02/07/2023
The County is in the process of selecting their preferred option for a Government Facilities Master Plan. Either option has significant impact on city taxpayers. Below is the email I today sent to the Common Council to ask for a comprehensive study of those impacts to the city and city tax payers.
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Hello Alders:
First, I apologize for not sending this sooner. I have been struggling with COVID for over a week and have been unable to do much other than rest.
As you are likely aware, the County Board met on Tuesday (Jan 31) in a committee of the whole for a presentation and discussion of the “Government Facilities Master Plan Project.” The recording of the meeting is not yet available, but the presentation, conducted by multiple county consultants, can be found at this link (click on “Other”). If you haven’t yet reviewed the document, I encourage you to do so.
For decades the county board has conducted numerous studies, spent hundreds of thousands of dollars and held hundreds of hours of discussion, debate, and public input on “space needs” for not only the jail, but also courts and administrative offices. For decades no decisions were made. Now, according to the timeline presented on Tuesday, a decision is to be made in March.
The city has, in various iterations of these studies, been a partner in the discussion because the city owns a portion of the County-City Building and owns the County ADRC/Lincoln Center. Because of the ownership and landlord-tenant relation, the “City of Stevens Point Mayor/Designee” has a seat on the Board’s Space and Properties Committee. However, this committee position may “vote only on matters contained in the Joint County-City Building Agreement” (Portage County Code Chapter 3.1.29). The current study has not focused on the County-City Building, which may be the reason the Council has been excluded from the discussion.
From my understanding of the presentation and subsequent discussion, the county has distilled their options to these two choices:
1. Building downtown (current location to include some demolition, additions and new construction)
2. Moving the jail, courts, and administrative office to a yet unknown “greenfield” site
While the County Board certainly has the authority to make its own policy decisions, any decision the body makes has potential financial, economic, land use, environmental, infrastructure and social impacts to the city. Both options have, from a policy perspective, costs and benefits. Both will require significant policy decisions by the Common Council.
In order for the Common Council to have informed deliberations and decision-making, I will place on the 2/13/2023 Finance Committee agenda an action item related to the situation. Specifically, there will be two questions before the committee:
1. Is there funding (possibly from TIF 10) for a cost-benefit study of the two options?
2. Should the Common Council conduct a cost-benefit study of the two options, by a qualified third party, with a scope to include, but not limited to:
a. Financial impacts
b. Economic impacts
c. Infrastructure impacts
d. Environmental impacts
e. Land use impacts
f. Social impacts
g. Other, as determined by Common Council
Please contact members of the County Board to discuss your concerns, ideas and thoughts: https://www.co.portage.wi.us/about-us/about-us/county-board
