After voting on the measure three times, the Albany County Legislature passed a law at its meeting on Monday, Sept. 14, that would have the county acquire a bond issue for the final $11 million needed to complete the courthouse facilities project that began several years ago.
The entire project includes the renovation and restoration of the Albany County Courthouse and the Judicial Center, according to Mary Duryea, spokeswoman for Albany County Executive Mike Breslin.
The county started the restorations to the Judicial Center in July of 2003, according to Duryea. It was completed in December 2005, with a total cost of $24 million.
At this point, the Judicial Center has been completed, Duryea said, with the courthouse being the final stage of construction.
The courthouse renovations began in April of 2005, and only the first phase of the project was completed by April 2009 (the project was expected to take several years to complete). The project is expected to be finished in March of 2011, at a total cost of $42 million.
Additional costs, such as architects, engineers, legal fees and project management will come in at about $15 million, bringing the total cost to about $81 million. The project was originally expected to cost about $70 million.
When the vote was initially taken during the legislature’s meeting, some lawmaker felt the $11 million was excessive. That number includes roughly $500,000 in attorneys’ fees for a lawsuit that resulted in the termination of a general contractor who was working on the project, as well as the money needed to complete the project.
According to Phil Steck, D, I-Colonie, some legislators were confused about the amount of money being set aside for attorney fees and said that because they thought the amount was higher than it actually was, leading to a second vote.
During the second vote, Steck said some legislators were confused about what they were voting on whether it was a motion to dismiss the original vote, or another vote on the proposition.
On the third vote, the measure passed.
Albany County Legislator Carl Zeilman, R-Colonie, said he voted against the bill because he believes he did not have enough information on the project.
Zeilman said he had requested specific information from project coordinators about the original cost of the project and a broken down explanation of all the changes from the originally projected amount. At the time of the vote, Zeilman said he had not received that information and therefore was not prepared to vote on it.
Zeilman also said he believes the project is costing too much.
We’re in a time where people are losing jobs and struggling to make ends meet,` he said. `We’re asking for a lot of money to renovate this building, and this is money we’re adding on top of money that was already accrued.`
But Steck said that if the legislature did not approve the $11 million to come out of a bond issue, the money would have to come out of the county’s expenditure balance and would end up hurting the county.
In the end, the measure was approved up the Legislature with 26 votes.
Steck also said some of the costs of the renovation project were mandated by state regulations, including special equipment that is used when visiting judges come to the county courthouse.
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