by Bradley Parsons
Staff Writer
After the Supervisor of Elections asked the City Council for more than $1.1 million to help build a new satellite office on the Northside, the Council auditor asked for a recount.
In March, the Council approved the Supervisor’s office’s five-year lease on offices in the Gateway Mall. At the time, the Council auditor’s office thought the Supervisor’s office would pay for the move.
But in the following five weeks, Supervisor of Elections Jerry Holland has asked the Council twice for money to help with the move. On April 25, the Council approved $750,000 to pay for construction and is now reviewing a second request for about $430,000 slated to pay for infrastructure improvements. The Council will vote Tuesday on that request.
Holland said the cost for the move climbed considerably when the Supervisor’s office was forced to change its desired location for the satellite office, which will house equipment, administrative offices and training space for poll workers.
Holland originally wanted to move into a warehouse currently occupied by the Clerk of Courts. But that space became unavailable when the City shelved its plans to build a new County Courthouse complex, which would have provided a new home for the Clerk’s facility.
“You have to pay quite a bit more to lease a space than to use an existing facility,” said Holland.
Following Holland’s appearance at Monday’s Council Finance Committee meeting, Council Auditor Kirk Sherman said he wanted to know how much the Supervisor’s office was contributing to the move and why Holland hadn’t asked for all of the money at once. The City will borrow most of the money it directs toward Holland. The Supervisor’s office will pay the financing out of its annual budget.
“We want to make sure that the Supervisor’s office is paying as much as possible and that we’re financing the least amount possible,” said Sherman.
Holland said his office will contribute $194,000 toward the second funding request, bringing the total appropriation to about $600,000. He said the requests were introduced separately because he needed the $700,000 to keep his contractors on schedule.
“The money could have been moved in one bill, but we needed to move the money for the developers more quickly to keep them on schedule,” he said.
The $600,000 will pay for technology infrastructure and other improvements. That money is also needed in a hurry to keep poll worker training on schedule, said Holland.
“It seems like the election is a long way away,” said Holland. “But the building needs to be ready for training to start June 10.”