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A poster child for federal government mismanagement sits in downtown Miami. Actually, there are two of them.
The Wilkie D. Ferguson Jr. U.S. Courthouse, at 400 N. Miami Ave., was originally intended to supplement space in the neighboring David W. Dyer Federal Building and U.S. Courthouse.
Then the overbuilding and cost overruns started.
The Government Accountability Office found that the Ferguson court complex was overbuilt by 238,000 square feet at an excess cost of $49 million. An additional $3.8 million in costs related to maintenance and operations continues to click away each year.
The GAO ranked the building fourth among the seven "most overbuilt and overpriced" courthouses in the country. Spanning 77,784 square feet, Ferguson cost $129 million to construct.
The Dyer building, meanwhile, has been abandoned by the courts. Though the 81-year-old limestone structure is listed on the National Register of Historic Places, it is deteriorating and in disrepair.
An investigation by the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, chaired by Rep. John Mica, R-Orlando, uncovered a "habit of over-projecting space needs [for courts], due in part to poor data and methodology."
Information obtained by the committee staff from the General Services Administration on courthouses completed between 1995 and 2008 -- including the Ferguson complex -- revealed that 17 percent more courtrooms were built in courthouses than there were actual judges.
Ferguson was constructed for 33 judges. The courthouse currently houses 27 judges, including vacancies.
Not everyone is upset by the building. The two-tower, 14-story complex earned a design certificate of citation from the American Institute of Architects Academy of Architecture for Justice in 2007.
Judicial officials have questioned some of the GAO findings. They argue, for example, that the agency retroactively applied courtroom-sharing models not yet implemented.
But House investigators said the data "clearly show that without any sharing of courtrooms," there is a glut of judicial space.
"Courthouses have been routinely overbuilt," concluded the House report titled "Sitting on Our Assets: The Federal Governments Misuse of Taxpayer-Owned Assets."
Contact Kenric Ward at kward@sunshinestatenews.com or at (772) 801-5341.
