Advocate for a new City Hall

Take a walk through Newport Beach City Hall and you just might see

how cramped, how circuitous and how decrepit the series of buildings

is.

Well, that is if you can find a parking spot, which often can be

at a premium.

The question that tour might produce, though, is a controversial

one: Does the city need a new City Hall? And need it cost $20

million, $30 million or $40 million?

Newport Beach leaders are considering some form of renovation.

They’ve spent almost $580,000 for a study and preliminary design of a

new, fancier set of buildings.

And they want to know what residents think and have set up a

series of meetings about the issue.

This week, City Manager Homer Bludau answered a few questions from

Editor Tony Dodero about the proposal.

When did the idea for a new City Hall come up?

The idea of a new City Hall has been talked about for years, long

before I was hired six years ago. Our City Hall is really four

different buildings that were constructed at various times.

The current building, which houses our fire administration, city

attorney, some recreation and senior services offices, management

information systems and printing, postal and communications services,

was built in 1948 and has been added onto four times.

So over time, it has been evident that more space was needed as

city functions grew to serve the increasing population.

Over the past five years the city has annexed Newport Coast and

part of Santa Ana Heights. Those annexations will ultimately add

about 12,000 residents to our city services. So, 20 years after the

last space was added, we need to look at how we can best serve our

population of 80,000 residents as efficiently and effectively as

possible.

About four years ago, I approached the City Council and told them

we have squeezed every little bit of usable space that we can out of

our complex, and we need to address our long-term space needs.

In 2001, the City Council commissioned Griffin Structures Inc. to

conduct a space-needs assessment of our complex. The report concluded

our present complex has approximately 42,000 square feet of usable

space, and based on the employees (full-time or contract) providing

services out of this complex, we need about 63,000 square feet. That

square footage is based on industry standards, and means that we are

almost 50% deficient in space needed to provide the current services,

with a little space included for future growth in services.

The concept under study is to look at a complex that includes a

three-story parking garage, a replacement fire station and a new or

remodeled City Hall.

How many people use the City Hall for business on a daily or

weekly basis? What are their main complaints?

I asked all departments within the complex to keep a count of

customers who came to City Hall for services over a two-week period.

From that count, we interpolate there are over 180,000 (700 or more

per day) annual visitations from members of the public to City Hall

for services, meetings with council and staff, bill paying, obtaining

building permits, registrations, information, etc. And that does not

include the people who use the council chambers to attend council,

Planning Commission, Parks Beaches and Recreation Commission, etc.

meetings. So, there is no question that it is a well-used public

facility.

The public’s complaints fall into four basic categories: a lack of

public parking; the confusion involving four different buildings and

which services are provided where; the inefficiency of having to go

to different buildings as a part of the same processing; and a lack

of adequate meeting and waiting spaces for the public.

But the complex has other serious deficiencies that the public

does not see. There is inadequate storage space for city documents.

Often times, the public’s request for documents requires an employee

to go off site and hunt through storage boxes; that creates a

tremendous inefficiency problem and poor service to our citizens. Our

buildings do not comply with the Americans with Disabilities Act,

because they were built before the law was passed.

And importantly, these buildings do not meet current earthquake

standards, and given the geology of Newport Beach, that is not a good

situation, especially when a fire station has that deficiency. Heaven

forbid, if we had a serious earthquake and our current City Hall was

unusable, that could hurt us in terms of providing a well-coordinated

emergency response.

How many city employees are working in City Hall now, and what are

their main complaints?

There are currently 195 full-time city employees working out of

our complex. The complex houses all city employees with the exception

of our police personnel, the fire station personnel, our central and

branch libraries, Oasis Senior Center, our General Services (City

Yard) and the Utilities Department.

Our employees are used to working in cramped spaces, so I seldom

hear any complaints about that. Those I do hear generally center

around their frustration about not being able to serve the public

more efficiently because of our physical constraints.

The space-needs assessment study I mentioned earlier estimated

that productivity could be improved an estimated 15% if we operated

with the space we need.

Why not just rebuild or expand the current facility?

It is mainly a question of how to come up with the most efficient

space. The current complex is very inefficient from a

customer-service point of view, from energy efficiency, from

maintenance, and from service-adjacency issues.

Our consultant is charged with looking at a concept that would

reuse of as much of our structures as feasible, along with concepts

that would demolish the existing structures and go with new

construction.

Like I said earlier, a parking garage and a replacement fire

station are also a part of the plan, so that might well influence the

site layout.

Where is the ideal location for a new City Hall?

I believe the best location would be a more central location.

I always thought the Newport Dunes property offered some good

potential. The Newport Center area would be a lot more central to our

population.

But I think taking on the issue of relocating our City Hall would

be too great a controversy and could paralyze our decision making.

It will be difficult enough to do a project on our current site,

which, by the way, is large enough to provide the space we need and

still have more green space than we now have with the four separate

structures.

How does this City Hall compare to others you’ve worked at?

In the four cities I have worked in, I’ve never worked in a new

City Hall.

My last city manager’s job was in Coronado. They will open their

new City Hall and community center complex this summer.

I have never worked in a City Hall that was so inefficient, in

terms of providing the basics, much less the amenities, the public

has a right to expect in its City Hall. I don’t that is a good

reflection on the quality of this community and its residents.

What will be the total cost of a new City Hall? What new or

expanded services would a new building include?

At this point the cost is a guess. We are in the very early

conceptual planning phase. We don’t know if it would be new

construction, along with remodel, or what the project would be.

And keep in mind, we are talking about a complex with a City Hall,

a parking garage and a replacement fire station that would be bid as

one, large project. I would not envision any new services being

provided in the new space, although we would be negligent not to

build in some space for any services we might want to add in the

future.

Where will the money come from?

We will have to wait and see what the cost would be in order to

answer that question.

I would imagine we would be looking at a bond issue that would be

paid over time, like a home mortgage. It would not result in any more

taxes or increased fees or charges to the public to help in paying

for it. From time to time we build police department facilities, fire

stations, libraries, parks and other public facilities.

While this would be a larger project, it is just one of many

public facilities that we need to, from time to time, replace in

order to be the kind of quality city we are and want to continue to

be in the future.

How can the public get involved in the issue?

The final two public-outreach meetings will be on April 23, at 10

a.m. and on April 25 at 6:30 p.m., both in the Council Chambers at

3300 Newport Blvd.

We have an e-mail address for people to provide comments:

[email protected].

The consultant will be providing concept alternatives to the City

Council at its May 24 council meeting.

The public is invited to provide its comments; we welcome their

input. After all, it is their City Hall.