By Mark Ruffing
In our new world of upside-down mortgages, the building of the new City Hall—and now the resulting debt service to pay for it—has become the elephant in the room that no one wants to talk about. Individual City departments are expected to pay approximately $1.1 million per year toward the debt service for the new City Hall. That’s $1.1 million per floor, multiplied by 18 floors at the City Tower, and additional floors at the City Hall Wing. Meanwhile, the old City Hall lays vacant.
With all the eliminated city staff positions, maybe it’s time to move several floors’ worth of remaining staff back to the old City Hall and lease out the resulting vacant space at the new City Hall to the private market. Of course, this is not a comfortable topic for the mayor and council, but it is time for this to be given serious consideration.
And, if the mayor has difficulty addressing this, he can feel free to borrow the words from my conversation with my 12-year-old son the other day: “We have to cut back on extra expenses, and we may need to bunk together in one bedroom and rent out the other.”
Full Disclosure: As a City employee, I originally came to work for the City as a Code Enforcement Inspector, not just because of the pay and benefits, but because I genuinely wanted to provide good public service and improve the quality of life in the neighborhoods I served. I still maintain that focus in my present job as a Building Rehabilitation Inspector, where I help low-income people repair their homes in some of the city’s most under-served areas.
I love this. The person who wrote this column so far is the most wise person to write an article for this blog! I would be 110% in support of this great idea. I guarentee the city council who monitor this site and who also write for this site will not have the guts to respond. Great Idea Guest Columnist!
The fact that the city has let the old city hall sit vacant for 5 years is a disgrace. I’m sure that the city could vacate some leased office space if they’d only fix up the old building. Either that, or sell it to the county so the county could exit some leased space. I know for a fact that the county is spread all over the place.
This poor idiot is going down. Should never have opened his mouth. They should have a resume class or two for him though!
The PD has been utilizing the old city hall for training purposes. well, that was up until mold was discovered. Mold you say?? The city shut off all the power/water to non-essential parts of the building, leaving those parts, dark, dank, and well after 5 years nasty.
The idea is one that has merit, but realistically, there needs to be a significant amount of money spent to just make it habitable again.
The entire building and grounds remind me of the TV series, “Life after people.”
What is the square foot per floor? 100k in cost per month per floor is unreal. You would not get that in rent in this market!
The great thing about city employees is that they offer taxpayers options on how to waste the publics’ money. Shall we consolidate our offices filled with over-paid and under performing employees? Or shall we cut the pay, benefits, and pensions of the same folks?
Here’s some news for the decision makers and union employees that are basking (wallowing) in the taxpayer greenbacks.
We expect your government institution to behave responsibly, ethically, and efficiently. Your internal disputes about who wastes the most money do not interest us. Wholesale changes are needed in local government to right this ship. Taxpayers need to unite and revolt to solve the systemic problems within our local government administration.
Cheers!
They spend half a billion yes BILLION on the new city hall (Ron Gonzalez legacy) and now we have Chuck Greed who is bucking for a stadium to leave his dog markings on the wall. Very pathetic indeed! I wonder how the taxpayers feel about Measure “O” which paid for and built the new police substation in the southern part of the city. This would have cut down on response and fuel for city police officers and vehicles. This building sits idle as well. Will this turn into a mold trap as well. Im sure Mayor Greed wouldnt open it now just on his own selfish principles! These money wasting turds need to go!!!
I wonder how the taxpayers feel about Measure “O” which paid for and built the new police substation in the southern part of the city. This would have cut down on response and fuel for city police officers and vehicles. This building sits idle as well.
Why does everyone need to build new buildings? There’s plenty of buildings in South San Jose that are without renters right now (just take a drive past the bioscience incubator off 101 and Silver Creek Valley Road)
On that same note, right along 87 and 280 there’s the Park River Towers that’s been vacant for at least a good 4 years.
All of these are modern facilities built within the last 10 or so years. Your comment just makes no sense. Why complain about the city administrata getting new buildings, then cry about the cops not getting then same thing? If it was wrong for the city to build new, isn’t it *just* as wrong for the cops to do the same?
