Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Public Works Facility topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
Council authorizes design contract for new Public Works facility; funding mix questioned
Summary
Council authorized a professional services contract with local Richter Architects (up to $1.4M) to design a 25,000‑sq‑ft public works addition intended to consolidate crews and serve as a hardened emergency operations hub; council discussed use of stormwater funds for design and broader funding for construction.
Council authorized a professional services contract with Richter Architects (Corpus Christi) to provide design, bid and construction‑phase services for a new public works facility and addition, with a design authorization up to $1.4 million.
Interim Assistant City Manager Ernie De La Garza presented the need for the facility, noting public works has roughly 306 employees spread across multiple sites and currently operates out of cramped, temporary and overcrowded spaces. The new design — a roughly 25,000‑sq‑ft, two‑story addition to an existing public works building — was presented as intended to co‑locate teams, provide locker/shower rooms, training and conference space, and act as an emergency operations center rated for higher‑category storm events.
Council members probed funding. Staff said design funding is coming from the stormwater fund and that construction is planned as revenue bonds in the CIP; Councilman Hernandez pressed whether the stormwater fund should pay for a facility that will be used by multiple public works teams and asked staff to determine a composite funding allocation across stormwater, general fund and other beneficiaries. City Manager Peter Zanoni said the project would likely be phased and included in an upcoming bond program for construction appropriations.
Council approved the motion to authorize the design contract; staff will return with further budget allocation details as the design and CIP sequencing proceed.
