WORKSHOP ITEM - Robert Therres, Public Services Manager
Title
UPDATE ON CITY HALL IMPROVEMENTS AND NEXT STEPS
Background
The current City Hall/Police Department facility was finished in March of 2002, and with rapid increase in our commercial and industrial businesses, increase in our population, an increased demand of community space at our facility, and an increase of 33 additional staff, discussions on City Hall needs started to take place.
In the fall of 2017, the City Council authorized a space needs study of City Hall to look at making efficient use of our existing space as well as develop a plan for occupying the third floor.
In the spring of 2019, after reviewing the space needs study, the City Council authorized the hiring of an architect and a construction manager to design improvements that would allow for the expansion of the Police Department including the finishing of a portion of the third 3rd floor. With that, the City contracted with Wold Architects and RJM Construction Management to start design improvements for City Hall and authorized the selling of $4.2 million in capital improvement bonds. As the final drawings were nearing completion, the pandemic hit and these improvements were put on hold. However, with the receipt of bond proceeds in August 2019, the clock to complete the project began ticking and at a June workshop meeting, the City Council discussed the need to proceed with the project. Treasury and IRS regulations require that proceeds from the bonds be substantially spent within three years of receipt. If the City does not comply with this timeline, the bonds would convert from tax exempt bonds to taxable bonds and would negatively affect bondholders as well severely compromise the City’s bond rating.
The design of future spaces and the expansion of the front service counter have taken into account the recent pandemic requirements for resident and employee health and safety. The front service counter with glass barriers will handle the business of the majority of residents who come to City Hall and the future workspaces will have cubicles with higher barriers for better safety for employees. In addition, consideration has been given to the possibility that more remote work will occur in the future. If there is an ongoing increase in the number of employees periodically or regularly working from home, the space should be designed to be more flexible.
Attached are some documents that discuss the City Hall improvements and go into more depth about the goals and objectives of the improvements, and highlight areas where we are attempting to save and streamline costs. These are:
- Power Point from February 2019 that gives some historical perspective on the improvements
- Most current drawings of proposed improvements from Architect
- Summary of reasons for need of improvements, efforts to contain costs, description of cost drivers, and other relevant information
- Draft Communication Plan for Build-Out Project
If Council wishes to proceed with the City Hall improvements the projected timeline is:
- Prepare final design and bid documents in December 2020
- Issue bids in January 2021
- Construction - done in phases - February to July 2021
Recommendation
Provide feedback on the City Hall Improvements and indicate whether to continue to proceed.