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EUGENE CITY COUNCIL AGENDA ITEM SUMMARY Work Session: Community Safety Building Next Steps Meeting Date: November 22, 2004 Agenda Item Number: B Department: Central Services Staff Contact: Jim Carlson www. cl. eugene, or. us Contact Telephone Number: 682-5524 ISSUE STATEMENT This work session is to discuss next steps on implementation of the Community Safety Building project. BACKGROUND In 2001, the council began considering a long-range plan for replacing office space in the downtown area. Since that time, numerous council meetings and decisions have been made to develop the long- term plan to replace City Hall. The council action history is detailed in Attachment A. Most recently, on July 26, the council placed a $6.79 million General Obligation Bond measure on the November 2 ballot to partially fund implementation of the Civic Center Phase ! plan. At that time, staff indicated that they would recommend constructing the basic Community Safety Building even if the bond measure failed. The measure did fail, with a vote of 60% no to 40% yes. The basic Community Safety Building is a 67,000 square foot building that is estimated to cost $28.2 million, as described in Attachment B. The building can be paid for entirely with internal City funds, including the Facility Reserve, telecommunications funds, right-of-way revenues in the General Fund, interest earnings on cash balances, and miscellaneous sources. The proposed financing plan is included as Attachment C. As a result of the failure of the bond measure, no funding is currently identified for additional space for social service agencies, additional public meeting rooms or expansion beyond 2008; those items would need to be financed separately or in a future phase. If it is possible to include any of these items with currently identified funding due to lower-than-estimated costs or identification of other funding sources, that will also be considered. If the City begins the process to design and build a basic Community Safety Building at this time, the facility could be operable by early-2008. If the council decides to wait to construct a Community Safety Building at a later date, the cost of the facility will increase with inflation over time. The council may wish to address broader options for City Hall prior to moving forward with the Community Safety Building at this time. Although a further delay would result in the Police Department continuing to occupy inadequate space for its needs as well as resulting in the well-known seismic concerns going unaddressed for the present, it's important to weigh all options and build community consensus. Due to the different construction requirements for public safety services versus general office uses, staff believes that it is most cost-effective in the long-term to construct two City buildings. This would L:\CMO\2004 Council Agendas\M041122\S041122B.doc