Drafter
Clerk 03/14/2006
Title
AN ORDINANCE approving the King County agency tenants to occupy the new county office building located on Fifth Avenue and Jefferson Street.
Body
BE IT ORDAINED BY THE COUNCIL OF KING COUNTY:
SECTION 1. Findings. The council hereby makes the following findings of fact:
A. Section 220.20 of the King County Charter establishes the council as the policy determining body of the county. Council powers include the adoption by ordinance of comprehensive plans, including improvement plans for the present and future development of the county.
B. Ordinance 15328 adopted the 2005 Space Plan, which consists of space planning policies, policy direction on the location of county agencies and an implementation plan for those policies.
C. The 2005 Space Plan provides policy direction on the colocation of county agencies, stating that the county shall colocate services when functional relationships or user accessibility warrant and when economically feasible.
D. Space planning policies further state that the county shall continue to move from dependence on short-term leased space in the downtown Seattle area to owned space or long-term leased space with the option to own when lease space exceeds ten percent of downtown occupied space and when building ownership will provide a long-term cost benefit to the county.
E. The 2005 Space Plan established programming space standards that are to be prescribed as per square foot ranges for various categories of county employees and specialty programmed space. These standards are to be used during planning and design.
F. The 2005 Space Plan stated that county space standards may be further tested through the process of programming the new county office building. Space standards shall be refined in future space plans.
G. The space plan authorized the executive to proceed with programming of standard office space within the new county office building for the following tenant agencies:
Agency Current Location
Department of Executive Services ("DES") Finance Exchange Building
Department of Community and Human Services ("DCHS") Exchange Building
DCHS/Public Defense Walthew Building
Department of Public Health ("DPH") Wells Fargo
DPH Lynn Trust
DES/Board of Ethics ("BOE") Administration Building
Council Ombudsman Yesler Building
H. Further, the 2005 Space Plan stated that the programming of the agencies listed in subsection G. of this section shall not preclude the possible future council approval to "locate up to 44,000 USF insrsid15673851 (usable square feet) from among the following candidate tenant agencies in appropriate locations within the new county office building:
1. Elections consolidation (up to 44,000 USF);
2. Information Technology Services (ITS) with or without the data center (up to 42,000 USF);
3. Executive, Office of Management and Budget (OMB), DES/Administration Director, Business Relations and Economic Development (BRED), and Office of Information and Resource Management (OIRM) (up to 33,000 USF)."
I. The 2005 Space Plan specifically stated that "the King County executive, OMB, DES/Administration Director, BRED and OIRM shall remain in space at the Bank of America Tower under their current lease, which terminates on December 31, 2007, until the council approves a relocation site or lease extension."
J. The 2005 Space Plan policy stated that the county should backfill vacated spaces in county-owned buildings by moving agencies from leased space.
K. The 2005 Space Plan further states that "upon completion of the department of adult and juvenile detention operational master plan Implementation Plan and the Integrated Security Project (ISP), the executive shall develop a proposal for locating the Work Education Release (WER) program in the west wing of the King County Correctional Facility and that the proposal shall include recommendations for alternative tenants in the courthouse space vacated by WER."
L. Ordinance15083 included $87,548 in CIP Project 395xxx and direction that a feasibility study be conducted by a consultant to determine reasonable options for replacement of the skybridge between the King County Correctional Facility ("KCCF") and the courthouse.
M. Upon completion of the WER feasibility study and the skybridge feasibility study, alternative tenants, including those currently in leased space, could also be considered to occupy vacated space within the King County Courthouse.
N. The Elections Center Consolidation Audit was conducted by The Election Center and Strategica, Inc. and was completed on October 3, 2005.
O. The primary audit objective was to review King County election operations and identify opportunities for improved organizational, management and procedural performance to help restore voter confidence in the King County election process.
P. The audit recommended that the county should acquire or lease a consolidated elections facility for the long term, which would consolidate all elections personnel, equipment and any warehoused items.
Q. The consolidation of all elections functions and equipment would require a facility with space to accommodate an estimated size of between seventy-three thousand and eighty-five thousand five hundred USF.
R. The forty-four thousand USF assumed in the space plan for elections consolidation in the new county office building is not sufficient to support the total operations, including warehouse space, of the county's elections functions.
