Future of city hall mulled

Is a city hall an office building or a public investment?

That’s one question the Spokane Valley City Council will ask as it considers building a new city hall.

At its meeting Tuesday, the council began talking about where it will locate after its lease at Redwood Plaza, 11707 E. Sprague Ave., expires in 2007. Rather than building a city hall, the council could remodel one of the Spokane Valley’s many vacant buildings or rent again.

Mayor Mike DeVleming said it’s difficult to know what size and type of facility the city will need. Currently, Spokane Valley has a small staff and contracts out many of its services. If the city finds it’s more cost effective to provide services in-house, it will need a bigger building to hold more employees and equipment.

“Whatever we decide to do, we would need to have an ability to grow,” DeVleming said.

Deputy City Manager Nina Regor told the council that if it sees city hall as an office building that merely houses city departments, location isn’t as important as if city hall is a key part of a community center. The office concept also could cost less.

This winter and spring, community members have discussed the possibility of building a city center – gathering place where citizens could eat lunch in a plaza, visit a library and hold events such as Christmas-tree lightings.

Building a city hall in a central area could be a catalyst for further development. Portland, Ore.-based consultant Crandall Arambula said the city eventually could get an 11:1 return on its money.

Deputy Mayor Diana Wilhite reminded the council that in 2002 a company offered to build the city a hall for $15 a square foot.

“I don’t know if that offer is still good, but it was out there,” she said.

The city will pay $265,000 this year to lease the 16,000 square feet of space it occupies now.

Council members plan to address the topic again later this summer.

In other city news, the council agreed to ask the firm Jones & Stokes Associates Inc. to complete an environmental assessment of extending the Sprague-Appleway couplet two miles eastward.

Jones & Stokes began that work under a contract with Spokane County, but the project was put on hold when the city incorporated.

It also did the environmental assessment for the existing couplet.

Spokane Valley businessman Dick Behm, who opposes the couplet, objected to letting Jones & Stokes do the work, saying the consultant would be “inclined to justify their previous work,” he said.

“They did a poor job for the community,” Behm told the council. “They did a good job for Spokane County” by giving the county the answers it wanted, Behm alleged.

Behm also sent council members an e-mail late Tuesday morning.

“One of the most important reasons the business community supported incorporation was the Spokane County engineers not listening to the concerns of the business community,” Behm wrote.

Councilman Mike Flanigan voted against going forward with Jones & Stokes because he said he had unanswered questions about the situation.

All other council members – except councilmen Dick Denenny and Steve Taylor, who were absent – voted for the motion.