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Winnipeg Free Press - PRINT EDITION

Pricey offices for top city staff

Councillors surprised by $930,000 cost of refurbishments

By: Bartley Kives

Posted: 10/16/2009 1:00 AM | Comments: 0 (including replies)

View of the administration building. Mayor Sam Katz says the work is funded by budgeted money. (KEN GIGLIOTTI / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS)

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Construction of new offices is underway on the second floor of the administration building. (KEN GIGLIOTTI / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS)

Winnipeg is spending $930,000 to convert vacant space at city hall into new offices for senior public servants at the same time that it is pleading poverty to other levels of government.

The second floor of city hall's administration building, which used to house a cafeteria, will soon be home to new offices for chief administrative officer Glen Laubenstein, deputy CAOs Phil Sheegl, Alex Robinson and Mike Ruta, their assistants, and new city communications manager Ed Shiller.

The renovations will allow the senior officials to move down from their current offices on the third floor of the administration building, making room for city clerks to move over from their offices in the council building.

"The whole understanding is to bring as much of the administration together in one building," said Mayor Sam Katz, adding he has no problem with the $930,000 project because the cash is coming from existing pots of money within the planning, property and development department's budget.

"If they were looking for new money, that might be an issue," the mayor said.

But other members of council were taken by surprise when informed of the renovations.

St. Norbert Coun. Justin Swandel, who chairs city council's finance committee, said he knew nothing about the renovations, which are not explicitly listed in the 2009 capital budget, the city's blueprint for $476 million worth of spending on infrastructure projects this year.

"I wasn't aware of this. I don't think anyone was," Swandel said. "When we're spending $1 million on something, it should be transparent through the budget process."

The 2009 capital budget devotes entire pages to internal projects as small as a $100,000 security upgrade for the council building and a $92,000 communications network enhancement.

There is no page in the budget devoted to $930,000 worth of renovations to the administration building, though slightly more than $1.5 million devoted to "general building renovation and refurbishment" in four previous capital budgets had not been spent as of this spring, according to a report presented to council's finance committee on Thursday.

The $930,000 office-renovation project is actually the second attempt to create offices on the second floor of the administration building over the past year. The vacant space was at first set aside for city councillors, but the elected officials declined to move across city hall's courtyard when they were given the opportunity early this year.

"We weren't going to do something crazy like that, going into an election year. So we stopped it," said Mynarski Coun. Harry Lazarenko, who chairs city council's secretariat committee, which governs rules and regulations.

Now, the only city staff set to migrate across the courtyard are employees of the city clerk's office, who currently occupy part of the main floor of the council building. Their departure would allow three city councillors who currently have offices in a subterranean level of the council building -- Scott Fielding (St. James), Grant Nordman (St. Charles) and John Orlikow (River Heights) -- to move above ground.

Since late 2007, the city has been asking the provincial government for direct access to growth revenues such as provincial sales taxes, both to maintain the level of city services and beef up the infrastructure budget. It has also encouraged both Manitoba and Ottawa to increase funding for projects such as the $1.8-billion waste-water upgrade and the development of a rapid-transit network.

bartley.kives@freepress.mb.ca

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition October 16, 2009 A3

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