Council rejects proposal for renovation 06/19/03BENJAMIN NIOLET
News staff writerThe Birmingham City Council decided Tuesday against spending $12,000 to start designing a renovation of its offices.
The 5-4 vote for now ends plans to reconfigure and expand the nine council offices and surrounding cubicles. That project would have cost up to $150,000 to complete.
Council members said the city has too many pressing issues to spend thousands on itself.
"It strikes me that there are more critical needs for funding than renovation," said Councilwoman Valerie Abbott, whose assistant gave up her cubicle to make room for a copy machine and coffee maker. The council offices occupy a section of the third floor of City Hall.
The plan to renovate the offices began months ago after voters approved $125 million worth of citywide capital projects. The largest category of projects was for public buildings and the council office renovation was to be funded from that $20 million category.
Councilman Elias Hendricks said the project wasn't to make the offices more elaborate or ornate. It was to deal with the cramped quarters.
"This money, it may not be spent, but we need more space," said Hendricks, who said there is little room to sit at his computer because of the boxes and files under the desk. Council members Abbott, Joel Montgomery, Carol Reynolds, Roderick Royal and Carole Smitherman voted against the payment. Hendricks, Lee Loder, Bert Miller and Gwen Sykes voted in favor of it.
In other business Tuesday, the council:
Appointed Bhate Environmental Associates to check for lead-based paint and asbestos for the Red Lane Road building that will eventually be a new Birmingham police East Precinct.
Approved $9,000 for the Greater Birmingham Convention and Visitors Bureau to pay rental fees for the 2003 Watchtower Convention of Jehovah's Witnesses. The convention has been coming to Birmingham since 1982 and officials estimate it has a $1.85 million economic impact.
Adopted a resolution authorizing the mayor's office to dedicate a portion of Graymont Avenue in memory of Joseph Jerome Daniels, a Birmingham police officer fatally shot in a restaurant near his home. Daniels was killed while attempting to stop an armed robbery.
Can someone explain the highlighted bit. Who's paying the $9,000 rental fees?
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Ignored One.