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Mexico council rejects $366,000 task order to advance city‑hall plan at former cancer center
Summary
The Mexico City Council voted down a $366,000 task order with Navigate Building Solutions to move forward on feasibility and design for a proposed city hall and public‑safety facility at the former Pryor Cancer Center, after members split over timing and whether to wait for a county letter of intent and a hospital partner commitment.
Mexico City — The City Council voted on March 9 to reject a task order that would have paid Navigate Building Solutions roughly $366,000 to provide owner‑representative and design/bidding services related to a proposed city hall and public safety complex at the former Pryor Cancer Center.
City staff presented the two‑phase task order as a way to complete design and bidding documents and oversee construction closeout. "This task order covers all the built drawing set...for a total of $366,000," said the Navigate representative, Drew Willeford. City staff said the city’s City Hall fund currently holds about $489,492 and that the work would be paid from those reserves.
City manager Slagle framed the item as part of parallel efforts to rebuild a hospital and to avoid demolition‑related blight: "As we continue...the hospital project is continuing to move forward," he told the council, and said reusing the cancer center would save residents nearly $6 million compared with other options. Slagle also described safety and staffing pressures in public safety, saying the department is "severely understaffed" and that facility shortcomings contribute to recruitment and retention problems.
Opponents on the council said they were not ready to authorize the task order until they had firmer assurances from Boone Health and a signed county letter of intent. One council member argued the city should not spend on design for a site that had not been formally chosen: "I don't see how we can vote for $376,000 to be spent on a building we haven't decided we're going to use yet," the member said during debate.
Several residents urged the council to move forward. Local physician and city‑hall advocate Alex Fink told the council the measure would save taxpayers an estimated $6,000,000 and help retain public‑safety officers by colocating services: "The city should be able to walk and chew gum at the same time," Fink said. Linda Reid, a former council member, recounted emergency medical delays and said faster access to local care mattered to residents: she described friends who died en route to hospitals in Columbia and urged the council to accelerate hospital and related work.
The final recorded vote on the task order was 2 in favor and 3 opposed (Ray — yes; Briggs — yes; Hague — no; Milner — no; Weber — no), and the resolution failed. Councilmembers who opposed said they wanted a separate, explicit vote on selecting the city‑hall location and a clearer or signed commitment from Boone Health before committing to the owner‑representative contract. Proponents argued funds and planning were distinct from hospital funding and that delaying could prolong inadequate public‑safety facilities.
What happens next: staff said demolition bids for portions of the former hospital are scheduled and that site preparation and demolition work could proceed later in 2026 depending on those bids; the council did not adopt the Navigate task order and may take separate action to place a location decision on a future agenda.
