PROVIDENCE — Frank J. Williams stepped down as chief justice of the Rhode Island Supreme Court in December, but he continues to work as a judge and recently moved into a new office in the Licht Judicial Complex that cost nearly $43,000 to renovate.

Most of the money was spent on custom mahogany cabinets, shelving and doors –– at a cost of $29,475. The invoice for the work shows that the contractors used “custom knives” to duplicate molding and that it took 173 hours to refashion the office space, on the seventh floor of the courthouse, at a cost of $46.80 per hour.

The project also required demolishing sheetrock, reframing, cement work to patch large voids in the floor and replacement of all ceiling tile.

Supreme Court Administrator J. Joseph Baxter Jr. refused to let a Journal reporter see the remodeled chambers because, he said, “it’s a private office in a nonpublic area” of the courthouse.

The Supreme Court offices, conference rooms and courtroom take the entire seventh floor of the sprawling courthouse on South Main Street. “It’s Mr. Baxter’s feeling that you need the permission of the justice [Williams] to see those particular chambers,” said Craig Berke, spokesman for the court system.

Williams, who used to invite reporters into his former chambers for interviews and was the subject of a Workspaces profile by The Wall Street Journal in 2001, was not amenable to showing off his new office to a reporter this week.

Asked if the Journal could photograph the chambers when Justice Williams was not present, Berke said that would not be allowed either. He pointed to the court’s media rules which prohibit photographing “in courthouse corridors or other portions of the courthouse building” except when a judge grants permission for coverage of a judicial proceeding.

“This was not a project we’d planned on,” Berke said. But he said Stephen Kerr, the court’s director of facilities and operations, “found the money within his operating budget” to renovate the office after Williams, 68, abruptly announced that he was retiring after eight years as chief justice, with an annual $138,306 pension.

Williams said at the time he planned to spend more time pursuing his passion as a nationally recognized Abraham Lincoln scholar.

It turns out Williams is continuing to sit on the bench almost full-time at the invitation of acting Chief Justice Maureen McKenna Goldberg and is earning $112.83 in addition to his pension for each day he works. Berke said that once his successor is chosen and the court has a full complement of five justices hearing cases, it is Williams’ plan to continue working for the court as a mediator of civil disputes. As chief justice, Williams was a big promoter of appellate mediation.

The renovation began within days of Williams’ retirement announcement, according to records provided by the court to The Providence Journal. A desk, conference table and six chairs were given to inmates at the Adult Correctional Institutions for refinishing and Kerr hired Dome Construction, of Central Falls –– which had done work on Williams’ former chambers –– for the renovation project.

The work was done without public bidding because Dome is on a list of approved contractors who agree to do state work under a master pricing agreement, according to Erica Leigh Kruse, general counsel to the Supreme Court.

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Williams’ former chambers, including a marble fireplace and Oriental rugs, brass chandeliers and moiré wallpaper, were refurbished when William became chief justice eight years ago and underwent $20,215 in further renovations in 2008 with extensive replastering and installation of Silken Elegance vinyl wallcovering –– which took 229 man hours of work –– and ceiling restoration –– which took 182 man hours to do –– according to receipts furnished by the court.

Those chambers currently sit empty, awaiting the arrival of whomever is selected by Governor Carcieri and confirmed by the General Assembly as the next chief justice.

The administration of the $85-million courts system budget is the duty of the chief justice. “The court system handles all of their own expenditures and contracts. We don’t have any authority, control or say in their budget,” said Governor Carcieri’s spokeswoman, Amy Kempe

The Supreme Court has historically provided office space to retired Supreme Court justices who continue to do work in the court system, though not as members of the court. Justices collecting full pensions do not receive extra pay for continuing to serve. Retired Chief Justice Joseph R. Weisberger has chambers to work from when he provides pro bono services for the court. So did Retired Justice Donald F. Shea, who for several years after his retirement continued to do some judicial work. But their chambers have not been renovated for about nine years, according to Kruse. Williams’ new chambers needed a total overhaul, Berke said, because the office space had been used for a different purpose for years. It was formerly occupied by the court’s grammarian and interns, Berke said, and had been configured not as a chambers for a justice, but as an office with three work stations.

“It had not been renovated for over 10 years and will also serve as a mediation conference room,” said Kruse.

According to Berke, Weisberger conducts mediations in his own chambers, the judicial conference room behind the Supreme Court bench and a conference room adjacent to the courtroom the Supreme Court justices use for oral argument.

There are about a half-dozen other retired “volunteer judges” from the lower courts who also work for the appellate mediation program, Berke said, and there are several places already designated for them to provide these services –– a room in the Kent County Court House in Warwick, a room at the Traffic Tribunal in Cranston and a room on the second floor of the Licht Judicial Complex.

Acting Chief Justice Goldberg has said that the appellate mediation program has been a huge success. She pointed out that Judge Weisberger, who is now 89, has resolved 60 to 65 percent of the civil case appeals that come to the court and are sent to mediation.

tbreton@projo.com