By Karen Gleason
The 830 Times
Several city council members expressed unhappy surprise when they learned of the most recent price tag attached to a new City Hall – nearly $30 million.
Interim City Manager Manuel Chavez said he has called a halt to the project until further and more detailed discussions can be completed.
Council members and staff discussed the new City Hall project as part of a wider presentation on city facilities during a special council workshop on Tuesday.
City staff presented a plan that called on setting aside more than $9 million for the City Hall project as part of the Fiscal Year 2024-2025 capital improvements program.
Councilman Jim DeReus asked about a line item for the new City Hall, included in the detailed budget for the 100-odd projects being proposed by city staff for the coming year. The detailed budget included some costs for projects beyond 2024-2025.
“I have a question about the (Fiscal Year) 2025-2026 budget column for the City Hall. It says $18 million. So that means (our new) City Hall is going to cost $28 million? Is that what we’ve budgeted now?” DeReus asked.
Scot Carcasi, the city’s operations and compliance auditor, answered DeReus.
“We met with the architects that the city had hired about designing a new City Hall. That cost came in over,” Carcasi said.
“But this is how we’re finding out? This is the first time that I’ve heard $28 million, possibly more, for this. The reason we switched directions (from the first plans for a new City Hall) was because of how much the other one was expected to cost, and that was in the $20 million to $22 million (range) that we were talking about. Now you’re saying $28 million. This is how we find out that you’re now talking $28 million?” DeReus said.
Councilwoman Alexandra Falcon Calderon added the council had created a committee including two council members to meet and discuss plans for the new City Hall.
“Mr. (J.P.) Sanchez and Mr. (Steve) Webb are on that committee. Do they still meet?” she asked.
“I don’t think any one of us on the dais knew it was going to cost us $28 million. We thought this was going to be $9.5 million, and we would proceed with the architectural design and they would come back and tell us,” Mayor Al Arreola said.
“I understand where Councilman DeReus is coming from, because I’m just the same. As things start changing, tell us. Send us messages, emails, information, so at the time that we see this, we don’t freak out because we hear out there, ‘How much is the new City Hall going to cost?’” Calderon said.
Chavez then told the council he has put the new City Hall project on hold.
“I wanted to bring this back to city council in the form of a workshop. As Scot (Carcasi) mentioned, we did have the architect give us some preliminary information, which was, on my end, not something that I was expecting, so before we continue to invest any more into this particular project, I do want to have city council input to see what direction we go in and this CIP, as you can see, the additional $19 million wasn’t anywhere near our current budget,” Chavez said.
“I want to make sure we get direction from council before we continue to invest a single penny into this particular project. I was not expecting the information we did receive but this has to be something that’s very thought out, planned out, and as I mentioned, it will be the focus of a future workshop so we can have input,” the interim city manager added.
Arreola asked where the figures came from.
“The current architect had the design for the original building that was going to replace this one (the existing City Hall). We asked them to look at 801 S. Main, because it was still within the cost that we’d already paid them. That’s when they approached us and said we’re looking at $29 million to $35 million. We were immediately, like, that ain’t gonna work, so Mr. Chavez had mentioned we’re going to stop until it comes back to council to see what direction do we want to go.
“Now, that’s that architect. There’s other architects that are out there that are willing to look at that and we need to decide if that $30 million is legitimate or could we do it for less. That’s just one, and that’s what caused us to pause,” Carcasi added.
Arreola asked if the architects could be given a budget and asked to create a design within that figure.
“That is possible. You give a budget number to an architect, and he’s going to design something that’s going to fall close to that,” Councilman J.P. Sanchez said.
“This is the first I’ve heard of the extra $18 million also, and that’s probably why Mr. Sheedy let those architects go because he probably got that number and said no, we’re not going to work with you and consider a new architecture firm,” he added.
Sanchez said the original budget for reconstructing the building at 801 S. Main as a new City Hall was $8 million.
“That’s why we felt the number of $9,700,000 (in the 2024-2025 capital improvement projects) was feasible to do what the city wanted to do with the building,” Sanchez added.
“Scrap the $18 million, Mr. DeReus, that’s the first time I’ve seen that, and I don’t agree with that at all, and that was the reason we let go of the previous architect,” Sanchez said.
“Going forward, that’s what we can do, if we don’t like the numbers, we say no,” he added.
Calderon suggested the city council could work with the $9.5 million in the current capital improvements budget.
Interim Assistant City Finance Director Roxy Soto, who had made the presentation about the capital improvements to council, said she included the $18 million as a placeholder for future planning.
“We can absolutely change it,” she told the council.
The writer can be reached at delriomagnoliafan@gmail.com
