POULSBO — Councilman Ed Stern voted for the 10th Avenue municipal campus location in November 2005, but Wednesday night, he moved to stop the project and explore a possible downtown option.

Stern was in the majority in November as only City Councilwomen Connie Lord and Kathryn Quade voted against the $14.6 million project.

The latter of the dissenting two went on to win the mayoral election and called for Wednesday’s town hall meeting on the issue to gain additional input on the multi-million dollar project.

At that gathering, Stern found himself in the minority as Councilmen Mike Regis, Dale Rudolph, Jeff McGinty and Jim Henry voted 4-3 to proceed with the 10th Avenue project.

After hearing more than 30 citizens express views largely opposed to the current 10th Avenue location and comments from all seven council members, Stern moved to take the current city hall site off the books and hire a consultant to thoroughly explore a downtown alternative presented for a period of not more than six months.

“I think if we were to undertake looking at alternatives, we need to provide focus for that and we need to put a pause on 10th Avenue if it is probably not going to continue,” he said.

In light of the proposal to relocate city hall at the existing Creekside Center on 7th Avenue, Stern reiterated that he remains in favor of new construction, but he would like to put the 10th Avenue project on hold to explore a downtown city hall/parking garage alternative.

After Councilwoman Connie Lord seconded the motion, Councilman Dale Rudolph asked for more discussion on it.

“I think that a quarter till 11 at night is not the time to start making decisions,” Rudolph said. “I think we need time to digest what we heard.”

In earlier discussion, Rudolph reminded the crowd that all along he has said the council should keep the current project moving forward, while looking at alternatives at the same time.

Councilman Jeff McGinty told the audience that he is not one to study things to death but questioned the need to make a decision right now.

“I don’t think we need to make a rash decision and it would be a major decision to slow things down,” McGinty said. “Waiting two weeks to think about this would be fine.”

Councilman Mike Regis admitted he was against the 10th Avenue location at first, but during the course of the discussion and study of the project, he had come to realize the benefits of moving city hall out of downtown.

“I’m going outside of myself and I’m trying to make sure that residents 20, 30, 40 years from now can get the services they require,” Regis said.

The North Kitsap School District was criticized for moving the high school up Hostmark Street to Caldart Avenue 40 years ago but history has shown that move to be correct, he added, noting that moving city hall out of downtown has similar merits.

“We’re going to 10th Avenue and that’s where I stand,” Regis said.

Councilwoman Connie Lord told the council that it failed to follow the process stated in the city’s comprehensive plan during the municipal campus site selection.

“One of our alternatives we adopted by ordinance is tearing down our existing building and constructing a new one,” Lord said. “I apologize to our citizens we didn’t follow our own process.”

The city needs to hire a consultant to explore the actual pros and cons of each alternative and not rely on opinions, she said.

“I think I’m as frustrated as some of you in the audience and I don’t feel we can make a decision without having all the facts on the table,” Lord said.

At the conclusion of the late night discussion, the motion failed by a 4-3 vote with Rudolph voting along with Regis, McGinty and Councilman Jim Henry urging council not to stop and look at the downtown option.

“It’s over as far as I’m concerned and I will now support the decision of the majority of the council,” Stern said after the vote. “It was not a vote to delay, it was a vote to move forward with the 10th Avenue project.”