, such as the county tax sale on the third Monday of December.

Even this week, the court docket is conflicting with a previously scheduled event, a Leadership Rapid City class, originally scheduled for Thursday afternoon.

Leadership Rapid City's planned guest speaker is Judge Davis, who briefs the classes each year on the workings of the court system. Davis said the group will simply move upstairs to his courtroom.

"We'll all be together upstairs," he said.

Contact Steve Miller at 394-8415 or steve.miller@rapidcityjournal.com.