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Sen. Nelson Shocked By Conditions At Federal Courthouse

News Channel 8 photo by KATY HENNIG

A vent in the ceiling of the women's restroom on the 16th floor near the judge's chambers in the Sam M. Gibbons Federal Courthouse in Tampa is covered with mold spores.

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By KEITH MORELLI | The Tampa Tribune

Published: February 16, 2009

Updated: 02/16/2009 06:38 pm

TAMPA - U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson toured the Sam M. Gibbons Federal Courthouse today and the experience literally left him aghast.

The senator was responding to complaints from federal judges and employees who work in the 12-year-old building that shoddy construction has left them with leaking windows and roofs and that mold has taken hold.

The result: respiratory problems for employees and any other visitor who is sensitive to mold and mildew. Like Nelson, who said he was having respiratory trouble himself during and after the 45-minute tour.

"I'm beginning to clog up," Nelson said after walking through the top two floors with U.S. District Judge Elizabeth Kovachevich, who admitted she has stopped trials to escape moldy Courtroom 17 on the top floor.

"This is totally unacceptable," Nelson said, adding he has already called the General Services Administration to get something done.

"I am going to absolutely raise Cain," he said. "I am going to beat down their door and not move from their doorstep until we get some action.

"I tell you," he said, "I'm going to ride them hard."

The courthouse has been diagnosed with the sick house syndrome for the past decade, Kovachevich said. A woman who works in her office on the 17th floor has to go home occasionally after she suffers nose bleeds.

"In the courtroom," the judge said, "I have lost my voice during jury instructions."

The tour included more than a dozen spots where water damage was apparent, where rugs were pulled up and wood flooring was peeled back; where office waste baskets serve as small federal cisterns under dripping ceilings.

"It has been a continuing problem since we moved in, in 1998," she said.

Last year, the GSA began an inspection of the $81 million glass and limestone building on Florida Avenue in downtown Tampa to determine the extent of the leak and mold problem.

In February 2008, Nelson said repairs were expected to take about two years. The first phase of the project has been completed, but negotiations between the GSA and the contractor, hired to fix leaks and scrub away mold, have hit a snag, said Bryan Gulley, spokesman for the senator, and the contractor has threatened to walk. Frustrated, the judges in the building have called on Nelson to help them. And the senator vowed to get the building fixed.

"There's no excuse for this," Nelson said, as he gazed at an exposed concrete floor from where the carpet was pulled because it gets wet every time it rains.

An environmental report in 2002 revealed that employees at the 363,000-square-foot building were three times more likely to have adult onset asthma and other respiratory illnesses.

Additionally, courthouse employees reported nearly five times as many cases than average of sick building syndrome – an illness that exhibits symptoms such as headaches, dizzy spells and sinus problems.

The courthouse, which has 17 floors but is as tall as a 35-story building, is named for Gibbons, a native of Tampa who served 34 years in Congress. Its 17 floors symbolize the 17 consecutive terms Gibbons served in the U.S. House of Representatives.

Reporter Keith Morelli can be reached at kmorelli@tampatrib.com or (813) 259-7760.

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