Subject: [NEXTEL-1] Cost of police station soaring in St. Paul Tony Kennedy, Star Tribune

From: [email-masked]
Date: Wed, 13 Aug 2003 06:07:56 -0400

Cost of police station soaring in St. Paul Tony Kennedy, Star Tribune

Published August 12, 2003
STP12

When St. Paul decided to
build a new police
station, City Council
members understood
they weren't ordering
from a fixed-price menu.

A year later, with work
well under way and the
bill still rising, the a la
carte approach is
producing indigestion.

"It's not even done yet
and we don't know what
the cost will be," said
Council Member Jerry Blakey.

Mayor Randy Kelly is holding his ground, but critics are attacking him for
investing in new digs for the city at a time of overall belt-tightening. Council
Member Jay Benanav said he now regrets casting the deciding vote last year to
boost Kelly's plan for the new police station. "We just don't need it," he said.

But Deputy Mayor Dennis Flaherty said Benanav and other council members knew there
would be supplemental costs to the project they approved. "This should not be a
surprise to anyone," Flaherty said.
Plans call for the St. Paul police central operations and its Rice Street office
to move to a building next door to the new Ramsey County law enforcement center on
the northeast edge of downtown.

The new facilities are scheduled to open in December, though Police Chief Bill
Finney has maintained that his department can readily function at existing
headquarters in downtown's Public Safety Building at 100 E. 11th St.
"I'm sitting here as the police chief and I just don't see the need for it," he
said.

"The new facility is going to be very nice, but I mean, it's expensive."Dave
Nelson, city real estate manager, said it may cost more than originally estimated
to acquire land for employee parking at the new site. But he said the project's
overall cost will be within reason and much cheaper than putting up a brand new
building.

"I knew it was going to be in the $20 million-plus range," Nelson said. As
projected, the city, with county financing, acquir ed the site and building -- a
former 3M Co. lab -- for $1.5 million and is renovating it for $12 million.

Estimated costs were left open for two other facets of the project: employee
parking and space for a radio service shop and garages for specialty vehicles for
the bomb squad, SWAT team and other units.

Nelson said one of those blanks has now been filled in. For $920,000, the city has
acquired a building and will retrofit it for the radio shop and specialty garages.
And the City Council recently approved a $4.7 million plan to relocate the fire
station now in the Public Safety Building downtown, which the mayor wants to level
for private redevelopment.

Unknown costs

Still unsettled is what the city will have to pay through condemnation proceedings
for a privately owned lot for employee parking at the new headquarters. Benanav
said the owners may seek $6 million for it. Flaherty said none of the costs of the
project should surprise Benanav. From the beginning, he said, the mayor's office
told the council that parking and radio-shop issues would be ironed out later.

The deputy mayor said the council set the new police station in motion before all
costs were nailed down because there was an "urgency to act" on the county's offer
for a site next to the new Law Enforcement Center, which will include a new jail
and headquarters of the Ramsey County Sheriff's Office. "The collaboration that
will come from the co-location will clearly be a savings to taxpayers," Flaherty
said.

Blakey and Council Member Kathy Lantry said they voted against Kelly's proposal
for a new police station because they were uncomfortable with cost projections.
Blakey said most capital improvement projects in the city are precisely estimated
before the council is asked to vote, and that didn't happen here.

"For one of the most important building projects, it's been one of the worst
processes," Blakey said.Said Lantry: "We're flying by the seat of our pants. The
numbers were very, very wishy-washy from the start."

Although the Police Department relocation received City Council approval in
September 2002, the issue was revisited late last month when Kelly pushed a
$4.7 million plan to relocate the adjacent downtown fire station,Flaherty and
Nelson, the city real estate manager, said the Fire Department relocation was
inherent in the original plan to build a new police station and Nelson said the
city expected the fire station move to cost $3 million to $5 million.

Kelly faced opposition on the fire station relocation from Benanav, who said the
city should keep the debt-free Public Safety Building and consolidate other
municipal functions there.

West End firehouse

But the mayor won that battle by winning the vote of Council Member Chris Coleman,
who represents the West End area. Coleman agreed to back Kelly's proposal after
the administration pledged to proceed on a consolidation of two fire stations in
his ward into one new fire station. Critics see that deal as adding to the
ultimate cost of the police station.

Kelly wants the Public Safety Building site for private redevelopment, possibly
including high-rise condominiums.

"The city is being unnecessarily extravagant," Benanav said. "We ought to spend on
more cops and firefighters on the street."

Instead, Benanav said, St. Paul is building "shiny new buildings that are a
monument to the mayor."

Kelly said his leadership in favor of new public safety facilities will stand the
test of time.
"I'm willing to take some criticism at the front end, but it's the right thing to
do," he said Monday.

Flaherty said the mayor's plan will forge a more meaningful relationship between
the Sheriff's Office and city police in state-of-the-art facilities. At the same
time, he said, the city would be adding onto its tax rolls a prime piece of
downtown real estate now occupied by the aging and cramped Public Safety Building.

Benanav said the city probably would have to subsidize any new private development
there. And Chief Finney noted that the building can't be razed until officials
determine how to deal with the police station's decrepit communications center.
Finney said the equipment wouldn't survive a move and that the right thing to do
would be to spend at least $14 million on new radios and a consolidated
communications system to include other law enforcement agencies in the county.

The communications network has been a concern since the Sept. 11 attacks, and all
area law enforcement agencies are upgrading their systems.

Flaherty said the communications improvement could cost up to $21 million and that
the mayor supports it. He said state and federal funds could cover 75 percent of
the cost.

Staff writer Curt Brown contributed to this report. Tony Kennedy is at
[email-masked].

http://www.startribune.com/stories/462/4037137.html

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