City Council moves forward with increased costs for City Hall, cuts Pixie Woods funding down

Stockton’s new waterfront city hall will now cost taxpayers almost three times the initial estimate.

What started as a roughly $25 million project in 2017 has grown to a cost of $74.5 million to renovate and relocate Waterfront Towers at the northwest corner of Weber Avenue and Lincoln Street to become Stockton's new City Hall.

Stockton City Council voted unanimously to accept plans for the new City Hall and awarded a $42.3 million construction bid to Roebbelen Contracting of El Dorado Hills — 11% more than what city engineers had estimated — and authorize the use of $12.6 million from the general fund contingency reserves to help pay for the construction contract.

November 2021: Moving Stockton City Hall to Waterfront Towers will likely cost $63.3 million

At the May 3 council meeting, Public Works Director Jodi Almassy told the council time is of the essence to get this project done, an echo of what she had told them in November 2021.

“You’ve heard me talking about escalating costs after COVID for labor, materials costs have gone up, it's hard to get materials,” Almassy said. “We have escalating oil costs … we never could have perceived these underlying factors, but they all play into it.”

In response to Council’s questions on what has changed since the $13.6 million purchase in 2017, Almassy said there was not much of a plan past the purchase that led to the original $25 million estimate. Public works was not involved during the initial estimate conducted by former economic development director Micah Runner and former City Manager Kurt Wilson, she said.

“I think the original concept was just to simply pick everybody up and dump them in there,” Almassy said. “It had no thought to some of the things we’re doing [with renovations].”

Earnest Williams, a lifelong Stocktonian who said he used to work in the old Waterfront Towers as well as with the San Joaquin County Housing Authority, questioned investing so much money into the buildings.

“That building, if you blow on it too hard it might fall down,” Williams said. “I’m a little angry about my tax money being thrown around like this.”

A goal of the move to the Waterfront Towers is to consolidate city services under one roof. Stockton’s city departments are currently split up into four different buildings. The city is making lease payments on 400 E. Main St.

Councilmember Paul Canepa referenced rat infestations, mold and health concerns at the current City Hall at 425 N. El Dorado St. A 2017 estimate to renovate that building came in at $60 million, which would be significantly more in today’s economy. City Manager Harry Black said that building is no longer an option.

“We’re being cited by (California Division of Occupational Safety and Health) on a regular basis,” Black said. “This building is becoming inhabitable. That’s only going to continue. Last winter we could not heat the building, I don’t see how that will not be the case again this winter.”

Pixie Woods gets a fraction of proposed funding

Pixie Woods board members walked into the May 3 council meeting with the budget subcommittee recommending more than $3 million to be allocated to Stockton’s family park venue. They left with just $1.1 million.

Stockton City Council voted 4-2 to allocate $10.2 million in one-time funds: $5 million to address 25% of the city’s tree canopy over two to three years to provide one-time catch up on more than $50 million in deferred maintenance, $4 million to address half of the 1,600 backlogged sidewalk replacements over the next two years, $1.1 million to Pixie Woods cleanup and repairs and $100,000 for renovations to the baseball diamonds at Oak Park.

Council members Paul Canepa and Sol Jobrack voted no, and council member Dan Wright recused himself as his home was less than 1,000 ft. from some of the proposed funding locations.

Pixie Woods opens May 7: Council to vote on millions in new funding for park upgrades

The original proposal from the budget subcommittee that Jobrack, Wright and Canepa sit on included plans to upgrade and repair the park’s train ride and carousel — the latter is currently closed down for repairs — dredge the lagoon to remove dead palm tree fronds and install a $500,000 new amusement ride. Pixie Woods executive board member Yvonne Sampson said the park can live without a new ride.

“We don’t need $500,000, give it to sidewalks, give it to trees, whatever,” TK said. “It’s not fair for other people to suffer, but we need these things at Pixie Woods … If we don’t take the time to fix things in our city like Pixie Woods, what are we doing?”

Sampson gave a little ground in good spirit, and the council took some more. After multiple public comments on investing in the city’s sidewalks and trees, discussion amongst the council and an anecdote from Mayor Kevin Lincoln on the dilapidated state of Oak Park’s baseball fields, it was decided that these things were more important than the Oak Park swimming pool, much of Pixie Woods’ cleanup and repairs money, and any investment into Fong Park with the $10.2 million on the table.

Record reporter Ben Irwin covers Stockton and San Joaquin County government. He can be reached at birwin@recordnet.com or on Twitter @B1rwin. Support local news, subscribe to The Stockton Record at https://www.recordnet.com/subscribenow.

This article originally appeared on The Record: New city hall near triple initial cost, Pixie Woods funds cut down