$6 million renovation of City Hall planned
I think that the new committee rooms are desperately needed. The current ones have terrible sight-lines, it's very difficult to hear, and they're always overcrowded.
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$6M City Hall reno blasted as needless
Plans spotted in the fine print of capital budget
Feb 10, 2007 04:30 AM
John Spears
Jim Byers
city hall bureau
After months of bewailing its financial plight, the City of Toronto proposes spending $6.2 million on City Hall renovations to create new committee rooms, build a media studio and consolidate Mayor David Miller's staff in offices overlooking Nathan Phillips Square. The previously undisclosed renovations showed up in the fine print of the city's capital budget, released Thursday.
Councillor David Shiner – who will be shifted from his office to make room for the mayor's staff – said the spending undercuts the city's argument that it needs more funding.
"We're telling the provincial and federal government that we can't afford to maintain the infrastructure of the City of Toronto, and yet we have almost $7 million for renovations to the mayor's office, and to add a couple of committee rooms," said Shiner (Ward 24, Willowdale).
"How can we go to the province and say we need help, and how can we go to the feds and say we need help, when we're renovating our house for what seems to be unnecessary work?"
The renovations have never shown up in the city's five-year capital budget plan, he said, yet the spending will occur over the next two years.
Miller was in Ottawa yesterday, talking with other mayors about getting a better deal for cities. He said the renovations were not part of the city's long-range budget plan "but the idea of building the committee rooms dates back (for some time)."
"There's a clear need for rooms for the police board, the transit commission and the board of health to meet, and that necessitates the clerk's moving from the second floor and my office staff being moved," he said. "It's obvious that the mayor's office should be in one place if it's possible," he said.
"If my staff has to move it makes sense to put them in one place."
Miller said he's not satisfied with the cost.
"From my perspective, there needs to be some more work done on that," he said. "I asked staff to sharpen their pencils."
The renovations were triggered by the city's facilities and real estate department, which says more committee rooms are needed "as a result of the city's new governance structure," according to budget documents.
Creating new committee rooms displaces some of the mayor's staff, who in turn will displace the councillors.
Miller also said yesterday his office staff is increasing – to perhaps 23 people from its current 18. Miller has ordered all departments to freeze operating budgets, but said his office needs more staff due to increased responsibilities under the City of Toronto Act.
A detailed breakdown of where the $6.2 million will go wasn't available yesterday. But part of it will be spent to build a "community media studio" – a venue for news conferences.
With the two new rooms, the city will have four large committee rooms, each capable of seating 20 councillors, two dozen staff and 65 members of the public. They'll be equipped with microphones and closed-circuit TV cameras.
Councillors who will lose their offices to the mayor's staff are David Shiner; Gloria Lindsay Luby (Ward 4, Etobicoke Centre); Cesar Palacio (Ward 17, Davenport); John Filion (Ward 23, Willowdale); and Joe Mihevc (Ward 21, St. Paul's).
They'll move into other second-floor offices now occupied by civil servants.
Lindsay Luby (Ward 4, Etobicoke Centre) said she heard about the proposed move only by "a fluke."
"I'm obviously not happy, but that's neither here nor there for the taxpayer," Lindsay Luby said in an interview.
"I really enjoy my office, I'm very unhappy about it, and moreso when I see the expense involved."
"I'd like to see a Plan B which would save our office space and accommodate the needs of the mayor's office," she said. "And I don't think anybody's put their mind to it."
Lindsay Luby will move into an office on the north side of City Hall. Her view includes the back end of a Toronto Hydro station, a parking lot, and a two-story building with concrete siding.
Budget details also show a previously unannounced expense of $300,000 for setting up the new lobbyist registry and renovating office space on Elizabeth St. behind City Hall.