by Peter Gauvin
After receiving several calls from people who said spending nearly a million dollars to renovate the City Council chambers is excessive, Council members Liz Kniss and Micki Schneider want to reconsider their decision. "We just had a lot of feedback from the public," Kniss said. "They said, 'We don't think spending that much is a good use of tax dollars.'"
As the maker of the motion to approve the $960,000 project on May 5, Kniss said she felt compelled to bring the issue back and asked Schneider to sign on with her.
"I'm glad to hear it," said Council member Dick Rosenbaum, who was the lone vote against the $960,000 project. "I've always felt my colleagues are very careful in spending city money, and I felt that this action was somewhat of an anomaly."
On Monday, Kniss and Schneider requested that the issue be put on a future agenda and the rest of the council agreed without discussing the issue.
Kniss and Schneider had originally hoped to move it to next Tuesday's meeting, but that will be devoted to the Sand Hill Road projects. City Manager June Fleming said the issue will not return anytime soon. "We have extremely crowded agendas through the middle of July," she said. It may even have to wait until after the council's vacation. No money will be spent in the interim.
When it does return, "I'm going to lean more toward a reduced amount," Kniss said last week. She said she would support the $320,000 project, which was recommended by city staff, and maybe some additional improvements, such as an improved projection system. That would bring the total to about $400,000.
The $320,000 plan would pay for new carpet, more comfortable benches (one of the public's biggest complaints), a redesign of the staff area, relocating the TV booth and upgrading the audio system.
The $960,000 plan included a high-tech audio/visual system with a digital overhead projection system and individual monitors for council members and flat-screen monitors at each council seat.
In the 1996-98 budget approved last year, of which the remodel was one of 44 capital improvement projects listed, the estimate for the renovation was $100,000.
At the May 5 meeting, Martin Dreiling, the architect for CSS Architecture of Burlingame, said that because of the cost and technological attributes of high-tech, multimedia projection systems it is not possible to reduce the cost while maintaining the system's major benefits.
In arguing for the $960,000 option last week, Kniss said the council chambers should be reflective of the city's reputation for being a high-technology center. But she now says that the price is too steep and would chew up a good portion of this year's projected $1.4 million budget surplus.
"Whenever it's a choice between council needs and community needs I think we've been fairly consistent in choosing community needs," Kniss said. "Clearly we need to scale it back."
Without the public reaction that probably wouldn't be the case, she said.
"If I hadn't received at least four or five strong messages from people saying, 'We think you can get by on a lot less' and 'Aren't there better things you can do with your money?' than we probably wouldn't be going down this road again," Kniss said. "Isn't that what you'd want a council to do?"
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