Nye County commissioners approved using another $1.5 million for expanding the Nye County Government Complex Wednesday, on top of $1 million already approved.

However Sheriff Tony DeMeo and Pahrump Justice of the Peace Tina Brisebill complained they weren't consulted about the latest plan, decided upon after an informal meeting between commissioners Gary Hollis and Butch Borasky.

The county wants to build a second district courtroom and a second justice court. The district attorney and county clerk will also get additional space.

The building of a 7,500-square-foot addition to house a second justice court will be paid for with $277,000 in facility fees already collected by the Pahrump justice court and a $500,000 U.S. Department of Agriculture loan which will be paid back with future justice court facility fees.

A facility fee of $10 is tacked onto each misdemeanor case filed, which includes traffic offenses. It's money specifically earmarked by law for court facilities.

The county will use $130,000 of the money collected for construction costs and $150,000 for interior furnishings for the second justice courtroom.

The second district court will then occupy the space where Brisebill's Pahrump Justice Court is now.

Commissioners also approved using $750,000 for a new sheriff's department evidence locker already allocated.

The new evidence locker, recommended every year in the annual audit report issued by Dan McArthur, will be added onto the sheriff's department.

The latest approvals come on top of $1 million commissioners approved for other expansion work on the government complex, including the addition for the district attorney, county clerk and an overall remodeling of the existing building.

The district attorney and clerk will expand into the area occupied by the assessor and treasurer before they were moved to a new modular building behind the courthouse.

The allocated funds for all the improvements has gone up to about $2.53 million.

"This is the bare minimum of what we can do to carry us about 10 years into the future," Brisebill said.

Pahrump needed a second justice court when it reached 34,000 people. The Nye County Planning Department estimated there were 38,859 Pahrump residents at the end of 2007.

Nye County Commissioner Gary Hollis voted against Commissioner Peter Liakopoulos' motion to issue a request for qualifications for architects willing to build the addition and renovations.

"My plan for the beginning was to put three courtrooms in that building," Hollis said. He wanted courtrooms built for the juvenile court in addition to the district and justice courts.

Nye County Facilities Manager Bob Jones said Juvenile Court Judge Margaret Whitaker could use the second district courtroom.

Hollis said 5th District Judge John Davis agreed to use the second district courtroom as well for his Pahrump cases.

Jones suggested using $664,000 collected in court facility fees throughout the three justice courts in Pahrump, Beatty and Tonopah to pay for the expansion of the government complex. Nye County Commissioner Joni Eastley said she wouldn't approve of that without consulting with the other justices.

DeMeo said he wasn't involved in the planning for the court expansion and didn't like the idea of transporting prisoners to trial by van.

"For us not to have a secure corridor to that courtroom would cause security issues," DeMeo said. "During prisoner transports to the courts that's when a lot of dangers occur. Unless there's secure access, you're going to need more people to drive that van around. We were never consulted on this."

Brisebill agreed: "Just about 10 minutes ago we discussed bringing prisoners in by van, so apparently there was some type of plan discussed. We were not included in that."

Eastley said county commissioners were only agreeing to apply for the USDA funding at this time. She told Brisebill, "These discussions between you and the sheriff would be better held off line."