PASCO COUNTY, Fla. – An appeals court Wednesday said Pasco County is responsible for paying for a criminal justice information system, but it rejected the clerk of court’s arguments that the county should cover the costs of a courthouse annex.
A panel of the 2nd District Court of Appeal overturned part of a circuit judge’s ruling in the dispute between the Pasco County Commission and county Clerk & Comptroller Nikki Alvarez-Sowles.
The case focused on the county’s obligations in paying for parts of court operations and involved interplay with a 1998 state constitutional amendment about court funding.
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Alvarez-Sowles requested money from the county commission in 2021 to operate a multi-agency criminal justice information system and for expenses related to the courthouse annex.
The commission agreed to provide money for the information system over three years but denied funding for the courthouse annex.
Alvarez-Sowles in November 2021 filed a lawsuit about the issues, but a circuit judge ruled in favor of the commission.
The appeals court, in a 16-page decision written by Judge Anthony Black and joined by Judges Stevan Northcutt and Patricia Kelly, upheld the circuit judge’s ruling that the county was not responsible for paying for the annex expenses.
But it said the county was responsible for the information-system costs and that the money could not be phased in.
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