First, the money approved by voters was specifically allocated for renovating Happy Hollow, City parks and building new fire stations and the police facility. The money could only be used for those purposes. The City leaders knew almost a decade ago that those building would need to be staffed, but intentionally did not set aside funds for those purposes.
Second, such building are very specific in design and use and any use of existing building that were designed for other purposes would require extensive remodeling. A secure area for processing and housing prisoners, storing evidence, repairing police and fire vehicles, drying fire equipment… just to name a few. I doubt very much a bioscience incubator would fit the bill.
Arizona manages to do it just fine with a dirt lot of tents surrounded by razor wire. So let me ask again, why do we need specialised buildings? Isn’t incarceration and processing a county function anyways?
Let me run this through the reality translator:
“I used to make a ton of money and looked down my nose at public employees with their lower wages, nametags, and menial jobs. Now that my stock options have evaporated, I’ve been laid off, and my savings are nearly gone I need to look down my nose at you for a different reason. Now I can accuse public employees of being overpaid, wasting my tax dollars, and “basking” in my hard earned money, if I had any. Of course when the economy rebounds and I am once again making bank, I will go back to the first style of public employee disdain but for now I will employ the righteous indignation format followed later by the you’re all beneath my dignity philosophy”.
Deflecting responsibility is a hallmark of public sector work philosophy.
Bear the hallmark of petty jealousy and unwarranted condescension.
If we could liquidate the Taj Gonzales for anything close to what we’re liable for on it, I’d say do it. But alas, with strange and magical city project management we ended up spending an insane amount per square foot. The liability remains even if we move out (kind of like the pension system, where we could lay off every city employee and still not be in the black because of unfunded liabilities and over promised benefits made sensible only with crazy math.)
On a more positive note, I’d say its nice that city employees outside the executive suites are contributing to the dialogue. There’s so many layers of managers that I imagine no one bothers to ask the line workers for ideas for dealing with the budget (they are stakeholders too aren’t they?)
Maybe it’s like Constant’s newsletter piece about balancing the voices from all the interest groups with the silent masses of residents who aren’t getting heard. Since the unions are the only recognized voice for the rank and file and they will obviously censor and filter the feedback from their membership to further political goals, maybe the city is missing a dynamic. It seems like dynamic organizations empower their workers and let them have a real voice in decision making (especially where it involves ways to better serve the customer.) I don’t think we’ve got a flat org chart but rather a bunch of silos with the line workers way at the bottom and a lot of people between doing powerpoints, email and taking meetings.
So thank you for contributing the the discussion and taking a risk by using your real name.
And this is the reason why SJ residents have no trust in their elected officials. The Mayor and Councilwhores are too damn full of themselves to consider doing something like this.
Why should we, the taxpayers, give a crap about the SJ budget deficit when our “champions” don’t lift a finger to do what’s right?!
While it is true that leaving the old City Hall vacant is a huge waste, there are problems with using it. In fact, the SJPD and other city entities were using the building for training. This has since been curtailed due to the health hazards posed by the decaying building. There are now so many rats and other pests living in the building that dried rat feces is in the air and on most surfaces. City employees are getting very sick just by being in the building for any length of time. Water is shut off, pipes are corroding, carpet is rotting, window caulking is flaking off, and wood is decaying.
The building is also rife with new code violations including old wiring, insulation, and extremely inefficient HVAC. Does this mean is should sit vacant? Absolutely not. The city pays tons of money each year renting various buildings throughout the city such as retirement services, various police units, etc. The city should invest in renovating the building, bringing up to code, and then consolidate all these rental properties back to old City Hall.
I asked the city why the lights were on all night a while ago. They cut down on the light use but keeping them on might make sense if there’s a pest problem (mice and cockroaches love dark, dry spaces)
The architecture in all of the municipal buildings has been nothing short of hideous. The same recycled aluminum appears to be the precious metal that supports our robust airport, bustling city hall, and substandard substation.
This place is pathetic. A city hall with misters and no trees? huh! It looks like a concrete jungle down there. And don’t look for a tree to read a book under.
As for the airport same story aluminum and concrete. The parking garage is the marvel. THe marvel is that they were able to block the view of the airport.
