Council signals approval of plan to move city offices to former federal courthouse

The City Council on Tuesday evening signaled approval of City Manager Jeff Pomeranz's plan to move the center of city government to the city-owned, former federal courthouse and from the Veterans Memorial Building down the street, which has been home to City Hall since 1927.

The council took no formal vote on the plan, but Mayor Ron Corbett, Pomeranz and several council members said after last night's discussion that the building plan would move ahead.

The city's recent post-flood plans had called for the offices of city manager, City Council, city clerk and city attorney as well as the council chambers to return to the Veterans Memorial Building on May's Island. The plans also called for the city departments of finance, community development, human resources and civil rights to occupy the former courthouse, now called the City Services Center.

Pomeranz, though, said on Monday and again at Tuesday night's council meeting that it didn't make sense to split up the city government “team” when there was adequate room for this group of city employees in the former courthouse.

When asked a few questions by council members, Pomeranz emphasized that he wanted to get city government back in the downtown as quickly as possible, and he said a council chambers in the former federal courthouse would be ready for council meetings by summer. He added that he didn't know when the Veterans Memorial Building, which is still working through flood-recovery issues with the Federal Emergency Management Agency, would be ready.

Sandi Fowler, special assistant to the city manager, said the renovation plans for the former courthouse now call for city offices to move in there by spring or early summer of 2012.

Fowler said the cost estimate to renovate the former courthouse for city use - a multimillion-dollar repair of the building's flood damage is complete and was paid for by the federal government - is now $7.8 million. The city has state grants to cover $4.1 million of the cost with plans to seek federal and state tax credits to cover an additional $2.35 million of the work, she said.

Council member Kris Gulick asked about the cost of converting the building's large, third-floor courtroom into the council chambers, and Fowler put the cost at about $400,000, about half of which would be the cost of audiovisual equipment. Gulick asked for some comparison with renovation costs the city faces if it reused the existing council chambers in the Veterans Memorial Building.

After the meeting, Corbett said the City Council voted a year ago not to build a new city hall with the idea of putting city government in the Vets building and the former courthouse. City government will use both buildings, he said. He noted, too, that the city only took ownership of the former courthouse in August, and now the city knows what the building's possibilities are, he said.

After the meeting, Gulick said he didn't think the council voted on the building issue, though he said he supports the move of offices into the former courthouse. He still wants an answer to expenses related to the council chambers, he said.

Council member Tom Podzimek said the city still intends to renovate the Veterans Memorial Building and use it. The city's more than 30 boards and commissions, for one, will use it, Pomeranz said.

Mike Jager, the manager for the Veterans Memorial Commission, said last night that the commission still plans to devote the third and fourth floors on the Veterans Memorial Building's Second Avenue side to offices and meeting spaces to serve city government needs. The commission, though, wants to convert some of the building into a veterans museum and has wanted to use parts of it to provide services to veterans, he said.