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With absolutely no prospect of building its own facility, the city is scrambling to find at least a short-term home. The task is not an easy one in a city short of appropriate space, and the options being considered include placement of portable trailers on one of the few available sites near downtown, and even moving the offices outside the city limits.
Although the crisis has been brewing for years, it came to a head on Oct. 19, when Falk met with Curt Blomstrand, managing general partner of owner Gray Horse Investors, to discuss converting four parking spaces at the current site to electric vehicle charging stations, two for city use and two to share with the general public. Blomstrand informed Falk that the request could not be considered because growth of the police department over the years had contributed to a shortage of available parking at Desco Plaza. In fact, he pointed out (and Falk agrees), the current situation does not comply with the requirements of the city's own per-square foot standard, which would provide 10 spaces for police department use; current usage is estimated to be between 20 and 30 spaces more than that, and the department is even parking its ATV in a planter area and its motorcycles on walkways.
The city's lease will expire on June 30. The landlord is willing to renew the lease for the city's administrative offices on the site, but not for the entire police department. The problem is that the two functions are now inseparable as a practical matter, because they share a technology hardware and software platform ("telephones, servers, integrated copy systems, GIS systems, emergency radio systems and antennae, etc.," according to the city's staff report), that requires co-location of the two city offices. Consequently, the city has determined that it must move its entire operation elsewhere, and the landlord says it will not prepare a lease renewal for the city, but will offer the 9,000 square foot space on the open office market.
The city once separated the two activities, but it simply did not work. "Our experience during that time was that coordination between administrative staff and the police department suffered; there was less communication between managers; there was poorer oversight of the ... most important and costly services" and other problems, the staff report says. Falk insists that until the city builds and owns a purpose-built facility - such as a city hall - it must move to find a new home.
This will not be easy in a city that is experiencing robust growth, parking problems, and a shortage of appropriate sites for the activity of civic offices, including a location that will satisfy critical emergency response time requirements. The current need is for a site of approximately 10,000 square feet because of new space requirements due to recent developments such as the hiring of female police officers, who need their own locker room. The city has been paying about $280,000 per year for its current space, and hopes to pay a comparable price for the new space. Moving costs are expected to exceed $100,000, because of the technology that will have to be relocated.
This is a tall order for city staff, who will be working under tight time constraints to find a new facility, or at least a site on which to locate a temporary one. Nobody has come up with a satisfactory solution and, faced with this situation, the three members of the council present at the Oct. 24 meeting essentially did nothing more than instruct staff to keep trying.
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Lamorinda Weekly, Moraga CA