04/25/1977 Meeting - Laserfiche WebLink

Home Browse Search

e to improve working conditions for the Police Department; and 4) initiating reevaluation of needs for 1980 and beyond. He noted that the pioneer Title Company building is currently on the market, and that it is ideally located for City operations. He asked Council to take action for support of the proposal. Mr. Hamel asked whether the staff had looked into renting space from the County, and felt that leasing more space might a stop- gap measure and perhaps it was time for addition of a second story to City Hall. Mr. Martin replied the options with the County had been explored and they did not have 3000 to 4000 square feet that could be used by the City. Manager noted that staff had looked into the possibility of many buildings around town for sale, but most were too distant and were too expensive. Mr. Haws moved, seconded by Mr. Hamel, to authorize the City Manager to execute a lease with the Pioneer Title Company. Mr. Bradley noted that he felt this was an administrative decision, there being no major policy decision involved. Vote was taken on the motion, which carried with all members present voting aye, except Mr. abie voting no. e Mr. Obie requested segregation of item EE, proposed leasing of Pioneer Title Company property, under April 20, 1977 minutes. He cited a recent Register-Guard article saying he was opposed to the leasing of the property because it was going beyond the boundaries of City Hall, and he wanted to state that that was not the case. He had visited the Data Processing work area in City Hall and found the working conditions to be very poor. However, he felt no emergency existed. He felt there was a situation where a building had come up for lease, the City saw the opportunity for a lease and the staff felt that was a good idea at the time. He felt the decision to lease such property should not be made just because the vacant building was available. He stated a concern that in the period 1973 to 1977 the staff had grown by 126 persons, which indicated a 35 percent increase in City staff while the city.s population growth had been only 15 percent. He noted that therein lies the space problem. He felt it impossible to question the staff increase on a position to position basis, but that there had been many more staff added to occur than there evidently was room for, and he was concerned with that issue. He felt the solution to the space problem was the number of employees in the City. He noted it would take the property tax of 100 homes in the city to support this lease of the building. He felt it was important to question the priority of expenditures, and that money could be used for remodeling within the existing City structure. His major concern was the spending of taxpayers' money for the leasing of property, for which he was ques- tioning the need. 41 350 4/25/77 - 33