Council considers
City Hall fixes

Civic center building renovations
and office shifts are viewed
as costly but necessary

Renovating, repairing and reconfiguring the aging Honolulu Hale and its surrounding buildings could turn into a costly but necessary venture, officials say.

Yesterday, consultants took a tour of City Council staff offices to begin the process of planning the reconfiguration of City Hall, built in 1928 and a national historic site.

Since last year the City Council has talked about relocating its staff from the four floors of the Honolulu Hale tower closer to Council members' offices on the second floor. The relocation is being prompted in part by a law mandating sprinkler retrofit as well as concerns over lack of accessibility to the offices for those with disabilities.

The capital improvement budget for the current fiscal year has $1 million for the reconfiguration, but exact figures have not yet been worked out, Council officials said.

"It's a space problem, and we certainly will keep the cost down. We're just going to be a little more crowded, but that's all right," Budget Chairwoman Ann Kobayashi said.

Plans call for moving the Council staff, which would then be relocated into space currently occupied on the third floor by the Department of Customer Services' Office of Information and Complaints. That office will be relocated to other space on the civic center grounds.

Renovations could also happen at the City Hall annex next to Honolulu Hale to possibly accommodate a move by the city Auditor's Office, currently at Kapolei Hale. Auditor Les Tanaka said his staff of eight is working in a space designed for four people.

Mayor Mufi Hannemann is trying to relocate more city administration offices to Kapolei Hale, meaning Tanaka has to find another office.

Tanaka is asking for four more auditors -- at a cost of $220,000 -- next fiscal year, and will either have to rent commercial space or move into a space currently owned by the Board of Water Supply for the short term.

Tanaka said that with a staff of 12, he will be able to turn out eight or nine audits a year as opposed to the two he completed last year with a staff of four.

Removing asbestos will be part of the challenge of readying the annex space for the auditor and other city agencies.

Asbestos could also pose a problem for the City Clerk's Office as city maintenance examine whether the cancer-causing substance is in the air ducts. The city is spending $200,000 for the emergency hazardous-materials check and could spend $280,000 more to check the City Council's office for asbestos.