Proponents of the over-priced bond measure on the November ballot for a new 148,000 square foot building to house the Salem Police Department like to say that critics of this poorly-planned proposal, such as me, are totally wrong that it would be feasible to build a perfectly adequate 75,000 square foot police facility — AND make the Library and City Hall earthquake safe — for much less money than the $82 million that the current supersized facility would cost all by itself.
Well, in this post I'm going to prove that it's the people who say I'm wrong who are wrong!
I've written a one page "How to reduce the cost of the $82 million police facility proposal" description of how this can be done. Here's the conclusion:
So about $60 million, or less, buys Salem a perfectly adequate police facility AND seismic upgrades to the Library and City Hall that will save lives when the Big One earthquake hits— rather than spending $82 million just for an over-priced and over-sized police facility.
I encourage you to read the entire paper via this PDF file: Download How to reduce the cost PDF
Here's an encapsulation of key points in those 573 words, along with some bonus screenshots.
What I tried to do is use the City of Salem's own facts and figures as much as possible to prove that Salem Can Do Better — which is what the campaign for a wiser and less wastefully expensive police facility plan is called.
In April 2015, the Mayor's Blue Ribbon Task Force on the Police Facility produced its final report. After a bunch of meetings, which included getting expert advice from two consulting firms, the Task Force concluded (see above) that:
The 75 to 106 thousand square foot size range is a "best practices" estimate provided to the Task Force by design and operations experts. We generally agreed that this is the size of building that Salem should be considering given the scope of our operations, program needs, and size of staff.
Now, as I say in my paper, this 75,000 to 106,000 sq.ft. recommendation for the size of a new police facility included a new 911 Center (a.k.a. the Willamette Valley Communications Center), which now is in 10,000 feet of leased space.
So the task force's recommended square footage of the Police Department itself would be no more than 65,000 to 96,000 sq. ft., and possibly considerably less (the current plan is to include a new 25,000 sq. ft. 911 Center in the 148,000 sq. ft. proposed building).
Since the 911 Center is fine where it is for about another ten years, and a City of Salem financial analysis showed that it would take 30 years to break even on the $11 million cost of building a new 911 Center, compared with leasing at the current $144,000 a year, my paper says "Don't build a new 911 Center."
That would reduce the size of the proposed police facility to 123,000 sq. ft., but this is still way too large, since the Task Force recommended 75,000 to 106,000 sq. ft. — which included a new 911 Center.
Plus, I show in the paper that assuming the past rate of growth of the Salem police force, 1.3 officers per year from 1977 to 2016, there only would be 20% more officers in 2045, while building a 75,000 square foot police facility would double the size of the current 38,000 sq. ft. Police Department, a 100% increase.
This shows that the Task Force and its consultants were correct to recommend a much smaller police facility than the obese 148,000 sq. ft. "full meal deal" (as city councilor Steve McCoid put it).
In fact, the same Chicago consulting firm that later worked with City officials behind closed doors to come up with the supersized 148,000 sq. ft. proposal that went against the recommendation of the Police Facility Task Force told the task force that a 70,000 to 100,000 sq. ft. police facility is what Salem needs.
In the December 2, 2014 minutes of a task force meeting, we learn that two consultants from the DLR Group were asked questions by task force members.
Here is the question where the DLR Group consultants said, "A 70-90,000 or 100,000 square foot facility would be in the range of what we'd expect to see for a [police] department of Salem's size with its complexity of offerings."
But after the DLR Group got a hefty several hundred thousand dollar contract to refine the task force's recommendations, that 70,000 to 100,000 sq. ft. police facility ballooned to 148,000 sq. ft.
(The reason isn't growth in the number of police officers over 30 years; the DLR Group said this only accounts for 8,000 sq. ft. of the 148,000 sq. ft., based on an outrageously large assumed growth of 2.4 officers per year — about double the 1.3 officer per year historic rate of growth.)
Which is strange.
Another consulting firm, Mackenzie, also met with the task force. Mackenzie has designed 20 police facilities in the northwest, including four in Canby, Keizer, Beaverton, and Albany. The March 11, 2015 minutes of the task force report that the Mackenzie consultants said: "For the current need [in Salem], we would recommend a range of 73,000 – 106,000 square feet."
So I say in my paper that a 75,000 sq. ft. police facility which doesn't include 10,000 to 25,000 sq. ft. for a new 911 Center seems perfectly adequate for Salem. This was the size of the police facility that the Mayor and Police Chief were pushing for in 2014, when a City of Salem FAQ document said:
A right-sized and properly designed Public Safety facility for our community needs to be about 75,000 square feet in size spread over no more than three floors to function best in keeping Salem safe. At this size, the critical functions located in off-site leased spaces can return to a centralized facility with some room for growth over the next 30-40 years.
Thus City officials, and the City's own consultants, previously have agreed with me and other critics of the 148,000 sq. ft. proposal that 75,000 sq. ft. is a proper size for a new Salem police facility.
I now refer you to the paper I wrote to learn how it would be entirely possible to build a 75,000 square foot facility AND make the Library and City Hall earthquake-safe for $60 million — saving both lives and about $20 million if voters reject the $82 million bond measure for a supersized police facility alone.
(In 2017, City officials and the Salem City Council, which will have three newly-elected councilors, can work with Salem's citizens to come up with a better police facility proposal that will be approved by voters.)
The construction cost numbers are sort of complex, so read my paper to find out how, to quote my final words, SALEM CAN DO BETTER.
Download How to reduce the cost PDF
The entire paper is in a continuation to this post if you don't want to download it.
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