S. Consistent with county policy that agencies colocate, the finance and business operations division functions, currently located in the Administration Building, would be a viable candidate for tenancy in the new county office building. These functions would colocate in the new county office building with the finance functions from the exchange building already scheduled to occupy space.
T. ITS was originally proposed by the executive to occupy space in the new county office building. ITS was also identified in the 2005 Space Plan as a possible tenant for the new county office building.
U. The ITS data center is a specialty function, that necessitates special electrical, structural and mechanical requirements. The data center is an appropriate tenant for specialized lease space.
V. During the courthouse seismic project upgrade, the executive and the office of management and budget relocated to leased space in the Columbia Center, formerly known as the Bank of America Tower ("BOAT"). The courthouse space vacated by these agencies subsequently was occupied by the prosecuting attorney's office ("PAO").
W. The justification for the PAO move to the courthouse was based on a financial plan that indicated savings to the county for leased costs and support from federal and state revenues. These savings and revenues were proposed to offset additional lease costs for that would result from extending the executive offices lease beyond the completion of the courthouse seismic project.
X. The space vacated by the relocation of the finance division from the Administration Building to the new county office building will provide a cost effective opportunity to perform maintenance on the unoccupied sixth floor, including asbestos abatement above the ceiling. Following completion of the work, the floor could be used as surge space to facilitate similar maintenance on other floors in the building.
Y. The executive, OMB, DES/administration director, BRED and OIRM occupy lease space in the Columbia Center.
Z. The amount of space usage by these agencies is within county parameters that are consistent with county adopted lease space policy that no more than ten percent of downtown core office space be leased.
AA. Temporarily extending the leased space for the executive in the Columbia Center will facilitate an appropriate time frame to consider future long-term space planning analysis for county agency locations in the courthouse and other downtown core facilities.
BB. The county's long-term space needs will be affected by current strategic planning efforts such as the regional justice center site master plan, the superior court targeted OMP, the district court facilities master plan, the sheriff's office strategic planning effort, the skybridge replacement feasibility plan, work education release location and public health OMP.
CC. Opportunities to reexamine courthouse space usage should be considered after these master planning efforts have been reviewed by the council.
DD. The determination of the list of final tenants for the new county office building is based upon the analysis of adopted county policies including the county space plan and a series of policy documents such as operational master plans, facility master plans and feasibility studies. Determining final tenants requires considering and weighing numerous important county policies and planning considerations, including reduction of the county's dependence upon leased space, acceptable threshold limits on leased space in the downtown area and the functional colocation of agencies, as well as long-term strategic planning and real estate asset management concerns.
SECTION 2. The final King County agency tenants authorized to occupy the new county office building shall be:
Agency Current Location
DES Finance Exchange Building
DES Finance Administration Building
DES ITS (not including data center) Key Tower
DCHS Exchange Building
DCHS/Public Defense Walthew Building
DPH Wells Fargo
DPH Lynn Trust
DES/BOE Administration Building
Council Ombudsman Yesler Building
SECTION 3. No other county agency shall be located in the new county office building unless authorized by ordinance. The executive shall submit a list of any such proposed additional agencies and shall give priority programming consideration to the following agencies:
Agency Current Location
DES Administration Columbia Center
OIRM Columbia Center
BRED Columbia Center
State Auditor Administration Building
SECTION 4. The executive shall submit a report to the council summarizing the status of the new county office building tenant programming, space planning, fixtures furniture and equipment acquisition and reuse strategies and budgets and estimated tenant move costs and schedule. The report must be filed no later than May 15, 2006, in the form of twelve copies with the clerk of the council, who will retain the original and will forward copies to the councilmembers and the lead staff of the operations budget committee or its successor.
SECTION 5. On or before the termination date of the current lease at the Columbia Center and upon completion of the new county office building, the executive shall have relocated his offices currently in the Columbia Center, and be ready to conduct county business, in the space vacated in the county administration building by the finance division. The offices currently in the Columbia Center include the executive, the office of management and budget ("OMB"), DES/administration director, business relations and economic development ("BRED") and office of information and resource management
("OIRM"). It is the intent of the council that this move be temporary pending the availability of space in the King County courthouse for these offices.