Ron Kim, public safety commissioner, began his agenda with an apology.
To the extent that my leaving the council table was taken that I had given up on the public safety building, I am sorry.
Kim made his statement at the Tuesday, Oct. 16, City Council meeting two weeks after walking out of the Oct. 2 meeting following the 3-to-2 defeat of a lease-buyback proposal of a $17 million public safety facility on Woodlawn Avenue.
`I meant no disrespect to you, mayor, the City Council, the police or firemen, or any member of this community,` said Kim.
Following his apology, Kim brought two more proposals for the construction of a public safety facility in front of the City Council in an attempt to get a project approved before the city enters another budget cycle.
One of Kim’s proposals could cut the cost of the facility by more than a third, from $17 million to $12 million.
The commissioner has drafted two requests for proposals connected with a new building for police and courts, this time in a city-owned parking lot on High Rock Avenue. The first request for proposals that Kim unveiled was a design request for a construction cost considerably lower than the $17 million price tag that has been bandied about for months.
`What we’re essentially saying to the design community is we want to design for a construction cost of not more than $12 million,` said Kim. `We’ve lowered the cost, said here are the functions we need to have, what can we do?`
Kim said he has also asked designers to incorporate `green` technology in the design to make use of sustainable energy and drive down operating costs.
The other proposal has a requirement attached that mandates the facility incorporate a parking garage that would house 500-600automobiles.
Kim pointed out $1 million has already been approved for design of a facility, and said with the $12 million proposal, he is not asking for a cut in the building’s function.
`We’re essentially just responding to some of the council’s comments and saying, ‘Here’s our budget and let’s get our ideas on the table,’ ` said Kim.
Kim said the requests for proposals may not answer all of the questions regarding a new public safety facility ` and may raise others ` but would provide more information.
Commissioner of Public Works Thomas McTygue said he was not given a copy of Kim’s proposal before the meeting ` violating the city policy of having all commissioners view a request for proposal before it goes before the public. He read from a memorandum Mayor Valerie Keehn circulated regarding McTygue’s request for proposal process concerning the sale of the city-owned parking lot adjacent to Lillian’s.
`Any proposal RFP we were told to distribute to the other City Council members,` said McTygue, holding up the memo. `I’ll throw this in the wastebasket, where it probably should have gone in the first place, and go along with this so we can get the best product available.`
McTygue did convince Kim to hold off on the High Rock parking proposal so that the council could create a larger, parking lot/public safety facility similar to the proposal for the Woodlawn Avenue rejected by the council at its last meeting.
Kim agreed to go forward only with the design RFP at this time, but reminded the council that with every delay, the nearly three-year construction and move-in phase of the project is put off and the price of the facility goes up.
Commissioner of Accounts John Franck said waiting might not be a bad thing.
`We asked you six weeks ago to do what you’re doing today,` he said to Kim. `A month of delay, it looks like we already saved $5 million.“