Greenfield approves $10m ‘soft promise’ for courthouse

Greenfield city leaders are pledging $10 million as a “soft promise” to help build a new courthouse they say was promised to them by the state for South Monterey County residents almost 10 years ago.

Economic strains kept construction from starting, even as the existing courthouse in King City was closed in 2013, forcing people to go to Salinas or Monterey for legal matters.

“Our community is majority field workers, laborers. So they don’t often have lots of time to miss work and go all the way up north,” said Angela Martinez Untalon, a Greenfield city councilmember.

Greenfield has already donated a plot of land outside City Hall for a new legal building.

But about a year ago, Seaside Mayor Ian Oglesby says he got a letter from the Superior Court of California about possibly building a new courthouse in their town instead.

“Seaside was brung into it because we were asked to look at it at a site in their community, and we took advantage of that ask,” said Oglesby. “And now we completed a report, a feasibility study, and we’re going to turn it back into them.”

“Well, we were taken by surprise. We are on the state’s approved list for courthouse constructions in the state and have been for about the last ten years,” said Art Salvagno, a Greenfield resident and former councilmember.

Now, county leaders are getting involved with Supervisor Luis Alejo appealing to the Seaside City Council on Thursday.

“They’re trying to forward this study today to the courts and to the judicial council at a time when they’re re-ranking court projects all throughout the state of California,” said Alejo. “We’re very concerned because we want to make sure Greenfield is a top priority.”

Alejo says Sacramento would never fund two courthouse projects at the same time in the same county. It is now a matter of what the state judicial commission decides.

“I know our sister cities down in South Monterey County are 100 percent behind this as well, so it’s very needed,” said Untalon.

“I don’t think it’s a zero sum game, it’s not our decision at the end of the day,” said Oglesby. “So we’re not trying to compete with Greenfield. We wish Greenfield well and I know they wish us well.”