REDMOND — Little Norway’s city officials have pointed to the city of Redmond as an example of how a public/private partnership can be used to build a city hall.
Redmond completed its 100,000 square foot city hall and 400 unit parking facility in April 2006, marking the completion of a journey that began more than a decade ago.
Mayor Rosemarie Ives, who has held the position since 1991, explained the lengthy process Jan. 12.
“When work began on a new city building, we had employees at seven different buildings,” Ives said. “Ten years ago, we began a process of telling the council that if we wanted to be in something and wanted to be efficient and effective we were going to have to get people together.”
Ives said she and Redmond’s finance director Lenda Crawford worked hard and conducted all kinds of studies, including a space needs study.
“Basically what we had figured out we needed a building to last 20 to 30 years with 100,000 square feet,” Ives said.
To help fund the project, Ives said she and Crawford accumulated almost $23 million in cash cobbled up to build city hall outright before taking those plans to the city council.
However, the council had other ideas, she said.
“The majority of the council took cash out of the $23 million and took half of that and put it in streets and parks and still wanted city hall,” Ives said. “We had to regroup.”
During that time, a council member who worked for Wright Rustad, a company which specializes in public/private partnerships, mentioned the idea as a way to complete the city hall project.
“We sort of changed course and started looking at that kind of partnership,” Ives said.
After clearing the legal hurdles associated with laying the foundation for such an endeavor, Wright Rustad and the National Development Council were selected as the city’s development team.
Once that team was in place, the next step in the process was the actual design of the building itself.
“We did a design contest, and it was almost like a beauty pageant,” Ives said. “We certainly wanted to be LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) certified, and once the design was finalized locating the building operations was challenging,” she said.
The end result met the city’s needs, even though there were some challenges to overcome.
“It worked out just fine, but we also have a partner involved,” Ives said. “One thing is before we owned our city hall, and under the agreement we don’t own this building for 31 years.”
The city’s relationship with Wright Rustad has been great, but it’s not the same as the city owning its own building, she said.
When the project began, Ives said she was certain the city was in the position to afford the monthly payments, but cautioned council members about the financial responsibilities involved before they voted to proceed.
“I warned them before you do this, make sure you don’t do this on the backs of city employees,” she said. “I don’t want to see you cutting staff five years from now, because you can’t pay the mortgage.”
Unfortunately in the city’s first budget since the city hall building open, Ives said the council decided not to raise the city’s business tax rate to compensate for budget shortfalls.
“I have a council that doesn’t want to raise revenues,” she said. “Our council has decided to cut five positions, which comes on the backs of our employees.”
The city has plenty of capacity to raise revenue, but the council has decided to balance the budget instead by cutting programs and services, she said.
Overall, the public/private partnership is a good method for cities to complete capital projects and has many benefits, she said.
“It has its challenges, and you have to make sure you have the political will,” she said. “There’s a political side that you need to understand.”
Even the Poulsbo’s city staff has corresponded with its Redmond counterparts about the city hall project, Ives said she is open to the idea of filling in the rest of the picture.
“Frankly, I would love to come and have a conversation with the electeds in Poulsbo,” Ives said.
