Fire department training personnel and arson investigators currently lease space at Longworth Hall for $15,000/month. Seven years ago the city spent big bucks to move them there. There's a vacancy in the city-owned II Centennial Building next to City Hall, so the city wants to move them again. The problem is it's going to cost upwards of $900,000 to make the move. Longworth Hall's landlord has already offered a $1000/month rent reduction if they stay.
Even if the city could save 100% of the rent cost, that's a 64 month payback ($900k/$14k) on the cost of the move. In short, we would actually lose money for the next five and a half years before generating any savings. Are they aware there's a recession? We don't have this money to burn.
Like most sensible people, Councilman Charlie Winburn finds this wasteful spending obscene, and has introduced a motion to stop it. His commonsense proposal is to simply lease the space at II Centennial to somebody else, and let the city collect $14,000/month in rent. There are plenty of hungry realtors who would love to have that listing. It avoids having to move fire staffers into a less suitable space. And best of all, it saves the city nearly a million bucks, which can avoid having to layoff 15 cops.
Call or email the other councilmembers today and tell them to stop burning through your money.
513-352-3604 Vice-Mayor Roxanne Qualls
513-352-3283 Councilmember Jeff Berding
513-352-3249 Councilmember Chris Bortz
513-352-3344 Councilmember Leslie Ghiz
513-352-3640 Councilmember Chris Monzel
513-352-5303 Councilmember Laure Quinlivan
513-352-3499 Councilmember Cecil Thomas
513-352-3466 Councilmember Wendell Young
I actually really like this post. I think Charlie Winburn has the right idea on this matter. While I disagree with your stance regarding the streetcar, you have made an excellent point here and I will be contacting the other councilpersons regarding this matter.
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