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Both Mayor Tom Henry and the Allen County Council should back down from stubbornly inflexible positions that last week scuttled the best chance yet to put city police and the county sheriff’s departments together.
Both the mayor and county officials owe it to their constituents to make another effort to seek an acceptable agreement before they miss a unique opportunity.
The County Council’s vote to limit to $3 million any spending on renovating the City-County Building and the 200 E. Berry St. building was ill-considered and short-sighted, especially considering the county will lose the more than $1 million a year the city spends to help maintain and run the building they now share.
Henry’s announcement, just two hours after the council’s decision, that any deal was off and the city will go it alone, was abrupt and premature, too quickly abandoning efforts for city and county government to share both buildings.
In retrospect, city officials should have been speaking with the county commissioners and the County Council members before deciding to buy Renaissance Square at 200 E. Berry St. as the home for city police, fire department offices and all the municipal offices now in the City-County Building.
To their credit, the county commissioners – Nelson Peters in particular – appealed to the city to work together. After discussion and deliberation, both sides agreed that the police and sheriff’s offices should be in the City-County Building and most city offices should move to Renaissance Square. But they came to that decision before more specific cost estimates to renovate the two buildings were completed.
Those estimates called for spending roughly $16 million on the two buildings, with the county’s share about $7.5 million. On Thursday, the council said that was too much. Almost immediately, Henry seemed too eager to announce the deal was dead and the city would forge ahead on its own.
“We don’t have a choice but to follow through with our original plan,” Henry said.
But he does have a choice. He can go back to the table with the commissioners, bringing in the County Council members as well.
The county’s commitment of $3 million combined with the city’s decision to spend at least $7 million makes $10 million available to renovate two structurally sound buildings. If a firm goal is established to make it work, surely creative and innovative minds can find a way for the total renovation cost to be closer to $10 million than $16 million. The County Council might not spend $7.5 million, but it should consider raising its limit of $3 million.
For city offices to leave the City-County Building would be detrimental both symbolically and realistically. The move would make it more difficult for people who must do business with both governments. And it would significantly set back encouraging efforts for better city-county cooperation. Almost certainly, the momentum to combine the city and county emergency dispatch operations would stop in its tracks, killing that effort as well.
The County Council was too rigid; the mayor acted hastily.
On Monday, Henry, Peters and County Council President Roy Buskirk should meet to brainstorm ways to revive the co-location plan. What renovation expenses can be reduced or delayed?
Henry understandably wants to move police from their aging, rented headquarters on Creighton Avenue quickly. Similarly, a sheriff’s department move from its deteriorating facilities on the Byron Health Center campus is long overdue.
But the advantages of locating city and county offices together are significant and long-ranging. They are worth – no, they demand – another try.