As for old city hall. Its Muni. land that does not appeal to high tech. Who wants the pd, jail and courts as neighbors? I can barely stand going there myself.
Maybe the substation should have ben scrapped and a new pd could have been erected. With a secure facility, shooting range, ample parking and all.
City leaders. Before you build, Go to the most successful cities in the country and take notes. I swear it works. Phoenix, Denver, Las Vegas. Seattle, S.Carolina and I can go on and on. San jose is the laughing stock of the Silicon Valley. Speaking of which I’m composing a list of real fortune 500 companies who call SJ home. We may re think the Silicon Valley sales pitch.
gnite
The reason they use Al is it has excellent anti-corrosion properties. Al2O3 forms a patina barrier that prevents further corrosion, without discolouration. Compare this with the county building, which looks like a giant rusted cube. It’s one of the few metals that can survive saltwater without an epoxy barrier coat.
Al will last longer than steel will in the elements. The only other metal that comes close is bronze, but it’s too malleable and heavy to be used for anything structural.
I have it!!! Being the “Medicinal Marijuana” Capital of Silicon Valley, the $75 million dollar glass rotunda of city hall could be converted into the world’s largest indoor pot grow room. Being that is solar would be the icing on the cake for Chuck’s vision of San Jose leading the charge into the green revolution. Part of city hall could be converted into a medicinal marijuana dispersary. Pierluigi “Bong” Oliverio, with his business savvy could be the retail manager (of course using performance based evaluations), Constant, being the kinda retired police officer, could provide security advice when his back doesn’t hurt, and Chuck could provide legal advice on keeping the cancerous employees under control. This could all be paid for with money skimmed from the Redevelopment Agency. We could hire the layed off police officers back at a quarter the wage to make home pot deliveries using the moth balled police cars that we will no longer need. This is going to put us on the map again.
Actually…an interesting idea. I like green buildings that actually have a little life to them (like that Museum in Golden Gate park with the living roof).
Pot plants would obviously be a problem, but could a retrofit get some life into the dome rather than sterile steel and concrete? Maybe a small orchard of fruit trees to celebrate our agricultural roots or something?
Also, if we had a do-over on the City Hall, why not design for expansion from the get go. You know organizations are always growing over time and it would make sense to overbuild some sections so that at a later date you could add extra floors when it made sense to expand (like over the annex.) Seems like we underbuilt and overpaid getting a prestige building that didn’t really do as much as it could.
Having attended hundreds of SJPOA (police union) meetings, written controversial articles in the SJPOA newspaper that were not censored or edited, and having seen the union membership question their representatives in briefings and in union meetings sometimes to the point of heated confrontation, I am curious as to how you think the union leaderships edit the dissemination of information and filter feedback? In fact, at the SJPOA the entire membership has to vote for any proposed contracts, changes in by-laws, side agreements with the city, etc. Written copies of any item to be voted on are provided for review first. The union books are open to any member who wishes to review them and all major decisions are brought before the membership as a whole. I suggest you update your information about some of the unions as your view is a bit dated.
I also might add that his highness the mayor also tried this tactic with the police and fire unions. He started by vilifying the union leadership and tried to separate union members from their representatives so as not to appear anti-public safety. When many union members pointed out to him that they were very well informed on the tactics of their leadership and were supportive of the thank you very much, Chuckles just gave up and started calling all public safety union members greedy and riding the gravy train. I have to give him credit for dropping the facade and just being honest enough to show his true colors.
The POA (police officers association) wasn’t really on my mind when I made my comments. In a way both police and fire unions are special in that they are more closely aligned to their members and agency than others in the South Bay labor universe.
I was thinking of “big labor” (read – South Bay Labor Council) which kind of coordinates strategies and planning for many in public sector unions.
I actually have a positive impression of labor groups from past personal experiences (including the POA) but have become cynical and concerned because of some patterns during the Hammer and Gonzales era.
Sunshine reforms sold because everyone knew their were backroom deals being cut and it wasn’t all about developers and big corporations. A lot of labor deals drove the city agenda with policy and planning coming from unelected experts at the labor council.