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as well as past space needs studies by parties such as Barry Architects. Mr. Brown asked the ideal space for the <br />staff currently at City Hall. Mr. Penwell said the space needs projected for the department for the year 2010 was <br />about 70,000 square feet, twice the amount of space occupied by the police in City Hall. He indicated that accounted <br />for a modest increase in staff predicated on past staffing studies. He confirmed, in response to a question from Mr. <br />Brown, that those studies included the Magellan report, which did not speak to the square footage needed by the <br />department. The report’s staffing analysis was translated into square footage through a space needs analysis <br />accomplished through the city hall master planning process. <br /> <br />Mr. Brown requested a copy of the recent seismic analysis of the Country Club Road property. <br /> <br />Mr. Brown expressed concern that the City did not have funding to hire the officers needed to fill the space on <br />Country Club Road, even to a basic service level. The City would have to hire 71 new officers to get to a basic <br />service level, but the recommendation did not provide for that. Mr. Brown said the recommendation would result in <br />the expenditure of the Facility Reserve and the City would have “nothing to play around with” to hire new police or <br />open new jail beds. He believed all councilors were interested in achieving a ‘typical’ community policing service <br />level, which would require 186 new hires. Mr. Brown believed that the City should first hire more officers and then <br />secure a building. <br /> <br />Mr. Pryor said it was important to be thoughtful and deliberate, particularly when considering deviating from the <br />master planning process. However, when opportunities presented themselves, particularly if they accomplished <br />certain goals, they needed to be considered. Since the City only could spend the Facility Reserve once, the council <br />needed to proceed carefully. He pointed out the council could not use the Facility Reserve to hire police because it <br />was one time money and should not be used for an ongoing expense. <br /> <br />Mr. Pryor suggested that regardless of the police facility’s location, the distribution of police officers would be the <br />same. For that reason, he was less concerned about the effect of the location on police operations than about whether <br />the building was a good investment for the use of the City’s one-time moneys. <br /> <br />Mr. Pryor said he was interested in the EWEB site, but was unsure that could happen. He was also interested in the <br />civic center concept. He wanted to explore the available options in a thoughtful and deliberate way. <br /> <br />Mr. Zelenka recalled that he had initially favored using managing the Facility Reserve in a way that allowed the City <br />to hire new police officers in a way that avoided the one-time money issue but that had not been well-received by the <br />council. <br /> <br />Mr. Zelenka believed that City government was already very decentralized, and pointed out that less than 20 percent <br />of City staff worked in City Hall. He had considered the City Hall master planning process to be a consolidation <br />process, which made sense but cost a lot of money. He did not think the current discussion was about the police or <br />the police facility, but about City Hall. The biggest tenant of the building was the police, so that department’s needs <br />had to be taken into account. <br /> <br />Mr. Zelenka saw two options for the organization: stay in City Hall or move. He said the council needed to decide if <br />City Hall was worth investing in, and if it met the organization’s needs. He noted that the building was built in <br />1964. It had seismic issues and HVAC issues and the space was inadequate. He said that renovating the building <br />would still result in a space not adequate for the organization. He questioned where the money for such a renovation <br />would come from. He was skeptical that it made sense to stay in the building. However, Mr. Zelenka hoped the <br />building would be painted soon because he anticipated the organization would be housed there for a while regardless. <br /> <br />Mr. Zelenka was intrigued by the City Hall campus idea. <br /> <br /> <br />MINUTES—City Council May 11, 2009 Page 7 <br /> Work Session <br /> <br />