Review City Hall Floor Plan

Recent staffing changes and shifts in duties have created a need to reorganize City Hall staffing locations, in part to accomplish the following:

• To create back-up for front counter assistance at all work division areas
• To improve communication among staff with visual contact and closer proximity
• To improve efficiency in operations
• To free up a larger contiguous space for lease or re-use
• To optimize use of office space

The most recent budget discussions resulted in a consolidation of the Police and Fire administrative and support staff in the Police Department.  With the fire staff moving to the Police Department, and the elimination of a clerical position, space has cleared up in the east side of the lower level .  Likewise, there are a number of empty office spaces on the upper level of City Hall.

It is recommended that:

• the Engineering division staff move to the lower level adjacent to Community Development and Building divisions.  The existing customer service counters provide the best accessibility to contractors and the general public.
• the Finance Department would move to the west side of the upper level next to Administration. 
• the upper level east side would then be a large empty area and could be considered for alternative uses.  As a lease space it would have to be leased for a public purpose which could include such things as a congressional office, county or state offices, a veteran's service center, or possibly a suburban court room.  If retained for use by the City, the space could be used as a large community meeting room.

Alternative:  An alternative would be to leave people at their current work stations until the upper east side is rented.  This would provide a guarantee of revenue to support the project, but would not provide a "ready to move-in" space for a potential tenant.  The downside is that the above goals of the move would be delayed.

 

 

The cost to move, and reassemble office areas and to redo City Hall signage is estimated at $8500.  These funds would come from the Public Improvement Revolving Fund.

Based on discussion, staff would move forward with make the proposed changes.