The speaker of the Florida House, Republican Paul Renner of Palm Coast, has asked the state Supreme Court to reduce the number of courts, as a way to make the system more efficient and cut costs.
A committee that was formed to make a recommendation later this year will hold a public hearing Friday in Orlando.
Among the opponents of the move is Republican Bruce Bartlett, the state attorney for the circuit representing Pasco and Pinellas counties. He said the Sixth Circuit that he represents does things differently than neighboring circuit courts.
"The bigger is not better theory doesn't work," Bartlett said. "That's the bottom line, is we lose the personality of the circuit and the relationships that existed with law enforcement and everything else when you expand out and you have the attempt to consolidate and make it bigger.
"And that's pretty steadfast against having the individualized, the loss of the personality, with the office with the people that we've created, you know, we created in a law enforcement and most important part of it."
Bartlett has sent a letter opposing the plan to a committee that was formed to make a recommendation on whether it should be adopted.
"The idea that the consolidation would benefit anybody is just not there," he said. "In other words, the way we conduct our cases and investigations in the Sixth Circuit is different than they do over in the 13th circuit and different than they do it in the 12th circuit. And you would have to have a lot of retooling of the different systems that operate within those different circuits."
"I think within that Pinellas-Pasco circuit, there are 16 different law enforcement agencies, police agencies, and then there are of course, two sheriff's and then you have Florida Highway Patrol, you have FDLE (Florida Department of Law Enforcement) that you deal with," he said. "We have built relationships with law enforcement agencies. They know that people, we know the way the way they are, the business is differently operated in some agencies, we have established a way that we conduct live investigations to do our filing decisions."
After the Judicial Circuit Assessment Committee makes its recommendation later this year, the proposal will be voted by the state legislature.
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