For weeks we’ve been telling you about the problems with the opening of the new Duval County Courthouse.  Now we’re hearing from the man who started it all.

Planning for the courthouse began under former Mayor John Delaney in 2000.  That year he passed the Better Jacksonville Plan, a $2.25 billion dollar package of projects.

The original cost of the courthouse was estimated at $190 million.  Delaney left office in 2003, and since then the cost of the project has shot up.  It now costs the city an estimated $350 million.

“It’s just been one of these snake-bit things that the handoffs between administrations just didn’t work well,” Delaney said.

Since Delaney, the project has fallen under former Mayor John Peyton and current Mayor Alvin Brown.

“Each mayor made the decisions they thought were best at the time, and each of them had some changes they were doing.  To some extent that slowed it down and drove up the cost.”

When asked how he would handle the project if he were still mayor today, he said he would’ve kept it the way he started it.

“Oh I like the original design.  And Mayor Peyton, who’s a friend, tanked it and went with a different one.  I would’ve had the courthouse turning a different way, but that’s why you have elections.  And so each Mayor is allowed to put their stamp on these things.”

“If I had eighteen months more I think we would’ve had it handled.”

Delaney did not choose to comment on the furniture battle between the City Council and Mayor Brown’s administration.