Budget woes and common sense be damned.
Budget woes and common sense be damned. That, apparently, is City Council’s attitude about the proposed Gilroy Police Department Taj Mahal – er, police station – they are ramming down taxpayers’ wallets.
According to the March 2002 issue of Building Design and Construction magazine, the per-square-foot cost in 2002 in the San Francisco Bay Area for constructing a police station – for the basic building – was $176.09.
With that benchmark in mind, let’s look at the city’s numbers. City officials tell us that of the station’s $25 million price tag, $13.2 million is earmarked for the police station itself. At a $176.09 a square foot, $13.2 million should buy a roughly 75,000 square-foot building. But Gilroy taxpayers are only getting a 48,500 square-foot facility.
Gilroyans shouldn’t be asked to pay more than $272 a square foot for a new police station – and that stunning figure doesn’t include the $5.6 million city-employee-only underground parking garage and nearly $6 million in site costs.
Our elected leaders are forging ahead with the $25 million station despite several disturbing facts:
• The fact that the city’s estimated price tag – $25 million dollars – is nearly triple what nearby Morgan Hill plans to spend for a similarly sized police station.
• The fact that the city doesn’t have all the money in the bank for this facility and will have to issue bonds – i.e., borrow money – to build it.
• The fact that the system the city uses to collect money to repay the bonds – police impact fees – is under study and, if the method isn’t changed, will likely be challenged in court by homebuilders or their lobbyists.
• The fact that the state’s $35 billion budget shortfall will likely translate to severe budget pain for the city of Gilroy, reducing funds available to staff and operate the new station.
• The fact that the extravagance being lavished on police officers in the form of this station severely reduces morale for other city workers – say, firefighters, whose long-planned and much-needed third fire station is now in danger of not being staffed due to budget constraints.
We’ve watched as the price tag for this exorbitant, out-of-control facility has spiraled from a much-too-high starting point, $19.5 million, to the current stratospheric estimate of $25 million.
Enough.
City Council was wrong to send this project out to bid. It was wrong to accept the first $19.2 million price tag. It was wrong to rubber-stamp the increases.
The police station needs to be redesigned from the ground up to get it back in line with budgetary reality and good old-fashioned common sense.
All possible options should be on the table. The city should consider building a substation to relieve overcrowding at the main police station. Or, perhaps the Wal-Mart store – likely soon to be vacant if Wal-Mart’s plans to relocate are approved – would make a good, and if the city plays its cards right, inexpensive police station. According to Morgan Hill’s leaders, remodeling an existing building is cheaper than building a new police station from scratch.
Whatever it takes, the building itself shouldn’t cost any more than a generous $10 million – that’s what a 48,500 square-foot police station should cost in the Bay Area. All the other costs – exclusive parking garage, site improvements, etc., need to be drastically reduced.
If the council allows this fleecing of Gilroy taxpayers to continue unchecked, it represents a breach of trust with Gilroy citizens – the people who pay the bills.
