Sorting out City Hall conflict

John Heffernan

I read with interest Dolores Otting’s Watchdog piece entitled “New

City Hall sounds like same old problems” on the Sunday Forum page.

My response includes the following points:

* Roger N. Torriero is the principal of Griffin Holdings, which is

located in Laguna Beach.

* Griffin Holdings was selected at our last City Council meeting

to conduct outreach and initial site and rendering work for a

possible new City Hall facility to be built on the existing site,

along with a parking structure, replacement fire station and

community meeting room.

* In June of 2003, Torriero was awarded a similar contract by the

City Council. But, a conflict of interest was soon thereafter

uncovered -- Torriero was also working for the developers of the Lido

Marina Village project, which is a site quite near City Hall.

When that issue arose, the city elected not to proceed with

Torriero, and no new City Hall action was taken by the City Council

for the balance of 2003 and 2004.

* The City Hall subcommittee (Bromberg, Ridgeway and Heffernan)

first met again in January this year with Roger Torriero. Torriero

disclosed to that subcommittee that such prior conflict no longer

exists, because Torriero no longer works for the Lido Marina Village

Project, and he reexplained the scope of his work under the pending

new contract.

The subcommittee then recommended to the entire City Council that

the city proceed with the earlier Torriero contract, which does not

commit the city to build a new City Hall, which the City Council did

approve at its Feb. 8 meeting.

I agree with Otting that such Torriero conflict history should

have been fully explained at that meeting, and since I raised that

subject initially in 2003, and again on the Feb. 8., I take

responsibility for such failure.

* Part of the scope of Torriero’s $578,000 contract is to conduct

multiple public outreach meetings to assess the resident’s opinion of

the need for a new City Hall and to explain why it is needed, where

it will be located, what it will include and what it make look like.

The Torriero contract amount is roughly 1.45% of the projected

$40-million cost of the new City Hall facility, which also includes

the parking structure, replacement fire station and community meeting

room.

* A new City Hall facility is not assured. For example, our

residents may well indicate: spending $40 million for it is not

needed because the existing facilities are adequate or can be

rehabbed; or the City Hall facility should be located elsewhere in

the city more central to our present city boundaries; or the city’s

current financial picture indicates that we should not proceed with

it at this time. Thus, there is much to be carefully reviewed and

considered before the City Council commits to such a large

expenditure of public funds.

* A final comment is that the projected $40 million cost can also

be viewed not as a single lump sum payment, but as an annual cost

over what is typically the 30-year loan term used with building

improvements. If so, then the resulting annual cost is around $2.6

million to $3 million, using possible future long-term, tax-free

municipal bond rates of between 5% and 6.25% -- versus our current

city annual budget which is now is roughly $180 million.

Today, the 30-year AAA bond interest rate is roughly 4.50%. But

paying over time, as we know from our own home loans, likely doubles

the final total dollar outlay.

* JOHN HEFFERNAN is a Newport Beach city councilman.