Finally, a vote up or down on a new $38-million city hall

CEDAR RAPIDS - Mayor Ron Corbett says he wants to spend his time convincing the federal government to provide funds for a flood-protection system and a new convention center. .

He doesn't want to waste “political capital,” as he calls it, trying to convince Uncle Sam to spend $38 million on a new City Hall.

As a result, Corbett on Tuesday evening will ask his City Council colleagues to return city government to two existing buildings, the former City Hall in the Veterans Memorial Building on May's Island and to the nearby former federal courthouse that will become city-owned.

Corbett said he believes he has the votes to return to the two existing buildings.

Beyond that, he thinks a council majority might favor moving the City Council meeting chambers from the Veterans Memorial Building to the large, historic courtroom on the former courthouse's third floor.

The Tuesday evening discussion will be the first time in the 21 months since the June 2008 flood in which City Council members will formally state their position on building a new City Hall.

Much energy, expense and consultants' input has gone into the question of building a new City Hall, an exercise that included no little work to try to convince county government and even the Cedar Rapids school district to join forces with the city to “co-locate” in a new building.

Corbett said the city faces an estimated $4 million in costs over and above what the Federal Emergency Management Agency will pay to renovate the Veterans Memorial Building, and it may cost $2 million to convert the federal courthouse, which the federal government has repaired since the flood, for city government.

“That's a better deal than $38 million for a new City Hall,” Corbett said.

Corbett and the council's other two new members, Chuck Swore and Don Karr, campaigned last fall saying they wanted to return city government, which now operates temporarily in a northeast Cedar Rapids office park, to existing city buildings downtown.

“I don't think there's much question that that's going to go by the wayside,” Swore said of any more talk of building a new city hall. He suspected parts of city government might move into the courthouse, which has been renovated since the flood, before the Veterans Memorial Building.

Karr said moving the council chambers into the large federal courtroom is an “outstanding” idea, though, Swore, for one, wasn't sure he wants it to be there permanently. Moving the chambers into the courthouse would make for a larger room, allow the city to preserve the historic character of the courtroom and let the city use the existing chambers in the Veterans Memorial Building for offices, Karr said.

The council also will talk about selling up to $17 million in locally supported general obligation bonds to provide local matching money for a new $65 million convention center next to the U.S. Cellular Center and for an upgrade of the center. The project already had obtained $15 million in state I-JOBS funds, and the city is hoping to secure $35 million more from the U.S. Department of Commerce.

Corbett on Monday noted the council in recent weeks voted to support the project. None of the $17 million in bonds would be sold before July 2011, and he said he would favor having residents vote on such a bond sale.

The city currently has a proposal in front of the Iowa Legislature to allow cities to raise their hotel-motel tax from 7 percent to 9 percent. Corbett has proposed using some hotel-motel revenue to pay off the bonds for the new convention center. It's still unclear, he said, if voters would have to approve any raise in the hotel-motel tax.