Article V, Section 7, of the Florida Constitution states that “[a] circuit or county court may hold civil and criminal trials and hearings in any place within the territorial jurisdiction of the court as designated by the chief judge of the circuit”. The City of Riviera Beach has offered to provide facilities within the City of Riviera Beach located at 2051 Martin Luther King Boulevard, Riviera Beach, Florida 33404, so that the court may conduct civil commitment hearings for drug and alcohol abuse pursuant to Chapters 396 and 397, Florida Statutes (2007). There exists an urgent need to provide treatment modalities for drug and alcohol abuse outside of the criminal justice system, i.e., without the taint of arrest and conviction. Various agencies and entities have offered their resources and cooperation to support a community-based drug court.

NOW, THEREFORE, pursuant to the authority conferred by Florida Rule of Judicial Administration 2.215, it is ORDERED as follows:

l. A community drug court is hereby established to conduct civil commitment hearings and to commit alcohol and drug abusers to treatment programs (“Civil Drug Court”).
2. The chief judge, by separate order, shall assign a judge or special magistrate to preside over the community-based drug court.
3. The facility, located at 2051 Martin Luther King Boulevard, in the City of Riviera Beach, is hereby designated as an approved location at which the Circuit Court for the Fifteenth Judicial Circuit may conduct civil commitment hearings pursuant to Chapters 397, Florida Statutes (2021).
4. Adult and juvenile civil commitment hearings will be scheduled on Saturdays.
5. A clerk from the Fifteenth Judicial Circuit Court shall be designated by the Chief Operation Officer/Clerk & Comptroller to assist the judge in civil commitment hearings.
6. The appointed clerk is authorized and ordered to transport the necessary court files to the civil commitment hearings.
7. In the event a clerk is unable to attend the hearings, an employee of the City of Riviera Beach, who is assigned to work at this Community Drug Court, is authorized to take custody of the court files of cases scheduled to be heard at 2051 Martin Luther King Boulevard, Riviera Beach, Florida 33404.
8. The clerk is hereby authorized and ordered to make necessary court files available to the municipal employee assigned to work at Community Drug Court as needed.

DONE and SIGNED in Chambers at West Palm Beach, Palm Beach County, Florida, this __11th___ day of April, 2022.
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Glenn D. Kelley
Chief Judge
* supersedes admin. order 6.305-7/11