New Spokane Valley city hall plans tabled

Spokane Valley’s campaign to build a new City Hall at the University City Shopping Center stumbled Tuesday.

With three members absent and the Greater Spokane Valley Chamber of Commerce sounding alarm bells, the deadlocked City Council tabled action on a $377,000 architectural payment.

Chamber board Chairman Philip Rudy called for the council to exercise caution about spending so much money “in these unique financial times” to design a building for a site the city doesn’t yet own or control.

The chamber has supported the proposed Sprague-Appleway Revitalization Plan, which calls for a new City Hall in a “city center” district to be developed at University City.

City Councilwoman Rose Dempsey said she also supports the project, but “now is not the time to spend 377,000 more dollars on dreams.”

Mayor Rich Munson seconded her motion to postpone action until the council’s next meeting, on Feb. 24. (Next week’s council meeting has been canceled.)

The motion failed in a 2-2 tie, with council members Bill Gothmann and Steve Taylor dissenting. Then Gothmann moved to spend the money, which he noted had already been set aside, and Taylor seconded the motion.

Taylor sought assurances that much of the proposed architectural work could be applied to another site.

Public Works Director Neil Kersten said some of the work could be transferred, but the structure “really should be designed to the site.”

“I don’t really know where we are on tying down the site,” Kersten said. Until the land is secured, Kersten said he “wouldn’t want to go too far” with architectural work.

He said the $377,000 “schematic design services” phase of the city’s contract with the Bernardo-Wills and GGLO architectural firms would give a “pretty good” picture of how the new municipal building might look inside and out and how much it might cost.

Architect Gary Bernardo said the work could be done incrementally, starting with items that help city officials decide whether the proposed site is appropriate.

City Manager Dave Mercier said he saw a bit of chicken-or-egg dilemma in the question of whether to buy the land first or do architectural work that might help in site selection. But he didn’t think it was a good idea to try to decide the issue with three council members absent.

Taylor and Gothmann took his advice, abandoning their motion and joining Munson and Dempsey in tabling the issue for two weeks.

Last summer, the council authorized up to $75,000 of site-planning work that resulted in a recommendation to build a 55,000- to 60,000-square-foot, three-story building on a three-acre parcel at University City.

The proposed $377,000 expenditure would flesh out the design without preparing detailed construction plans. Kersten said the final design work could cost around four times the amount requested Tuesday.

He said architectural fees typically are 8 to 10 percent of the cost of a building. A draft architectural report says the current construction budget for the project, in 2010 dollars, is $14.1 million, not counting various fees, sales tax, or a 5 percent contingency for last-minute changes.

In other business, the council unanimously called for a report on how the city might implement Police Chief Rick Van Leuven’s request for measures to curb false alarms from automatic security systems.

Council members were sympathetic to Van Leuven’s complaint that avoidable false alarms are wasting resources and threatening public safety. He called for revisions in the city’s false-alarm ordinance to strengthen enforcement, possibly by handing the job to a private contractor.

“We are subsidizing these private alarm companies and private business,” Van Leuven said. “We have a minimal cost recovery.”

He made the plea at the request of Sheriff Ozzie Knezovich, with whom the city contracts for police service. Knezovich made a similar pitch last week to Spokane County commissioners, who suggested he ask Spokane Valley to take the first step.

The city had 954 false alarms last year, compared with 788 in the unincorporated county, Van Leuven told the council. He said 630 of the city’s false alarms were exempt from penalty as first offenses, and the slate is wiped clean every six months.

Many of the bogus alarms were from schools, which Van Leuven said haven’t been fined under the existing county and Spokane Valley alarm-system ordinances.

He said the exemption was a policy decision by a previous sheriff, “and we are taking steps to fix that.”

There were 101 false school alarms last year in Spokane Valley and 61 in the rest of the sheriff’s territory. One Spokane Valley school has had nine false alarms in the past six months, Van Leuven said.

Under the Spokane Valley alarm ordinance, second offenses last year carried a $30 fine that rose to $87 with court fees. Court fees padded the $70 fines for third offenses to $169, while the $120 fine for fourth and subsequent false alarms rose to $271 with fees.

Van Leuven said Spokane Valley offenders were billed $44,950 last year, although he thinks the amount should have been “well over $100,000.”

For a variety of reasons, including the fact that the money is shared with various state and local agencies and some people just don’t pay, the actual collection was far less than the amount billed, Van Leuven said.

He estimated last year’s actual collection at $14,816.

Van Leuven’s proposed solutions included mandatory registration of alarm systems, with a $25 annual fee and a requirement for current contact information. Police need to find owners quickly to help determine whether there has been a break-in or to secure their buildings so officers can get back to their regular duties, Van Leuven said.

Also, he suggested contracting with a private company called Crywolf for enforcement of a beefed-up ordinance. Crywolf keeps about 25 percent of the penalties it collects, but it eliminates a substantial clerical burden for police and courts, Van Leuven said.

The company has software that can automatically sift through the sheriff’s computer system and find false-alarm offenders.

Council members directed Mercier to bring them a proposal.