City Hall may expand in Bremerton government center
Bremerton City Hall is set to expand its footprint within the Norm Dicks Government Center, under a plan unveiled this past week by city leaders.
The city is prepared to pay Housing Kitsap just over $2 million to take over 9,000 square feet of space on the first and fifth floors of the Sixth Street government center. No formal paperwork has been signed but both Bremerton Mayor Patty Lent and Housing Kitsap Executive Director Stuart Grogan confirmed the deal is moving forward.
Lent said the plan will accomplish two of her long-term goals as mayor: it will give the public a "one-stop shop" for city services while also bringing more city employees under one roof, a move she said will make city government more efficient.
"The city is growing, and we need to have a campus that can accommodate all of our staffing," Lent said.
That comes at a cost. Most of the moves involve the city's public utilities. As a result, a maximum of 14 cents will be added to utility customers' bimonthly bills in 2017 to cover the debt service, according to City Finance Director Cathy Johnson. Much of the cost had already been planned for, as a consolidation of some staffing had already been in the works, she said.
For Housing Kitsap, the change represents a chance to lower their own office space costs while getting closer to the clients the agency serves, Grogan said. Formerly located in Silverdale, Housing Kitsap moved its operations to the downtown Bremerton location in 2011, though the agency has long served as the building's property manager.
"It's always felt a little strange to me that we're located in a city that already has a great housing authority," Grogan said, referencing the Bremerton Housing Authority, which has offices on Park Avenue.
Grogan also noted many of Housing Kitsap's clients come from points around the county, even to just deposit rent.
Where Housing Kitsap will ultimately be housed is still an open question, he said. The agency maintains a 6,000-square-foot building on Washington Avenue in Silverdale. That likely won't be big enough, however, and Grogan said they'll be searching for commercial space from Port Orchard to Poulsbo.
Grogan said he'd also like to consolidate his agency into one space. He said even having the agency within the Dicks center divides staff between the first floor and the fifth.
Even if Housing Kitsap leaves the building, they still own a space occupied currently by U.S. Rep. Derek Kilmer, D-Gig Harbor, and will maintain their long-standing role as property manager.
The new space would bring to downtown a number of Bremerton city functions. Under plans still being ironed out, the city will move 11 staff members — mostly engineers — from an office on Olympus Drive in East Bremerton. Leaders of different city departments hailed the idea as a chance to work more closely with the engineers on projects involving streets and utilities.
"We're kind of an orphan out here right now," said Tom Knuckey, Bremerton's city engineer, who currently works on Olympus. "It moves us closer together as a city. There will be less wasted time and better communication."
The building those engineers will vacate already has a potential tenant. Public Works Director Chal Martin and Kitsap Mental Health Services CEO Joe Roszak said that while nothing is set in stone, the mental health agency has preliminary plans to move its administration and management into the Olympus building. The plan so far involves KMH making tenant improvements in lieu of payments to the city, Martin said.
The city's public works headquarters on Oyster Bay Avenue, home to much of its arsenal of trucks and equipment, would also see changes under the plan. Martin and some other public works managers will get offices on the fifth floor downtown. Utility billing, too, would move to the Dicks building, to go with permitting and licensing, which are located on the sixth floor.
Details are still being ironed out. But for Lent and other city officials, the overall move is a chance to make city hall not just about the sixth floor, they say. It would widen that concept to the front doors of the government center, to include the prospect of City Council offices relocating to the first floor.
"This is a very forward-looking and great investment for the city," said Martin. "It consolidates our staffs and facilitates internal communication — at a good price. This definitely is a positive thing for the city's future."
The Norm Dicks Government Center, named for the longtime West Sound congressman, was completed in 2004 at a cost of $25 million. It's "condominium" style ownership still includes not only Housing Kitsap and the city of Bremerton but also the Kitsap Public Health District and other agencies.
By: Josh Farley
Source: Kitsap Sun