Administration Details Capital-complex Rent, Monumental Surcharge and State Procurement Practices

Department of Administration officials briefed the Committee on Government Efficiency on capital-complex rent, a county-wide monetary surcharge, the state's private-lease portfolio and procurement practices.

Deputy Secretary Frank Burnham said the charge to state tenants for capital-complex space was $22.55 per square foot for fiscal year 2025, with a projected rate of about $23.50 for 2026. He said the office manages roughly 2,100,000 square feet across the complex, of which about 880,000 square feet is currently charged as leasable space. Burnham said the office manages roughly 3,500 parking stalls and about 53 acres of campus property.

Burnham described a "monumental surcharge" charged to state-owned and leased space in Shawnee County to offset costs for the State House, Judicial Center and other monumental buildings and to account for free parking; he described that surcharge as 30 cents per square foot. He also said staff intend to publish additional occupancy expense details for private leases to capture pass-through charges (parking, utilities, taxes) so the state can compare private-market rates to its internal costs.

On leases, the department said it manages 61 leases in Shawnee County (about 45 office leases) with average private-market rates around $14.75 per square foot; the statewide lease database contains roughly 283 leases, with large agencies such as the Department of Revenue holding dozens of locations.

On procurement, Tracy Diehl, an attorney in the Office of Chief Counsel and a former director of procurements and contracts, summarized the procurement office's mission to generate competition and described standard contract protections: a termination-for-lack-of-funding clause, a termination-for-convenience clause (commonly 30 days' notice), and a prior-authorization/sole-source process that requires certain justifications and a seven-day posting for procurements above statutory thresholds to allow potential challengers to come forward. Diehl said the Office of Procurements and Contracts provides a quarterly report to the legislature on sole-source prior authorizations and that the director attends events with the National Association of State Procurement Officials to attract vendor interest.

Committee members asked about storage leases and consolidation; officials said they routinely review expiring leases and retention requirements and are evaluating opportunities to consolidate storage when records-retention rules and operational needs allow. Members also asked about the state's print operations and cloud-storage procurements; the secretary said the Office of Information Technology Services is finalizing a cloud-storage procurement and the department continues to operate a central print facility that supports some agency mailings and print needs for the legislature and benefits programs.