Kristi Jefferson, Community Services/Planning
The move to a new location from City Hall to the Old Hospital is an opportunity for the Planning Department to offer a higher quality level of customer service for many reasons. We are excited to have a new location to house our growing department. We have three staff members in the planning department working in very tight quarters. Our department has run out of room for the storage of our property and project files. We have been lucky to have to cooperation of other departments to allow us to store files in other buildings. Unfortunately our lack of space does not allow us to conduct private meetings with land owners within our office. We currently make due by having meetings at our crowded office desks. Lastly, the current council chambers, which is used for City Council, Planning Commission, Historic Preservation Commission, Board of Adjustments, and Municipal Court, does not allow for enough space to allow for needed public participation in community matters. The over crowding, lack of space, and outdated building are not sufficient for our growing community.
The new office location will allow the Planning Department to have a great space for each of its staff members. Our Department will be able to be self containing with our project, property, and mapping files. The new space will have a conference room which will be utilized by our department to provide the best possible customer service to community members on planning and development matters. The new larger council chamber will be a fantastic asset to our department and the community because it will allow for larger community turnouts and greater community involvement in community matters. Lastly, our department is excited to be housed under one roof with other City of Salida departments and Chaffee County.
Kathy Davis-Peter, Utilities / Vital Statistics
As a city employee I am very pleased and excited that the employees of city hall and the police department are able to combine together and obtain more space. It is such an exciting time for the city, knowing that we are going to be able to serve the community in a much more effective manner.
One aspect of my job is to issue birth and death certificates. The state has specific requirements about confidentiality and security around the on-line system we use and it’s difficult to comply with those requirements in our current setting. I also hope to have a work environment where it’s possible, when needed, to have some separation from all the other activity going on around the office. For example, I could be more efficient when I print out utility bills, process payments and update accounting spreadsheets with a better work layout in the new building.
On a personal note, I am very pleased to know that the city can utilize such a beautiful building and maintain its character.
Janella Martinez, City Clerk
We have outgrown our space. When we first remodeled the facility that City Hall currently occupies (now nearly six years ago) a conference room was included. Due to lack of space, the conference room has been turned into the City Administrator’s office. The City Clerk has meetings that can contain personal and confidential information. The space that I currently occupy is not private so the other employees and any citizen who might be up front can hear those confidential conversations.
The clerk’s space is located next to the city employee and City Council mailbox, which can sometimes be a gathering spot for conversations. This lack of privacy makes it difficult to accomplish the detailed work required by the position.
Designated off street parking will really be great! Due to the lack of off street parking at our current location, I have personally received several parking tickets. It isn’t always possible to get a parking spot on the right side of the street, and I can assure you that the two-hour limit does apply to City employees who didn’t take the time, or just forget to move their cars because they are too busy working.
Mike Copp, Interim City Administrator
The main advantage to moving into the Hospital Building is that we will have much needed space for employees and storage. It is important to the employee that they not have to be in tight surroundings and for their own mental health, be able to have room for themselves.
It will be good to have the Police department in the same building as the rest of city Hall as well as the City council Chambers.
We will be able to have adequate meeting spaces which will improve efficiencies.
Sue Mick, Municipal Court Clerk
From the Municipal Court’s perspective, moving to the Old Hospital offers an opportunity to enjoy more space:
1. Parking for defendants when we have court, or when they come to the office with payments or questions about their court cases.
2. One location to direct defendants to whether appearing in court or seeing the court clerk on non-court days. Currently the courtroom and the clerk’s office are 2 blocks apart.
3. Privacy: while crimes committed against the community are a matter of public record, the vast majority of defendants are people who have made a mistake and are mad, or embarrassed, or just plain uninformed about how the judicial system works. Public record or not, most defendants deserve privacy if they wish when discussing their cases.
4. The Court would share the space with City Council, and should accommodate a larger number of people. Our docket is growing right along with the City’s population.
5. The Judge would actually have a place for pre-trial conferences, and not have to take over the Chief of Police’s office, or…
6. The City Prosecutor would actually have a place to meet with defendants or witnesses outside of a courtroom full of other defendants.
7. Jury trials would not have to be scheduled according to when we could have access to a County Courtroom. Currently, jury trials have to be held at the County Judicial Building because the City’s Council Chambers/Courtroom doesn’t have a jury deliberation room, or room for even a temporary jury box.
Debra Graves, Accounts Payable & Payroll
Being a native of Salida, I have seen a lot of changes over the years. I think acquiring the old hospital property and historical building will be a real enhancement for the municipal offices that are planning to move. In addition to having a real parking lot and parking spaces for employees and customers, having additional office space will afford a better work environment.
Hopefully with the new offices, there will be less interruptions from other departments which will allow for better time management.
Also, we have a real need for more filing space, for better organization.
Jan Schmidt, Finance & Administrative Services Director
My primary goal for the new facility is to design a better environment to serve the public and to increase the productivity of city workers. This will be achieved through the following:
• Adequate space to accommodate public meetings
• Parking for visitors and employees, including accessible spaces
• Better office layout and flow that will direct visitors more quickly to the right person who can take care of business needs (eg. to apply for liquor licenses, special permits, meet with the city planners, pay fines, etc.)
• Dedicated work spaces to allow employees to focus on work tasks without constant interruptions from employees and visitors to other departments
• Increased efficiency by locating various city departments in one building versus three and having “one stop shopping” for people in the community who use services from the various government agencies that will be housed under one roof
• Opportunity to “start fresh” with a computer network to facilitate sharing of centralized files, scheduling meetings, and overall increased efficiencies through up-to-date technology systems
• Space for future expansion as the community continues to grow
As the person responsible for information technology, insurance/risk management, human resources, benefits administration, and facilities, I see needs in a number of different areas of our day-to-day work requirements. We simply lack adequate meeting and work space and IT systems to efficiently carry out the various services we provide to the community. Although Salida is a small town, it is rapidly changing and city staff members work with many different people and issues each day. The current work environment lacks the space to accommodate meetings or to actually have an uninterrupted period of time to concentrate on detail work. Working with the public is one of the most essential and important aspects of our jobs; we need space for the people who come in to work with city staff on various projects and requests. We also need some space and time for desk work, such as preparing reports, analyzing numbers, writing correspondence, etc.
Parking is also a real problem. City employees who drive to work take up the spaces of residents who live across the street from city hall or from visitors to our city trying to find a spot close to the restaurants and shops downtown. By moving to the new facility, we’ll have a parking lot for both employees and visitors to the government offices. We’ll also free up the Code Enforcement Officer’s time from writing parking tickets to City Hall employees!
In addition to the real “work” needs of city per0
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